Some kilometres far away from the city of Limoux , on the road to Carcassonne , you will find out the quiet village called Pieusse, village which sets on the hills which themselves dominate the valley of the Aude, the peaceful village of Pieusse, is full of History...

In the Gallo-Roman period, this picturesque village was known under the name of "Castrum-Puncianum". It already was a strategic spot with the purpose to defend the High Valley of the Aude.

In the VII-th century, it proudly resisted to the charges of the Saracens, but finally had to capitulate. The population was massacred and the fortified castle destroyed. Between 1140 and 1145 a new castle was built by the count of Foix in the reign of the king named Louis VII Le Jeune. In 1225 the Cathar council comes to this place intending to create the Cathar Bishop's palace of Razès. In 1229, the son of the Count of the city of Foix, gives up his fief to King Saint Louis who gathers it to the Archbishopric of the city of Narbonne . Something you shouldn't fail to discover is the rural Oratory ; this monument with a Gothic aspect which would date from the XII-th or the XV-th and has got a magnificent church whose first marks are dated from the X-th century.

Text and photo : advertising brochure of Pieusse's village