Foix Castle

Illumination of the hall in the comte de Foix's castle at Orthez, capital of Bèarn.  (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group)

Castle Foix, in the city prefecture of Ariège, was built from the twelfth century on the foundations of an earlier building on a rocky spur overlooking the city.

It allowed to control the access to the valley while protecting the city whose inhabitants could take refuge inside its walls.

First made up of a single tower (there will be three in the end), the castle became seat of the county of Foix is reworked in the fourteenth century after having suffered a number of attacks during a crusade against the Albigensians, but without having ever been taken.

Under the era of the famous Gaston Fébus, in the fourteenth century, the castle is enlarged and embellished with ransoms paid by the prisoners he imprisoned over his conquests.

When the count does not reside in Béarn but comes to Foix, however, he stays rather in a palace below the castle.

Having become a veritable prison after the Revolution, the building underwent major changes. Classified Historical Monument since 1840, it was then the object of a restoration carried out by a pupil of Viollet-le-Duc which restored the site a medieval look (crénelages) without always respecting the historical realities.

In 1930, a museum is opened which evokes the history of the department since Prehistory.

Currently closed to the public, the castle and its museum will reopen after museum modernization work. At the foot of the castle, an area of ​​2000 m² will evoke the life of the Counts of Foix and a route will plunge into what was the castle in the time of Gaston Fébus (fortifications and military elements outside the indoor ceremonial room, especially).