page_title: Alairac
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Alairac / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Panneau de la circulade d'Alairac(11290) à l'entrée du village
context_page_description: Alairac is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of southern France.
  The inhabitants of the commune are known as Alairacois, or Alairacoises.
context_section_description: The first written record of the castle appeared in 1063: the time of the probable construction of the circulade. The area belonged to the Count of Foix, the first of which was Roger I de Foix who was the second son of Bernard-Roger, Count of Bigorre. Over the years, he exchanged the County of Foix with the Viscount of Carcassonne several times to the Trencavel family.
  From the 11th century, the village was traversed by one of the paths to Saint Jacques de Compostela called "Path of the Pyrenean Piedmont". This pilgrimage continued until the 18th century.
  During the Albigensian Crusade at Easter 1210, Simon de Montfort besieged the castle at Alairac for eleven days at which the people, fearing they may have to surrender, fled by night. In 1309, the last known Cathar perfect, Guillaume Bélibaste, fled Catalonia with Philippe of Alayrac. The latter, on his return home after ten years of exile, was probably captured and burned.
  On hearing the sound of an approaching large company from Routiers in 1366, the officers of the Bailiwick of Carcassonne ordered the inhabitants of the castle at Alairac — which belonged to Jean d'Armagnac — to fortify it and destroy the surrounding area. Having failed to execute the order, the Viscount angrily set fire to the castle which was completely burned. Later, the Count of Armagnac ceded the land of Alairac to the Marquis of Mirepoix in 1404.
  The lordship was sold at the beginning of the 18th  century to a citizen of Carcassonne. This lordship was extinguished by the Revolution in 1789.
  During the First World War from 1914–18, the village lost nineteen people whose names are inscribed on the memorial. Every year on 11 November, this sacrifice is remembered by reading their names during a ceremony attended by schoolchildren.
  During the Algerian War, many young people from Alairac were called to fight. One of them was killed. Every 19 March the laying of wreaths takes place to commemorate the date the Évian Accords came into force.
caption: Sign at the entrance of the village
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