On the Trail of the Holy Grail: Knights Templar and Cathars

Château Montségur, a seemingly impregnable castle perched in the Pyrénées Mountains, became the final stronghold of the Cathars–a heretical religious sect against whom the Catholic Church launched a ferocious crusade in the mid-thirteenth century. The Cathars supposedly fled to this mountaintop château with their church treasury, which supposedly included the Holy Grail. The castle was sieged by an army sent by the church and the last of the 200 cathars surrendered and were burned en masse. But, there are whispers of escapees scaling the steep cliffs with a part of the treasury. Could the grail have been smuggled out of the castle or perhaps, even out of France?

The connection between Cathars and the Knights Templar is blurred. Some say the Templars entrusted the grail, which they transported from the Holy Land during the Crusades, to the Cathars for safekeeping. Others say the Cathars imparted some sort of ancient knowledge to the Knights Templar, which was theirs to guard and protect. Did the Cathars know of Jesus’s descendents?  Did the Templars hide the Grail in this sacred terrain? All we know is the Templars, like the Cathars, were snuffed out by the French king and Pope.

And the Holy Grail remains a mystery.