Case file · Haunting
Montségur and the Cathar treasure
On 16 March 1244, more than 200 Cathars who refused to recant were burned at the foot of Montségur after a ten-month siege; legends of a hidden treasure, even the Grail, followed.
1244 CE · 42.88, 1.83 · status: legend
The account
Four Cathars were said to have escaped down the cliff with the treasure. In the 1930s the German writer Otto Rahn sought the Grail there. Visitors report strange atmospheres at the ruins.
The sceptical view
The 'treasure' was probably money or sacred texts; the Grail link is a 19th–20th century invention.