4
‘Every major city had an Inquisitional Court, from Tolosa to Carcassona. Once condemned, the Inquisitors turned their victims over to the secular authorities to be imprisoned, beaten, mutilated or burned. They kept their hands clean.’
Once inside the walls, turn right into a narrow cobbled alleyway with a stone arch above it. The house on the corner here is the Maison de l’Inquisition. It used to have a footbridge from the first floor onto the ramparts, giving access to the Tour de la Justice where the Inquisitors kept their régistres – the records of their interrogations. On the stone walls inside, the twelve iron hooks – where the Dominican Friars hung the leather bags containing these forced testimonies – are still there.
The alleyway – the rue du Four Saint-Nazaire – slopes quite steeply upwards, winding first left, then right, behind the kitchens of the Hôtel de la Cité.