Castella de Labarre

From the Castella the view looks south over the Prat d'Albis, the Pech de Foix and Saint-Sauveur, the Château de Foix but also, very close by, over the Labarre lake.

The rock of Labarre, on which the fortification was established, was a point of observation and control over the Ariège valley and the Castella was part of a defensive network protecting the county town of Foix.

We know that the Castella de Labarre existed before 1170. It was then called castrum de Labarra. The highest portion of the Labarre rock has a tower or gatehouse and a first enclosure, obviously a wooden palisade, protects it. Around this high fortification an agglomeration, a village, develops, itself protected to the north and south by steep rocky slopes and a peripheral enclosure and to the east and west by dry ditches.

This strong town was certainly taken and burned in 1211 during the Crusade against the Albigensians. It is no longer listed among the strongholds which protect the count's city. However, the town itself was not abandoned and finally, probably in the XNUMXth century, on the route of the old palisade, an enclosure of stone and lime mortar was built. The old tower or chatelet, thus reinforced, is reinvested.

But the castle and village were gradually abandoned and in 1540 the old stronghold was presented as abandoned. The bulk of the village was certainly moved to the church below to form the hamlet of Labarre that we know today.

However, the old high fortification of Castella was partly recovered from its ruins around 1600 obviously. The tower or chatelet was definitively demolished but the first enclosure of stone and lime mortar was roughly rebuilt. A fort is thus built.

This fort in turn will soon be abandoned, probably before the second half of the 17th century. And the stronghold, definitively abandoned, will serve as a stone quarry and pasture for animals before being taken over by vegetation.

The Castella de Labarre has been studied since 2019 by members of the association of friends of Castella de Labarre and is the subject each year of an archaeological excavation campaign carried out in the summer.

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