Carcassonne

Carcassonne is located in the south of France about 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of Toulouse. Its strategic location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea has been known since the neolithic era.

The town's area is about 65 km² (25 sq mi), which is significantly larger than the numerous small towns in the department of Aude. The rivers Aude, Fresquel and the Canal du Midi flow through the town.

Carcassonne Fortress taken from above, July 2020

The first signs of settlement in this region have been dated to about 3500 BC, but the hill site of Carsac – a Celtic place-name that has been retained at other sites in the south – became an important trading place in the 6th century BC. The Volcae Tectosages fortified the oppidum.

The folk etymology – involving a châtelaine named Lady 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.

Carcassonne became strategically identified when the Romans fortified the hilltop around 100 BC and eventually made the colonia of Julia Carsaco, later Carcasum (by the process of swapping consonants known as metathesis). The main part of the lower courses of the northern ramparts dates from Gallo-Roman times. In 462 the Romans officially ceded Septimania to the Visigothic king Theodoric II who had held Carcassonne since 453. He built more fortifications at Carcassonne, which was a frontier post on the northern marches - traces of them still stand.

Theodoric is thought to have begun the predecessor of the basilica that is now dedicated to Saint Nazaire. In 508 the Visigoths successfully foiled attacks by the Frankish king Clovis. Saracens from Barcelona took Carcassonne in 725. King Pepin the Short (Pépin le Bref) drove them away in 759–60. Though he took most of the south of France, he was unable to penetrate the impregnable fortress of Carcassonne.

A medieval fiefdom, the county of Carcassonne, controlled the city and its environs. It was often united with the County of Razès. The origins of Carcassonne as a county probably lie in local representatives of the Visigoths, but the first count known by name is Bello of the time of Charlemagne. Bello founded a dynasty, the Bellonids, which would rule many honores in Septimania and Catalonia for three centuries.

Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209

In 1067, Carcassonne became the property of Raimond-Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes, through his marriage with Ermengard, sister of the last count of Carcassonne. In the following centuries, the Trencavel family allied in succession with either the counts of Barcelona or of Toulouse. They built the Château Comtal and the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus. In 1096, Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of the new cathedral.

Carcassonne became famous for its role in the Albigensian Crusades when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars. In August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal Legate, Abbot Arnaud Amalric, forced its citizens to surrender. Viscount Raymond-Roger de Trencavel was imprisoned whilst negotiating his city's surrender and died in mysterious circumstances three months later in his own dungeon. The people of Carcassonne were allowed to leave – in effect, expelled from their city with nothing more than the shirt on their backs. Simon De Montfort was appointed the new viscount and added to the fortifications.

In 1240, Trencavel's son tried to reconquer his old domain but in vain. The city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247. Carcassonne became a border fortress between France and the Crown of Aragon under the Treaty of Corbeil (1258). King Louis IX founded the new part of the town across the river. He and his successor Philip III built the outer ramparts. Contemporary opinion still considered the fortress impregnable. During the Hundred Years' War, Edward the Black Prince failed to take the city in 1355, although his troops destroyed the Lower Town.[6]

In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees transferred the border province of Roussillon to France, and Carcassonne's military significance was reduced. Its fortifications were abandoned and the city became mainly an economic center that concentrated on the woollen textile industry, for which a 1723 source quoted by Fernand Braudel found it "the manufacturing center of Languedoc".[7] It remained so until the Ottoman market collapsed at the end of the eighteenth century, thereafter reverting to a country town.[8]

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, providing protection to defenders on the wall and allowing defenders to go out past the wall to drop projectiles on attackers at the wall beneath, acting much like permanent machicolation.

Carcassonne has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa), though with noticeable hot-summer mediterranean climate influence (Köppen climate classification: Csa), a climate which is more typical of Southern France, with moderately wet and mild winters coupled with summers averaging above 28 °C (82 °F) during daytime with low rainfall.

Carcasonne, along with the French Mediterranean coastline, can be subject to intense thunderstorms and torrential rains at late summers and early autumns. The Carcassonne region can be flooded in such events, the last of which happened on October 14-15th 2018.

