La Cité de Carcassonne

One of my very first exposures to France came in the form of a wonderfully thick-paged paper-covered book of black-and-white photos showing the fortified town of Carcassonne in the South of France, not far from the city of Montpellier.  (In fact, the town is divided in two by the Aude River--the fortified part is called the Cité and the lower, "newer" area, the Ville Basse.)  As a child, I would fetch out the book, open it up, and pore over the photographs of this totally intriguing, storybook-like, quite theatrical-looking place.  I believe my grandmother purchased the book when she and her sister went to Europe in 1928, but whether they actually got to Carcassonne, I don't now remember.

The magical views stayed with me over the years so that when I found myself in Montpellier studying French just five years ago and my hostess offered to drive us there, I was thrilled.

Carcassonne was one of those spots that got a lot of traffic over the ages.  It lay on a route linking Iberia to the rest of Europe and began as a pre-Roman settlement.  After the Romans, the Visigoths came.  The Saracens.  The Franks.  Cathars settled there but were then driven out during the Albigensian Crusade when the Catholic Church considered them heretics and even housed their own inquisition in The Inquisition Tower.  By then, Carcassonne was a fortified medieval city with double ramparts to protect against siege engines, the outer wall connecting fourteen towers, the inner twenty-four.

Later, the kingdom of France took it over.  During the Revolution, it became a supply depot.  Then it was turned into a stone quarry, its walls and towers gradually dismantled.  It was even scheduled for demolition until a campaign saved it and a conservation architect Viollet-le-Duc carefully restored it during the second half of the 19th century.  His successor finally finished the work in 1910.  Now Carcassonne is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.  It is also the largest medieval town in Europe with its walls still intact.  Today, approximately 120 people live there permanently ... with maybe 48,000 in the Ville Basse, the unfortified section across the river.

Entrance

The double ramparts

The Basilica Saint-Nazaire inside the walls

Inside the Basilica

I took this photo for the beauty of the construction.  It may be a private house, but I have no idea.  The Cité also has a post office, school, hotel, and an open-air theater.

Place du Chateau square

School Museum

A commercial area near the exit

Posted today in honor of France's Bastille Day.