Captivating Carcassonne

We met the bus that was transporting us to Carcassonne at the allotted time. There was a big line of people boarding so we joined the queue. We set off just after 9.30am and we were advised it would take approximately 1 hour 15 minutes to arrive at our destination.

Carcassonne is a hilltop town in southern France’s Languedoc region and it is famous for its medieval citadel, La Cité. The citadel has numerous watchtowers and double-walled fortifications. The first walls were built in Gallo-Roman times, with major additions made in the 13th and 14th centuries. Château Comtal, a 12th century castle, sits within the Cité and we explored it and the ramparts.

Carcassonne was the first fortress to use hoardings in times of siege. Temporary wooden platforms and walls would be fitted to the upper walls of the fortress through square holes in the face of the wall. This provided protection to defenders on the wall and allowed them to go out past the wall to drop projectiles on attackers at the wall beneath, acting as a permanent machicolation. This is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, boiling water, hot sand or boiling cooking oil could be dropped on attackers.

The Cité de Carcassonne was restored by the theorist and architect Eugène Violet-Le-Duc in 1853. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997 because of the exceptional preservation and restoration of the medieval citadel.

We explored the chateau, which had many artefacts on display. We also walked around about two-thirds of the ramparts. We took in wonderful views of the surrounding countryside including vineyards and olive trees. We could also see much of the Cité of Carcassonne from various vantage points on the ramparts. We got great views of the Basilique Saint-Nazareth, the Théâtre Jean Deschamps and the Port Narbonnaise, which is the city entrance. We climbed and descended more than 750 stairs as we explored this wonderful medieval city.Read more