Cité de Carcassonne
The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval architectural complex in the French town of Carcassonne in the Aude department, Occitanie region. It is located on the right bank of the River Aude, to the south-east of the present-day city. This fortified medieval city, whose origins date back to
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History
Emerging from the Aude plain like a mirage from the Middle Ages, the Cité de Carcassonne is one of France's most spectacular architectural legacies. Perched on its rocky promontory some 150 metres above the lower town, it features a double curtain of ramparts flanked by towers with conical slate roofs, forming an instantly recognisable silhouette that can be seen from dozens of kilometres away. What makes the Cité truly unique is the legible superimposition of several ages of fortification: Gallo-Roman foundations from the 3rd century, Visigothic additions, Capetian alterations in the 13th century, and finally the major restoration work carried out by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc between 1853 and 1879, which saved the whole complex from scheduled demolition. This palimpsest of stones alone tells the story of twelve centuries of military, religious and human history. The visit is a rich experience. The lices - the grassy lanes between the inner and outer walls - can be explored on foot as if you were walking between two eras. The Château Comtal, at the heart of the city, is home to the Carcassonne Archaeological Museum, whose collections tell the story of the region from Neolithic times to the Middle Ages. The Basilica of Saint-Nazaire, a masterpiece of southern Gothic architecture, dazzles visitors with its ruby and saffron-coloured stained glass windows dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. The setting is equally remarkable from the outside: from the Pont Vieux bridge spanning the Aude, the crenellated silhouette of the Cité is reflected in the river, offering one of the most photographed panoramas of French heritage. In the early hours of the morning or at dusk, when the tourist coaches have gone home, the Cité takes on an almost supernatural soul, its cobbled streets echoing with the footsteps of the rare strollers.
Architecture
The Cité de Carcassonne is a unique example of medieval fortification with a double wall. The inner wall, around 1,300 metres long, is supported by 28 towers, some of which date back to the Gallo-Roman and Visigothic foundations. The outer wall, nearly 1,600 metres long and punctuated by 14 semi-circular towers open on the inside to prevent enemies from entrenching themselves, was built by Capetian royal engineers in the 13th century. Between the two walls lie the lices, a grassy strip 25 to 80 metres wide that allowed attackers to concentrate under the crossfire of the defenders. The château comtal, built around 1130 by the Trencavel family and remodelled in the 13th and 14th centuries, is the citadel within the citadel: surrounded by its own moat, it consists of a rectangular enclosure flanked by round towers and a main building with barrel-vaulted rooms that illustrate the transition from late Romanesque to Gothic. The basilica of Saint-Nazaire-et-Saint-Celse, built between the 11th and 14th centuries, combines a sober Romanesque nave with a flamboyant Gothic choir and transepts of great elegance, pierced by some of the oldest stained glass windows in the Languedoc region. The dominant materials used are light-coloured limestone quarried from the neighbouring hills and, in some parts of the walls, baked brick typical of the building tradition in the south of France.
Related Figures
Map
Coordinates not available for this monument.
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