Chateau de Montsegur

The Chateau de Montsegur is a former fortress near Montsegur, a commune in the Ariege department in southwestern France. Its ruins are the site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars. The present fortress on the site, though described as one of the "Cathar castles," is actually of a later period. It has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1862.

The ruins of Montségur are perched at a precarious 3000-foot (1207 m) altitude in the south of France near the Pyrenees Mountains. Located in the heart of France's Languedoc-Midi-Pyrénées regions, 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Carcassonne, Montsegur dominates a rock formation known as a pog — a term derived from the local Occitan dialect — puòg, or puèg, meaning "peak," "hill," "mountain."