In april 2000, 9 public monument owners, aware of the importance of their patrimony, have decided to get together in the Sites of the Cathar Country Association to go through a collective reflexion and actions. Moreover the territorial problematics, cultural or touristic, it’s first the catharism history in Occitany which unifies the 9 monuments.

For five years, the association has grown and counts today 18 sites, most of them in a rural environment: 11 castles, 6 abbeys and 1 museum. This extension knows how to keep the medieval cultural essence of the association and by, in the same time, introducing diversity or in the patrimmonial management, private owners have decided to be associated to this work, or in the sites notoriety, castles such as Peyrepertuse or the castle and ramparts of carcassonne have also adhered to this movement. Nowadays, all these sites become the spearhead of the local touristic development.