The castle of Aguilar (Aguilar in Occitan) is a so-called "Cathar" castle, located about two kilometers east of the village of Tuchan, in the department of Aude. It is a castle probably dating from the 12th century whose construction continued during the 13th and 14th centuries. A feudal castle in the hands of the Termes family, it became a royal fortress in the 13th century. Possession of the family of the counts of Carcassonne in 1004, the site of Aguilar was ceded around 1010 with the Peyrepertuses to the count of Besalù. In his will dated 1021, the count of Besalù, Bernat Taillefer, describes Aguilar as a "pech" (mountain) on the border of the counties of Narbonne and Roussillon. It is not known whether Aguilar was an inhabited place at that time and whether there was a fortification there, because the first mention of the castle dates back to 1240. At an unknown date, perhaps towards the end of the 11th century, Aguilar became part of the heritage of the lords of Termes. Olivier de Termes, dispossessed by the king of his castle of Termes in 1228, made Aguilar his main residence. It is probably to him that we owe the construction of the central part of the castle and the development of the fortified village that flanked the castle to the south. During the summer of 1240, the castle of Aguilar served as a gathering point for the knights who rallied to the revolt of Viscount Trencavel before laying siege to Carcassonne. After the failure of this revolt, Olivier de Termes submitted to the king. In May 1241, he handed over his second castle, that of Aguilar, and the Termenès to Louis IX. The castle became a royal fortress, led by a castellan, the first of whom is mentioned in 1246. However, ten years later, Saint Louis returned Aguilar (and most of Termenès) to Olivier, because of his good behavior in the Holy Land. Anxious to contribute to the defense of the kingdom of Franc, Olivier planned, in his will of 1257, to bequeath the castle to the king. But he ended up selling it to Saint Louis, during a stay in Paris in March 1262. In 1258, the castle was defended by twelve guards1. Six months later, the royal castellan Peire de Mirepoix took possession of the fortress. Aguilar constituted, from this date and until the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), one of the frontier fortresses defending France against the Hispanic kingdoms. For this reason, the castle was then reinforced between the middle of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century by a second wall equipped with all the technical improvements of the time. This second wall was partly built on the fortified village which disappeared during the 14th century. In 1272, texts tell us that the castle was equipped with six crossbows and three hundred bolts. Despite improved defenses, the weakness of the garrison made the castle particularly vulnerable. In 1387, a company of three hundred roaders seized it at night with their ladders. From there, the roaders ransomed the Catalan merchants. But they were defeated by an army sent by the King of Aragon. In 1525, the castle was conquered by Charles V. In 1542, after the failure of the siege of Perpignan, the castle, to which part of the French army had withdrawn, was attacked by the Spanish. The following year, a garrison of Germans in the pay of Charles V seized it. The castle was returned to the King of France the following year, in 1544, after the signing of peace between Francis I and Charles V. A royal garrison occupied the premises until the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees. Then, the castle gradually fell into ruins until it was classified as a historical monument on July 2, 19493. In 1999, it was used as a setting for the television series Tramontane. Aguilar is one of the "Five Sons of Carcassonne" with the castles of Quéribus, Puilaurens, Termes and Peyrepertuse, all located at the top of rocky peaks reputed to be "impregnable". The ruins of the castle of Aguilar and their surroundings have been listed as natural sites since 1946. Source @Wikipedia