15-02-2018, 07:56 AM
(15-02-2018, 07:45 AM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Additionally there are various manuscripts where this style of battlements is used randomly, whether the castle had them or not. In that case, familiarity with the type is all we can assume.
I'm not denying that the VMS could be depicting swallowtails or saddlebacks. I'm only saying that you can't claim this means that the VMS was written in Italy or Switzerland and not in Cathar country because we don't know what the Cathar edifices looked like. Not only Montségur, all their edifices were destroyed by the Crusaders. Carcassonne was spared only because the Cathars had already been expelled.
Catharism was a religion, not a region or nationality. Though most of the Cathars lived in southern France, smaller numbers of converts could be found in several countries, and some of them may have found their way to southern France taking their architectural ideas with them.
There were reports that Cathar perfecti resided in a couple of chateaus prior to being forced to Montsegur, their last place of refuge. Regarding the VMS drawing of an edifice with three saddleback towers, it might be one of those chateaus.