Pech de Bugarach, Bugarach

Pech de Bugarach, also known as Pic de Bugarach, rises to 1 230 metres in the Aude, in Occitanie. It is the highest point of the Corbières massif. Isolated amid the valleys, it towers 750 metres above the village of Bugarach, two kilometres away as the crow flies, and shares its slopes with the neighbouring commune of Camps-sur-l'Agly.

A mountain turned upside down

The relief was formed by a thrust sheet, pushed up during the formation of the Pyrenees. This sheet forms a recumbent fold, so that the rock layers at the top are older than those at the bottom. Hence its nickname "inverted mountain", and its reputation as a geological curiosity. The Agly rises on its flanks. The mountain contains some fifty cavities; the two largest are called the Bufo Fret and the Font de Dotz.

Where its name comes from

The word "pech" is the Audois form of the Occitan puèg, from the Latin podium, meaning a height. As for the name itself, there are two suggestions. According to some sources, it recalls the "Bulgars", a word used in the Middle Ages to refer to the ancestors of the Cathars. The Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France sees instead a Germanic personal name, Burghar, followed by the suffix -aticum.

Rumours and the announced end of the world

In New Age circles, Bugarach is credited with "telluric" properties, a hidden treasure and UFO activity. At the end of 2010, the village mayor complained of a massive influx of visitors. Online, some then claimed that Bugarach would be the only place spared by the end of the world in December 2012, according to an interpretation of the Mayan calendar. A municipal decree banned access to the peak during that December, and the authorities chose to supervise the gathering with high-mountain gendarmes and specialist firefighters. The affair inspired a few episodes of Plus belle la vie, then a series, Bugarach, broadcast in 2024.

An energy site, beyond the rumours

Setting those stories aside, the Bugarach retains a real place in the lists of energy sites in the south of France. What strikes you first is its isolated silhouette and the view from the summit, which takes in the Pyrenees, the Montagne Noire and the Mediterranean as far as the upper Aude valley. The site was classified in 2017.

A variant of the GR 36 passes over the summit, which several paths lead to, either from the Col du Linas to the north or by the Sentier cathare to the south-east. Have you climbed it? Describe in your own words what the mountain left you with once you reached the top.