Carcassonne boasts a medieval complex that is still inhabited and can be visited freely, unique in Europe in terms of size and perfect state of conservation.
The spectacular fortified citadel bordered by the River Aude looks like something out of a storybook, with its double wall, 4 gates and 52 towers. And it is no coincidence that it seems to have inspired Walt Disney for the “Sleeping Beauty Castle”.
The city born twice
Legends about Carcassonne are countless, starting with the name. It is said that it derives from the cry “Carcas sonne, Carcas sounds!” which the soldiers of Charlemagne, after five years of siege of the city, turned against the walls by retreating to the sound of the bells. At that time the city was in the hands of the Saracens and Charlemagne, taking advantage of the king’s death, attempted to conquer it. But he hadn’t reckoned with the deceased king’s wife, Madame Carcas, who didn’t surrender to the emperor and actually forced him to retreat with a ruse: she had a pig devour the last grain left in the warehouses and then threw it from the walls against the Carolingian army, making believe that the city was not on its last legs but could even waste food as a sign of contempt. The deception succeeded and Carcassonne was free.
In memory of this story, the bust of Madame Carcas still welcomes visitors to the Citè Medieval today on the right side of the main door, the Porta Narbonnaise, squeezed between two large towers with slate roofs. Passing over the drawbridge, our visit to this city began, one of the few that we had not yet visited in the south of France.
It must be said immediately that for those like us traveling with a dog, one of the most evocative walks is forbidden, the one on the walls, which can be accessed through the Château Comtal built in the 12th century by the Trencavel family. So with our Otto we walked far and wide between the narrow streets and the suggestive squares that house the two wells, the large one and the small one, which once supplied the city with water, and the statue of Cros Mayrevieille, archaeologist defined the “savior” of Carcassonne since he avoided the destruction of the ancient medieval walls together with the architect Viollet-le-Duc.
In fact, after having lived its golden age during the Albigensian Crusade becoming the seat of the Cathars, Carcassonne was put on fire by the Pope and by King Louis VIII. It was in this period that the lower city called Bastide Saint-Louis was built beyond the banks of the river, connected to the upper one by the Pont Vieux.
Subsequently, with the shift of the border between Spain and France. Carcassonne lost its importance and suffered a period of total abandonment in which part of the walls were even dismantled and sold. It was at this point, in the mid-1800s, that Viollet-le-Duc and Cros Mayrevieille intervened with the project of rebuilding the city.
The first building to obtain the Monument Historique classification in 1840 was the Basilique Saint-Nazaire et Saint-Celse, defined as the “jewel of the city”, an imposing and severe sandstone construction on which creepy gargoyles peep out which inside houses magnificent stained glass windows considered among the most beautiful in the south of France.
The grandiose reconstruction work of the Citè Medieval was not without criticism: Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was accused of having “interpreted” the ruins by giving them a different connotation compared to the original, above all with regard to the materials with which the roofs of the towers which were covered with slate instead of Roman tiles as in the past. But the architect defended his work by justifying it with the discovery of many fragments of slate during his restoration and with the fact that Simon de Monfort and the other knights who took part in the Albigensian Crusade came from the North. So it was not impossible that they had brought with them construction techniques and materials.
In any case, it is thanks to his work that today we can enchant ourselves in front of the majestic towers of this place declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1997 and walk in the spaces between the double walls called “lices” where Otto was able to follow us entering and coming out of the other three gates of the city.
The Porte Saint-Nazaire, housed in the tower of the same name, one of the two squares in the city built to protect the basilica, and the Bourg or Rodez gate, dug directly into the walls and defended by the Notre-Dame barbican and the Mourétis tower. We admired it at sunset, before going to dinner in one of the best restaurants in Carcassonne recommended to us by Jean Yves Pons, the director of the Hôtel du Château that, at the foot of the Porta Narbonnaise the main entrance to the Citè, cradled our sweet dreams in the city, the first in France.
A few words about dinner: at La Marquiere, chef Bernard Marius offers delicious dishes, bringing the best of the area to the table in a refined setting where a monastery once stood. On the patio, sipping a glass of Infernale, we savored the classics of the French tradition: Foie Gras de canard, Filet de Boeuf, Filet de canette and, to finish on a sweet note, an exquisite Crème brulée.
Upon returning, we were surprised by the cers, the dry, fresh wind typical of the Aude Valley, which blows between the walls and towers, increasing the charm of the skilfully lit and less crowded city.
The next morning we went to discover the last gate, the Porta d’Aude located near the Château Comtal where you can still see the signs of the circles on the walls of the installation “Cercles concentriques excentriques” by the Franco-Swiss artist Felice Varini created in 2018 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the inclusion of the city in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
To reach the new part of the city you have to cross the Pont Vieux, a stone pedestrian bridge that dates back to the mid-1300s and is characterized by twelve semicircular arches and adorned with characteristic wrought iron lampposts with sinuous and delicate lines.
On the left side emerges from the waters of the Aude river the small Chapelle Notre-Dame du Bout-du-Pont that the inhabitants of Carcassonne like to define as a “sanctuary between the two cities” and which represents one of the starting points of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which could perhaps be the destination of our next trip!
