Minerve

Minerve stands on a limestone spur almost surrounded by the gorges of the Cesse and the Brian, joined to the plateau by a single narrow neck, which made it defensible enough to shelter Cathars in 1210. Simon de Montfort besieged it for seven weeks, destroyed the well with a trebuchet, and when the town surrendered about a hundred and forty perfects who refused to recant were burned; a modern dove-shaped monument marks it. A fragment of the castle wall, called the candela, still stands. Below, the Cesse has cut two natural tunnels through the rock, walkable when the riverbed is dry, which it usually is in summer.

What you actually see

• The rock island site - a spur enclosed by two gorges with one approach.
• The candela - a surviving fragment of the castle wall.
• The natural tunnels - the Cesse's cut passages through rock below.
• The 1210 memorial - a dove monument to those burned after the siege.

When to go

April to June and September to October; the riverbed walk works when the Cesse is dry, usually summer, but the heat is severe then. Winter has flow but little open in the village.

Honest expectations

Parking is outside and the approach involves steps. The village is very small with a handful of shops. The gorge walk requires scrambling on dry riverbed and is unsafe when water is running.

Nearby

Lagrasse lies southwest; Beziers is southeast.