Staircase Château St Ferriol
Help Les Amis du Chateau St Ferriol repair the Sarrasin Staircase of the Château de St Ferriol! This majestic out stone staircase is the central element of this beautiful late medieval Castle - but it is unstable! No matter the size, every donation helps us to tackle this next important step towards assuring the future survival of the castle.
Friends can use the great hall and Gardens for their conferences and gatherings with style. Conferences, archives and the chateau's almost unique architectural heritage make the mission so worthwhile:
Les Amis du Chateau St Ferriol works steadily towards making the castle a pulsating centre of cultural life in the Languedoc region and a refuge for Medieval history and research.
For further information, such as a description of the castle's history, the cultural surroundings and the various benefits donors can enjoy, please continue reading the detailed description of our vision.
Rebuilding a Medieval Castle by Building a 21st Century Virtual Village
Like many medieval European castles, Château St. Ferriol in southwest France (Languedoc Region) is perched on a hilltop with an eponymous village huddled beneath its walls and bastions. Since the first stones were laid in the 16th century, castle and village were bonded in a symbiotic relationship; the village housed craftsmen, laborers, gardeners, clerks, guards and dozens of other retainers who contributed to the castle’s operations in good times in exchange for a place of refuge in bad times.
But as castles lost their military usefulness over the centuries this feudal bond was broken and castles like St. Ferriol fell into disuse and disrepair.
The château’s current owners, a British couple who bought it twenty years ago, are determined to restore the castle using a two-part strategy: First, give the castle a new use relevant in the 21st Century; second, raise the substantial funds needed to restore and repurpose St. Ferriol by building a virtual village of retainers.
“Our forbearers knew that it took a village full of people skilled in the use of many tools to build and run a castle – and the same holds true today,” notes co-owner Sophie McDonald. “That’s why we’re turning to 21st Century crowdfunding tools and building a global village of supporters to help restore our medieval castle.”
But the couple seeks to raise more than funds and restore more than stonework. “Our underlying goal is to build a global community of medieval history enthusiasts, artisans and experts who will regularly use the château, its archives and associated facilities for conferences, meetings, exhibitions, workshops and other activities that advance our understanding of the medieval past and the forces that shaped it,” Sophie explains.
In return for help in restoring the castle, St. Ferriol offers its supporters a charming and welcoming “home away from home” in the Languedoc, one of the most beautiful and forgotten corners of southern France.
“St. Ferriol is ideally situated to explore the roots of the Middle Ages and, in particular, medieval siege warfare,” explains historian and co-owner James McDonald.
Located near the medieval fortress-city of Carcassonne, he notes that St. Ferriol is already a base for tours of castles, abbeys, fortified towns and other sights that illuminate medieval warfare, troubadours, the Inquisition, the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail and much more. James and Sophie also host lectures, concerts, banquets and other medieval-themed activities in the castle’s restored Great Hall .
In order to welcome benefactors to the château and generate needed restoration funds, the couple has formed the association “Amis du Château St Ferriol.” Its current goal is to raise the $30,000 needed to restore the castle’s central stone staircase – a necessary prerequisite for all future improvements. You can support this work and join St. Ferriol’s virtual village with a contribution of $50 or more.
Virtual villagers enjoy these benefits:
Periodic newsletters chronicling renovation work and upcoming activities
Reduced rates for tours highlighting the Knights Templar, crusaders, Cathar Castles, Rennes-le-Château, the Inquisition and similar themes
Reduced rates for accommodations next to the castle and in nearby Carcassonne
Reduced ticket prices for cultural, musical and similar themed events
Free visits to the château throughout the year for groups of up to 8
Reduced rates for use of the château for weddings and other social functions, and
Opportunities to contribute to scholarly research on relevant topics and host conferences.
The castle was built in an era when gunpowder and firearms had rendered traditional castle building techniques obsolete in all but the most remote, mountainous regions – like Scotland and the Pyrenees – where local wars still raged. Today the chateau preserves military innovations from the period, including rectangular corner bastions furnished with gun ports, the logical successor to arrow loopholes.
Renaissance-style mullioned windows, six monumental fireplaces and the aforementioned stone staircase were added decades later, before the chateau fell into disrepair.
Sophie stresses that virtual villagers can also directly contribute to restoration work at the castle by volunteering. “We offer free lodging and board over great conversation in exchange for thirty hours of voluntary work per week on the castle. We are especially interested in volunteers with skilled expertise in masonry, woodworking, glassmaking, artwork, historical research, gardening and fabric arts.”
James has designed and personally leads tours along with other highly-qualified experts: Henry Lincoln (co-author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail), Dr. Tim Wallace-Murphy (author of Knights of the Holy Grail) and megalithic researcher Rupert Soskin.
All tours are in English and present unique, carefully researched insights into topics ignored in most history books, including: the “heretical” medieval Cathars, the scorched-earth Crusade launched against them by the Roman Catholic Church in the 13th Century and the subsequent Inquisition established by the papacy to exterminate the surviving vestiges of the Cathars and their beliefs (that’s why you’ve probably never heard of them).
The Languedoc is an unspoiled, authentic and visually spectacular region that will provide unique insights for virtual village members into warfare, arts, crafts and lifestyles in medieval Europe. It has been, since the beginning of European civilization, a cradle to emerging European cultures.
Some of the earliest cave art in Europe can be seen in the Languedoc and megalithic stones dot the countryside. Hercules performed some of his labors here. Hannibal and his elephants passed through on their way to the Alps. The Visigoths, Templars and Cathars allegedly hid vast treasures here.
There’s even more! The troubadour tradition developed here; Nostradamus came from here; the modern Kabbalah was created here; according to local tradition the family of Jesus lived here for many years; and, according to other tales, the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant are hidden here, perhaps in the mysterious Rennes-le-Château or the equally enigmatic Mount Bugarach.
“Château St. Ferriol was built in an era when stone walls and bastions remained a practical necessity in parts of Europe still afflicted by religious conflicts,” James concludes. “Our goal is to not only restore the castle in a physical sense, but to reshape it into a refuge for researchers and others determined to contribute to a deeper understanding of the medieval period and the modern world it helped shape.”
Please help rebuild a medieval castle and become part of a 21st Century quest for a deeper understanding of why it and thousands of other castles were built in the first place.