Béziers - Cathédrale Saint-Nazaire

I could not pass Béziers, without taking a photo, though I have uploaded many from previous visits...


The cathedral Saint-Nazaire-et-Saint-Celse looks a bit like a castle. It was built where a Romanesque cathedral stood until it burnt down and collapsed during the "Massacre at Béziers" on 22. July 1209, a military action of the Albigensian Crusade.

The crusaders led by Arnaud Amalric (Papal Legat and Abbot of Citeaux), captured the town and started killing and plundering that day.

Arnaud Amalric wrote:

"... Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt..."

Twenty years later Caesar of Heisterbach wrote about the sack of Béziers, that Arnaud Amalric being asked how to distinguish Cathars from Catholics, Arnaud replied with the infamous sentence "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" - "Kill them all and let God sort them out."

When the slaughter started many people tried to find shelter inside the churches of Béziers, but that did not help. Thousands died that day inside the old cathedral.