A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event. The town is located on a small bluff above the river Orb , about ten kilometres six miles from the Mediterranean coast and 75 kilometres 47 miles southwest of Montpellier.
The site has been occupied since Neolithic times, before the influx of Celts. Roman Betarra was on the road that linked Provence with Iberia. Stones from the Roman amphitheatre were used to construct the city wall during the third century. A dolium discovered in an excavation near Rome is marked, "I am a wine from Baeterrae and I am five years old. After the death of Viscount William around , the viscounty passed to his daughter Garsendis and her husband, Count Raimond-Roger of Carcassonne d.
It was then ruled by their son Peter-Raimond d. The town was sacked the following day and in the bloody massacre no one was spared, not even Catholic priests and those who took refuge in the churches.
When asked by a crusader how to tell Catholics from Cathars once they had taken the city, the abbot supposedly replied, " Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius " "Kill them all, for the Lord knoweth them that are His". This oft-quoted phrase is sourced from Caesarius of Heisterbach along with a story of all the heretics who desecrated a copy of the Gospels and threw it down from the town's walls.
While discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low rank and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms! Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20, people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt The invaders burned the Cathedral of Saint Nazaire , which collapsed on those who had taken refuge inside.
