Castle Carcassonne - Languedoc-Roussillon - France

Castle Carcassonne - Languedoc-Roussillon - France

Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.

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View Castle entrance in Google Maps

Aerial Vision and Canal Du Midi


Castle Carcassonne
the city and the medieval town


105 properties are available in Carcassone



Victor Hugo Street, Place Carnot in Google Maps



It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century, though the Romans had fortified the settlement earlier. The fortress, which was thoroughly restored in 1853 by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997. The folk etymology – involving a châtelaine named Carcas, a ruse ending a siege and the joyous ringing of bells ("Carcas sona") – though memorialized in a neo-Gothic sculpture of Mme. Carcas on a column near the Narbonne Gate, is of modern invention. The name can be derived as an augmentative of the name Carcas.

The fortified city:
The fortified city itself consists essentially of a concentric design with two outer walls with towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engines. The castle itself possesses its own drawbridge and ditch leading to a central keep. The walls consist of towers built over quite a long period. One section is Roman and is notably different from the medieval walls with the tell-tale red brick layers and the shallow pitch terracotta tile roofs. One of these towers housed the Catholic Inquisition in the 13th Century and is still known as "The Inquisition Tower". Today there is a museum "Musée de la Torture", which shows some of the original torture equipment employed by the Catholic Church.

Economy:
The newer part (Ville Basse) of the city on the other side of the Aude river (which dates back from the Middle Ages, created after the crusade) manufactures shoes, rubber and textiles. It is also the centre of a major AOCwine-growing region. A major part of its income, however, comes from the tourism connected to the fortifications (Cité) and from boat cruising on the Canal du Midi. Carcassonne is also home to the MKE Performing Arts Academy. Carcassonne receives about three million visitors annually.

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