Carcassonne
Travels with Anzie – Carcassonne
April 2018
Why Visit? The city of Carcassonne is divided in two by the river Aude. On one side lies the Bastide, which is a medieval town with charming narrow streets lined with shops and restaurants. On the other lies the great fortified castle, Carcassonne, inspiration for Camelot and countless other castles of fable and legend, including an estate on Marblehead Neck in Massachusetts. It is large: the walls extend 1.9 miles; the ramparts include 53 massive towers. It contains all the parts of a proper castle: two ramparts, drawbridge, portcullis, barbican, hoardings, church, great hall. (1) It’s really a fortified city. Walking, and climbing, through it, you can just picture the goings-on of its royal residents, staff and military. It wasn’t always comfortable; we were there on a rather mild Spring day, and the thick stone-clad chambers were chilly. No bathrooms; chamberpots were standard. A museum exhibits the large (160 lbs.) balls that were catapulted against the enemy, along with ancient, weather-worn stone sculptures.
- Rampart: outer wall Portcullis: Iron entrance gate, can be raised and lowered. Barbican: Fortified gateway or outpost. Hoardings: temporary wooden structures that overhung fortress walls, from which boulders or rocks were dropped.
Why Was Carcassonne Important? It is located on what was once the border between France and Spain, then known as Aragon. It’s also a straight shot from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Successive owners continued to expand the walled city. Thus it served both military and commercial purposes, as I will explain.
How Did It Get Its Name? Here’s the legend: In the 8th century, the city was named Bello, and was under Muslim/Saracen rule. After her husband’s death, Dame Carcas assumed power. The army of Charlemagne attacked. They held siege for five years. Finally, in the sixth year supplies were running out. Dame Carcas came up with a ruse. She force-fed a pig with wheat from their meager supply. She then had the pig killed and thrown over the castle wall. When Charlemagne’s troops butchered the pig and saw that it was filled with wheat, they surmised that the citizens of Bello had enough supplies to last a long while. So they withdrew. Seeing this, Dame Carcas ordered all the bells in the town to be rung to announce the victory. Thus the name: Carcas-Sonne.
Myth-Busters: So, does the legend hold up? Not quite. The Romans had named it Carsaco. It turns out that Charlemagne’s father, Pepin the Short, took the city from the Saracens in 759AD, when Charlemagne was 17. Anyway, a bust of Lady Carcas fronts the castle entrance.
By the way, another myth was exploded at the castle. We’ve all heard that boiling oil was used to defend castles. It was poured over the ramparts onto invaders, right? Wrong! Oil was too expensive to waste in such a manner. And rocks were cheap!
Albigensian Crusades: The Cathars, also known as Albigensians, were a religious group that left the Catholic Church in the 13th Century. They didn’t believe in the hierarchy, the trappings or the sacraments of the Church. They considered the Church decadent. You must remember that, during this period of history, the Catholic Church was a bit scandalous: the clergy were living “large”; priests often mistook the word “celibate” for “celebrate”. The Cathars increased in popularity to the point where the Pope organized a group of Northern Frenchman to march south to put down this “rebellion”. Thus began the first crusade on European soil.
Viscount Raymond Roger de Trencavel was the ruler of Carcassonne in 1209, which was a Cathar stronghold at that point. He was a friend of the Cathars. He gave lip service to the Pope’s requests to vanquish the Cathars. Finally the Pope recognized that Trencavel was not on his side. He appointed Simon de Montfort to lead the forces in an attack on Carcassonne. The citizens held out in a prolonged siege until their ranks were decimated by lack of food and water. Sir Trencavel decided to go out and meet with the enemy hoping to negotiate a reasonable truce. De Montfort had him immediately imprisoned. Three months later Trencavel died under mysterious circumstances.
The citizens of Carcassonne were forced to surrender and to leave the city with only the clothes on their backs. (See travelswithanzie.com for more on the Cathars)
Again in 1355 the castle was attacked by the English under the leadership of Edward, “The Black Prince”. Although they razed the lower city, they were unable to take the well-defended castle.
The Fall and Rise of Carcassonne: In 1659 France signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees with Spain, which moved the border between the two countries quite a bit south of Carcassonne. This move sounded the death knell to Carcassonne’s military importance. The fortress was abandoned. Eventually, shops and houses abutted the outside, crumbling walls. In 1849 the French government decreed that the castle be demolished.
A huge uproar ensued. The mayor of Carcassonne together with famed writer Prosper Mérimée, led a campaign to preserve the castle as an historic monument. A famous engineer, Eugene Violet-le-Duc, took an interest in the project, convinced the government to fund it, and commenced work in 1853.
Funding of this huge project was erratic. Violet-le-Duc would not live to see the finished product, which took forty years.
In the meantime the city became prosperous as a textile and wine-producing center. Now, the city’s primary income-producer is tourism, to the tune of over three million visitors each year. In 1997 UNESCO named it a World Heritage site. It competes with Mt. Saint Michel as the most visited site in France, outside of Paris of course.
Rick Steeves reports that Carcassonne is so overcrowded that it’s not worth the trip. Sorry, Rick, but I have to disagree. Just avoid the summer months and especially the weekends. Go ahead and visit. You’ll be glad you did.
A la prochaine,
Chuck & Anzie
La Cite in all its grandeur