Ville Basse from the walled city

The newer part (Ville Basse) of the city on the other side of the Aude river (which dates back to the Middle Ages, after the crusades) manufactures shoes, rubber and textiles. It is also the center of a major AOC winegrowing region. A major part of its income 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.

The fortified city wall

• École nationale de l'aviation civile

French is spoken. Historically, the language spoken in Carcassonne and throughout Languedoc-Roussillon was not French but Occitan.

In July 2018, Carcassonne was the finish city for stage 15, and the starting point of stage 16, of the 2018 Tour de France. Previously it was the starting point for stage 11 of the 2016 Tour de France, the starting point for a stage in the 2004 Tour de France, and a stage finish in the 2006 Tour de France.

As in the rest of the southwest of France, rugby union is popular in Carcassonne. The city is represented by Union Sportive Carcassonnaise, known locally simply as USC. The club has a proud history, having played in the French Championship Final in 1925, and currently competes in Pro D2, the second tier of French rugby.

Rugby league is also played, by the AS Carcassonne club. They are involved in the Elite One Championship. Puig Aubert is the most notable rugby league player to come from the Carcassonne club. There is a bronze statue of him outside the Stade Albert Domec at which the city's teams in both codes play.

Felice Varini, project "Concentric, eccentric" with concentric yellow circles, at Carcassonne for the 7th "IN SITU, Heritage and contemporary art" event in May 2018 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the inscription on the World Heritage List of UNESCO

In May 2018, as the project "Concentric, eccentric"[15] by French-Swiss artist Felice Varini, large yellow concentric circles were mounted on the monument as part of the 7th edition of "IN SITU, Heritage and contemporary art", a summer event in the Occitanie / Pyrenees-Mediterranean region focusing on the relationship between modern art and architectural heritage. This monumental work is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Carcassonne's inscription on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.[16][17]

Exceptional in its size and its visibility and use of architectural space, the exhibit extends on the western front of the fortifications of the city. The work can be fully perceived only in front of the Porte d'Aude at the pedestrian route from the Bastide. The circles of yellow colour consist of thin, painted aluminium sheets, spread like waves of time and space, fragmenting and recomposing the geometry of the circles on the towers and curtain walls of the fortifications. The work will be visible from May to September 2018 only.[16][17]

• The French poet Gustave Nadaud made Carcassonne famous as a city. He wrote a poem about a man who dreamed of seeing but could not see before he died. His poem inspired many others and was translated into English several times.[18] Georges Brassens has sung a musical version of the poem. Lord Dunsany wrote a short story "Carcassonne" (in A Dreamer's Tales) as did William Faulkner.
• On 6 March 2000 France issued a stamp commemorating the fortress of Carcassonne.[19]
• The history of Carcassonne is re-told in the novels of the Languedoc Trilogy Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel by Kate Mosse. Together with Puivert and Toulouse, it features strongly in her 2018 novel "The Burning Chambers".
• The board game series Carcassonne is named after this town, and depicts the architecture of the region.
• Portions of the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves were shot in and around Carcassonne.
• A 1993 album by Stephan Eicher was named Carcassonne.
• In the one-man show Sea Wall, starring Andrew Scott, Carcassonne is mentioned frequently as a setting.

• Paul Lacombe, French composer, 1837
• Théophile Barrau, French sculptor, 1848
• Paul Sabatier, French chemist, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1854
• Suzanne Sarroca, (1927–), French operatic soprano
• Gilbert Benausse, French rugby league footballer, 1932
• Michael Martchenko, French born Canadian illustrator, 1942
• Maurice Sarrail, French soldier, General of Division during the First World War, 1856
• David Ferriol, French rugby league player, 1979
• Olivia Ruiz, French pop singer, 1980
• Fabrice Estebanez, French rugby union player, 1981
• Henry d'Estienne, French painter

Carcassonne is twinned with:[20]

• Eggenfelden, Germany
• Baeza, Spain
• Tallinn, Estonia

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Carcassonne.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carcassonne.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Carcassonne.

• Virtual tour of the fortified walls of the city of Carcasonne
• Official website of the city of Carcassonne (in English, French, Spanish, German, and Dutch)
• Cité de Carcassonne, from the French Ministry of Culture