In 1349 the inhabitants of Cascastel obtained from their Seigneur, the Abbey of Lagrasse, some new rights and a reduction of their taxes or tythes.
This agrement was validated by a written act.
In 1390 the inhabitants of Cascastel, their seigneur, the Abbey of Lagrasse, their secular seigneurs, Raymond de Castel and Sicart of Cascastel obtained from the Commissioner of the King of France the authorisation to repair and add to the fortifications of the village.
A solemn act was drawn up by the Notaire of the King who was officially present in the public square.
The sitting room or "salon" of Joseph Gaspard Pailhoux's Château conceals a paradise, a garden of Eden.
It shows a natural world mastered by man, ordered and harmonious but menaced by the forces of the primal chaos.
Joseph Gaspard, the son of a respected doctor, would folow, during his life, humanistic principles.
He was Counsellor of the Supreme Council of Roussillon, and he attempted to be in the Parliament of Toulouse.
Under the old regime, the parliaments were the only bodies to counter the royal power.
Louis XVI respected them. It was, later became, the Convention Nationale that would proclaim the Republique.
As from 1779 Joseph Gaspard would focus on the exploitation of the Mines and the forges.
He surrounded himself with competent technicians, mined and sold quality minerals and wished to develop his enterprises
to give work to the people of Cascastel, of which he was to become the Mayor.
The symmetry between the decoration of his "salon" and the life lived by this man is striking.
The Château of Cascastel countains a secret:
It is necessary to re-establish Man as the purpose of the Universe.
Luc Siméon Dagobert de Fontenille is the cousin of the ingineer Duhamel, a contact of Joseph Gaspard Pailhoux
who became the chief surveyor for his mines and iron smelting forges.
Dagobert was a Captain in the French Army and married Jaquette Pailhoux de Cascastel in 1780
and as a result became owner of the forges at Padern and the mines connected to this iron smelting plant.
At the time of the Revolution in France he supported Louis Philippe d'Orléans, "Grand Maître du Grand Orient de France".
In 1793, the miners ofe Joseph Gaspard were requisitionned and taken over by the French National Army.
In 1793, Dagobert became a General, defending the new Republic against the Royalist Spanish Army.
He conquered the Cerdagne, in the Pyrenees, but died of "fièvres" -fevers- at Puigcerda on the 18th April 1794.
Born in 1927, Antoine VILLA was made President of the Cascastel Cave ( Cave Coopérative des Maîtres vignerons de Cascastel ).
He was also Secretary of the Mairie for 40 years from 1949 to 1989 and has been the village correspondent for the local press since 1949.
He continues in this role writing articles about the village events and the people.
As a result of all thes activities ha has built up an archive of written and photographic evidences of village life.
He has had an interest in local history since his youth and has made his records avalaible to other enthusiastic amateurs.