CHATEAU DE PALAYS

The first traces of the castle date back to the 14th century. At that time, a tower and perhaps a "castrum" controlled a crossing point at the confluence of the Arize and a stream, the Pas du Rat, forming the border between the counties of Toulouse and Foix.

At that time, Palays was a small fortress of plain in the quadrilateral form made up of brick walls crowned with battlements on false machicolations served by a covered way and flanked by four round towers.

Ditches protected the bottom of the walls, defended by numerous guns; a drawbridge allowed access to the vast interior courtyard. Wooden galleries, now disappeared, skirted the wall, except on the South East side where was the modest stately home framed to the South by a vaulted Chapel and to the East by the master tower.