The mighty walls of Carcassonne

The steep escarpment above the river Aude was first fortified by 5th century Visigoth kings, who built walls that correspond more or less to Carcasonne’s present inner circuit.

It became the property of the Trencavel family, viscounts of Albi and Nîmes, in 1067. They built their imposing Château Comtal — the city’s massive inner fortress — and the church of St-Nazaire, and in 1096 Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of a new cathedral in the lower town.

More defences were added over the centuries until the fortified hilltop city was nearly impregnable. Its concentric design of two outer walls incorporated 53 towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engine. 

The inner fortress of the citadel was further protected by a drawbridge and ditch.

Other defences were only used at times of siege. Carcassonne was the first fortress to use hoardings — temporary wooden platforms fitted to the upper walls that provided protection for defenders as they dropped projectiles on attackers.

Like so many of the other places I visited in this region, Carcassonne suffered from the heavy hand of the pope’s brutal Albigensian Crusade (1209 – 1229). 

I wrote in an earlier blog that the region we know today as Languedoc was a loosely governed territory where ideas circulated freely, and where feudal lords tolerated unorthodox beliefs and sometimes sympathized with them.

Carcassonne became a stronghold of the region’s Cathars, a group whose dualist Christian beliefs didn’t align with those of the pope in Rome, and who were therefore seen as a threat by a church determined to control the message and stamp out anyone that refused to conform.

The city was besieged at an early stage of the conflict, in August 1209, not long after the pontiff’s holy crusaders massacred the entire population of Béziers. You’ll recall that Béziers was where papal legate Arnaud Amalric was asked what should be done about the town’s good Catholics and he replied, “Kill them all. The Lord will know is own.”

That massacre terrified the people of Languedoc, and Amalric soon forced Carcassonne to surrender. It’s viscount, Raymond-Roger de Trencavel, was guilty of nothing beyond attempting to defend his own territories but he was imprisoned while negotiating Carcassonne’s surrender and died mysteriously in his own dungeon three months later.

The citizens were expelled with little more than what they could carry, and the opportunistic land-grabbing crusader Simon de Montfort was appointed the new viscount.

Carcasonne’s former residents were eventually allowed to return on the condition that they built a new town on lower ground next to the river. This large grid of tidy streets and vibrant bars is now the Ville Basse.

Carcassonne was fought over many times throughout the Albigensian Crusade, but the son of the deposed Raymond-Roger de Trencavel never succeeded in recovering his old domain.

It would eventually submit to the King of France in 1247, long after the crusade, as Paris solidified its hold over the territories that are now contained within its national borders. 

Carcassonne was attacked again during the Hundred Years’ War but Edward the Black Prince failed to take a city that many still regarded as impregnable.

Its fortifications finally became redundant like so many other castles in the region when the Treaty of the Pyrenees established the border between France and Spain.

Life and commerce moved on. Carcassonne became a centre for the textile industry and the manufacturing centre of the Languedoc, and it remained important until the end of the 18th century.

Its walls and towers were restored from ruins by the architect Viollet-le-Duc in 1844. Some say he went too far, that he turned a fortress into a fairy tale. But it remains the largest city in Europe with its medieval walls still intact.

Yes, it’s a tourist trap. Its narrow streets were so clogged with day trippers that we could only move at a shuffle once inside the lofty Porte Narbonnaise. But it is still a magical place, and you shouldn’t miss out on a walk around the ramparts.