Off the beaten track, Minerve is a commune in the Hérault department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. In 1210 a group of Cathars sought refuge in the village after the massacre at Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade. The attacking army besieged the village for six weeks before it surrendered. Four catapults or trebuchets were set up around the ramparts, three to attack the village itself and the largest to destroy the town's well. With the town's only water supply cut off, the Commander of the 200-strong garrison, Viscount Guilhem of Minerve, gave in and negotiated a surrender in order to have the villagers and himself spared from death. However, 140 Cathars refused to give up their faith and convert, being burned to death at the stake on 22 July. Nowadays only villagers are allowed to bring cars into the village.
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