Carcassonne, a tenacious and magnificent footprint of a millennium history, fascinates visitors seeking authenticity, feasts, raw beauty and art of good life. Spread between the valleys, Carcassonne is a beauty of the world. From this great place of Cathar history, a wonderful place, it is easy to go back to the persecution of the Albigeois by royal power, or to indulge in a gentle nostalgia by contemplating the sunset of the millenary walls.
A little history…
This city has developed over the centuries on two levels: Bastide Saint Louis, located between the canal du Midi and the Aude, and the city, air and fortified, which draws the city to the sky. The latter is the attraction that drives millions of visitors every year here. Classified as UNESCO's world heritage since 1997, this extraordinary testimony of medieval architecture is the symbol of the city and the sublime setting of the great festival that is rhythm in the summer.
Let us focus first on the famous Bastide Saint Louis, a birthplace of the lower city, where the monarch of the same name relegated part of the population of the City to the xiiith century. This new town was soon surrounded by solid ramparts and flanked by bastions at its four angles. This rectangular neighborhood became Carcassonne's new shopping center to the detriment of the City, thanks, inter alia, to the development of textile activity. Today, this historic part which has lost its defensive walls is organized around the beautiful square Carnot and is delimited by boulevards drawn from the eighteenth century on old ditches. Walking along the arteries in the shade of old houses, stopping on a terrace in Carnot Square while admiring the fountain or tasting a local specialty in one of the many small restaurants are among the things that should not be missed. Another advantage of the city, which we cannot fail to mention: the canal du Midi. Diverted to the city in 1810 and also recognized by UNESCO as "one of the most extraordinary achievements of the modern era of civil engineering", this language of water linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean allows to discover the surroundings of the city by many very pleasant means: by boat for various cruises; rent bicycles to discover the banks set in the direction of Trèbes or Castelnaudary; on foot, for long walks.
Immortal
On the way south now. Since the xivth century between the Bastide and the City, the Pont-Vieux is surrounded by the Aude of its twelve stone arches. From there, the view is splendid on the ramparts, the comtal castle and the barbacane which, illuminated overnight, offer a masterful spectacle. By putting foot on the right bank, the walker will have eyes only for the immensity of the book lying up on the top of the plateau, in whose lands the walls seem to be embedded since the dawn of time. Already in the Gallo-Roman era, a stone belt and towers protected the site. Renovated and consolidated in the Middle Ages and then in the nineteenth century, they are always visible throughout the interior bulwark. By going back to the door Narbonnaise, the colors of the sharp roofs make the city surprising. Some of them are tiles in the region, some of the dark slates that remember the northern buildings of France. A variety that interrogates and leads us to evoke the immense renovation site, probably the most important in Europe in the nineteenth century, which saved the City of Demolition and allows us today to contemplate it in its present form.
From abandonment to restoration
That efforts were needed to keep alive this vibrant testimony of centuries of history of France! The Cité de l 'Antiquité in the Middle Ages, the City lost its importance at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Thus, as many of the kingdom's strong squares, it entered a phase of decline that led it to be a miserable and eccentric neighborhood, deserted in 1804 by the army, and whose basilica Saint-Nazaire lost its cathedral status to the church Saint-Michel, in the lower city…
The mass seemed to be said. It was not counting on Prosper Mérimée, Inspector General of Historical Monuments, and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, architect specializing in renovations of ancient monuments. In 1845, a huge project began: Most of the towers are then leaked, the ramparts are used as wild quarries by inhabitants, roofs and creations are destroyed, fortune houses have grown in the ice… The challenge is immense. Viollet-le-Duc will lead this project for several decades, but will never see that work completed in his lifetime. Certainly he did not recreate the City in the same way as it was in the thirteenth century. Certainly some of the buildings, including the Narbonnaise gate or St. Nazaire Basilica, were partially restored according to the architect's imagination. But this titanic work has helped to revitalize this grand fortified ensemble and to pay tribute to the exceptional art of the Middle Ages builders. What would we have to admire if no one had been able to reinvent the past and rdress up this pile of stone that was a time the City?
The guided tour of the Comtal castle, the walk on the ramparts and in the ice, the strawberry in the small streets and the visit of St. Nazaire Basilica are essential to understanding the complex history of the City and not relying on appearances, often misleading in these places.
Bullas, tapas and feria
After the summer, Carcassonne returned to his tauromachic past: bullfighting and fuck make the city vibrate. Aficionados will enjoy the shows that take place in the arena on the Jean Cau area. The square André Chénier and its «Campo» then become a big gathering place. We feast and dance from one bodega to another for 4 days. The tapas, grill, paellas and bull's babysitter taste among friends, watered with sangria and wines from countries at the sound of the bandas and concerts given on the square. It is a time of celebration that mixes local and curious people from everywhere to enjoy this muy-caliber atmosphere.
Smart News
When is it? The city is visited all year round with a preference for off-season periods (April-May and September-October) to avoid the summer months.
Go there. By car or train.
SNCF
Useful. To find maps and brochures.
CARCASSONNE TOURISM OFFICE
