Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country' ...
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
History
It was an important centre of
Catharism
Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. F ...
from about 1140 to the mid 13th century.
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through t ...
preached against heresy at Verfeil in 1145. Sent away without a proper hearing by the seigneurs, he is said to have cursed the town with the words ''Viridefolium, desiccet te Deus!'' ("Verfeil, may God dry you up!") Izarn Neblat, one of those seigneurs, was said by Guillaume de Puylaurens to have lived in his old age in poverty at
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...
as a result of this curse; the town's recovery was dated by the faithful to the period of the
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crow ...
, when
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester
{{Infobox noble
, name = Simon de Montfort
, title = 5th Earl of Leicester
, image = File:Simon4demontfort.gif
, caption = Seal of Simon de Montfort, depicting him riding a horse and blowing a h ...
Saint Dominic
Saint Dominic ( es, Santo Domingo; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (), was a Castilian Catholic priest, mystic, the founder of the Dominican Order and is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scienti ...
; among the Cathars were Pons Jourda and Arnaud Arrufat.ib., pp. 52-55.
Population
Monuments
Verfeil (Haute-Garonne) - La mairie.jpg, The town hall
Verfeil (Haute-Garonne) - Le château.jpg, The castle
Verfeil (Haute-Garonne) - La porte Vaureze.jpg, The Vaureze's Gate
Verfeil (Haute-Garonne) - L’église Saint-Blaise.jpg, The church "Saint Blaise"
Verfeil (Haute-Garonne) - église Saint-Sernin-des-Rais- vue aérienne.jpg, The church "Saint-Sernin-of-Rais"
Verfeil (Haute-Garonne) - Monument aux morts.jpg, War Memorial