Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes contemporary uses of the Cathar past in the Catalan Pyrenees. A local interpretation of Cathar's history took shape since the 1980s on, connecting it with the national origins of Catalonia and projecting a wide imaginary on national identity.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses contemporary uses of the Cathar past in the Catalan Pyrenees. A local interpretation of Occitan medieval history has taken shape since the 1980s onward, building an alternative reading of the inquisitorial massacres occurred during the Albigensian Crusades. It has been connected with the national origins of Catalonia projecting a wide imaginary on national identity; stressing and revalorizing the role of the Pyrenees and its people in the inception of a Catalan nation. This romantic spin that contributes to the understanding of the Catalan history as a path of martyrdom (together with the tragic defeat of 1714 celebrated on the Diada), is delineated in novels and contemporary celebrations in the Catalan Pyrenees, specifically in the Alt Urgell.

As observed in France, the history of the Cathars have worked as a mirror in which several interpretations of the present have been built upon. Likewise, this disputed history of inquisitional rage has worked in the Catalan Pyrenees as a canvass on which to express alternative interpretations of Catalan history, identity and a way to project regional and independentist imaginaries. In 2018, the celebration of the Cathar market turned into a moving tribute to the recently imprisoned political leaders, as has happened with other local and popular celebrations throughout the country. In this presentation, I analyze the origins and development of the Pyrenean discourses regarding the Albigensian past, the Cathar festivities in Josa de Cadí and Castellbó, and, finally, the expression of current imaginaries of independence within these processes.