Carcassonne’s hilltop Cité is ringed by two complete lines of medieval walls, a Gallo-Roman inner circuit and a 13th-century outer one studded with towers. Its Trencavel castle, Romanesque-Gothic basilica and near-total 19th-century restoration make it one of the most complete fortified towns surviving in Europe.
At a glance
The Cité of Carcassonne sits on a hill above the River Aude, facing the newer Bastide Saint-Louis across the water. It is enclosed by roughly three kilometres of double walls with 52 towers, combining a Gallo-Roman inner wall with an outer medieval ring added under Philip III and Philip IV of France. Inside stand the Château Comtal, once the residence of the Trencavel viscounts, and the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus.
The medieval town is thought to have held several thousand inhabitants; today only a small resident population remains within the walls, the rest of the Cité given over to its historic and commercial life.
Key facts
- Location: Carcassonne, Aude, Occitanie, France (approximately 43.2077° N, 2.3641° E)
- Defences: double ring of walls, about 3 km long, with 52 towers; inner wall Gallo-Roman, outer wall 13th-century
- Château Comtal: built around 1130–1150 as the seat of the Trencavel viscounts, with five towers; now the site’s principal museum
- Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus: Romanesque nave of the 11th–12th century with a Gothic choir and transepts added in the 14th century
- Recognition: inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997
History
Carcassonne’s defended hill passed from Gallo-Roman fortress to Visigothic stronghold, surrendering to the Franks in the late 6th century and continuing under Carolingian rule. From around the 10th century the Trencavel viscounts held Carcassonne, along with Albi and Béziers, as independent lords, and by the 1170s the Cathar movement had taken firm root in their territory, which the Trencavels tolerated.
In 1209 Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars. Simon de Montfort’s forces took Carcassonne after the young viscount Raymond-Roger Trencavel surrendered under a promised safe conduct; he was instead seized and imprisoned, dying later that year. The crusade continued until the Treaty of Paris in 1229 brought Languedoc under the French crown. Louis IX founded the lower town, the Bastide Saint-Louis, in 1247, and between 1260 and 1280 Philip III added the outer ring of walls that gives the Cité its present double defence.
In 1355, during the Hundred Years War, Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, burned the lower Bastide but chose not to attempt the walls of the Cité itself, judging its double defences too strong. Carcassonne’s military importance faded after the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees moved the Franco-Spanish border south, and by 1849 local authorities were proposing to demolish the decaying fortifications. The writer and historic monuments inspector Prosper Mérimée argued for its preservation, and in 1853 Eugène Viollet-le-Duc began a restoration that continued, after his death in 1879, under his followers. The Cité was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
What you see
Visitors walk between two complete rings of fortification: the inner Gallo-Roman wall, longer than the outer one and studded with horseshoe and round towers, and the outer 13th-century wall built under Philip III. The Château Comtal, raised by the Trencavel viscounts in the mid-12th century, has square and round towers, a keep, a barbican and a dry moat crossed by a drawbridge, and stands as a separate stronghold within the town.
The Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus began as a 6th-century church; its Romanesque nave dates from the 11th and 12th centuries, its Gothic choir and transepts from the 14th, and it holds stained glass and a rose window regarded among the finest in Languedoc. The Porte Narbonnaise, flanked by twin round towers built around 1280, is the main eastern gate and the principal entrance to the Cité today, while the Porte d’Aude on the western, river side is considered the most striking of the defensive gates.
Practical information
- Access: the Cité is a living town as well as a monument; the Château Comtal and its towers are visited as a museum area, while the walls and streets are open to walk freely
- Tickets and hours: these vary by season, so check the site’s official channels before visiting
- Layout: the Cité sits on the hill above the Aude, with the Bastide Saint-Louis, the newer commercial town, on the opposite bank
Getting there
Carcassonne lies in the Aude department of Occitanie, in southern France, with the walled Cité rising above the River Aude opposite the newer Bastide Saint-Louis. For current routes and timetables it is best to consult official transport and tourism information for the town.
Nearby
- Bastide Saint-Louis — the lower town founded by Louis IX in 1247, across the River Aude from the Cité, and burned by the Black Prince in 1355 while the Cité itself withstood him.
Sources
- UNESCO
- Commission des monuments historiques
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