The Tarn is the department of the Albigeois, the region that gave its name to the Cathar heresy and to the crusade launched against it in 1209. Albi, its capital, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site thanks to its exceptional episcopal complex: St Cecilia’s Cathedral, a red-brick Gothic fortress, and the Palais de la Berbie, the residence of the Bishop-Counts of Albi, bear witness to the power of the Church in a region long marked by religious dissent.
The Tarn Valley, between Albi and Millau, unfolds its landscapes of gorges and limestone plateaus dotted with numerous medieval castles. Castelnau-de-Lévis, Penne, Château du Bosc — home to the Toulouse-Lautrec family — Lastours, Lombers… The Tarn boasts a heritage of castles closely linked to the history of Catharism and the Catholic reconquest.
Cordes-sur-Ciel, a medieval bastide perched on its hilltop and often called ‘the city of a hundred Gothic buildings’ for the quality of its sculpted façades, is one of the most beautiful medieval towns in the Midi region of France and one of the jewels of the Tarn department.