Town · Occitanie · Altitude 104 m

Carcassonne

A medieval fortress city with two rings of walls and dozens of towers on a hill above the Aude, rescued from demolition in the 1850s.

Why go

Nothing in Paris prepares you for the first sight of the Cité: a whole hilltop of walls, towers and pointed roofs rising above vineyards and the river. It is a real medieval fortress, given a nineteenth-century romantic finish, and it is the best place in Europe to understand how a town was defended. Then cross the old bridge to the Bastide, the living lower town, with its square, its markets and the Canal du Midi gliding past: two cities for the price of one.

History

A Gaulish hill settlement became a fortified Roman town, and parts of its late Roman walls survive inside the medieval ones. After the Visigoths and the Franks, Carcassonne passed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries to the Trencavel family, viscounts who built the Château Comtal and in 1096 began the basilica of Saint-Nazaire with the blessing of Pope Urban II.

The Trencavels ruled lands where Cathar dualist Christianity had spread, and in 1209 the crusade launched by the papacy against the Cathars and their protectors reached the city. The siege began on 1 August; on 15 August the young viscount Raymond-Roger Trencavel surrendered and died in captivity a few months later. Simon de Montfort took his place, and in the following decades the city passed to the French crown.

The kings turned Carcassonne into a frontier fortress facing Aragon, adding the outer wall and strengthening the inner one, and in the late 1240s a new town, the Bastide Saint-Louis, was laid out on the other bank of the Aude for the inhabitants of the suburbs. After the Treaty of the Pyrenees moved the border south in 1659, the Cité lost its purpose and slowly decayed, while the Bastide prospered from the cloth trade.

In 1849 the government decided to demolish the fortifications. A local scholar, Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille, and the inspector of historic monuments Prosper Mérimée campaigned to save them, and from 1853 the architect Viollet-le-Duc led a restoration that lasted decades. His pointed slate roofs, more northern than Languedocian, are still debated. UNESCO inscribed the Cité in 1997.

UNESCO World Heritage: Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne (1997)

What to see

The ramparts and the lices

Two concentric walls, about three kilometres in all with some fifty towers, enclose the Cité. Between them runs the ‘lices', a grassy corridor where attackers who breached the outer wall would have been trapped. Walk it all the way round at your own pace: it is the best way to understand the defences, and the quietest part of the Cité.

Château Comtal and the wall walk

The Trencavels’ castle, a fortress within the fortress with its own moat and towers. The visit continues along a stretch of the inner wall walk, with wooden hoardings rebuilt by Viollet-le-Duc and views over the lices, the Bastide and, on clear days, the Pyrenees.

Basilica of Saint-Nazaire

A Romanesque nave leading to a luminous Gothic choir and transept, filled with stained glass, some of it from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Look for the two rose windows facing each other across the transept and the carved stone panel known as the ‘siege stone', traditionally said to show the siege of Toulouse of 1218.

The Pont-Vieux and the Bastide Saint-Louis

The medieval stone bridge over the Aude links the Cité to the lower town, a grid of streets laid out in the thirteenth century around the Place Carnot and its fountain. It is where Carcassonnais actually live and shop, and from its riverbanks the Cité looks most like a fairy tale.

The Canal du Midi

Pierre-Paul Riquet’s seventeenth-century canal, a UNESCO World Heritage site in its own right, passes along the edge of the Bastide next to the station. Its towpath, shaded by plane trees, makes an easy walk or bike ride out of town between locks and fields.

Climate

Météo-France normals 1991-2020, station Carcassonne (128 m, 4.7 km away). Sunshine: Carcassonne station (4.7 km).

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
High °C	10.0	11.4	14.9	17.7	21.4	25.9	28.8	28.9	24.8	19.7	13.9	10.7
Low °C	3.5	3.5	5.9	8.1	11.6	15.1	17.3	17.3	14.1	11.3	6.9	4.2
Rain (mm)	66	47	58	71	63	47	30	40	48	63	70	61
Rain days	10	8	8	9	8	6	5	5	6	7	9	8
Sunshine (h)	95	122	174	192	220	248	282	268	216	152	105	95

When to go →

Timeline

1096 Construction of the basilica of Saint-Nazaire authorised, blessed by Pope Urban II
1209 Siege by the Albigensian crusaders; Raymond-Roger Trencavel surrenders on 15 August
1247 Carcassonne is annexed to the kingdom of France; the Bastide is founded around this time
1659 The Treaty of the Pyrenees moves the border south; the Cité loses its military role
1849 Government decision to demolish the walls, later reversed
1853 Viollet-le-Duc’s restoration begins
1997 Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List

Uncertain or disputed

The founding date of the Bastide Saint-Louis is given as 1247 or 1248, and occasionally 1260; we say ‘the late 1240s'.
The number of towers depends on what is counted; 52 is the figure most often given for the two walls together.
How much of the Cité’s present appearance is medieval and how much is Viollet-le-Duc’s interpretation remains a subject of debate among historians.

Crowds: Very busy in season. The Cité is very crowded from late morning to late afternoon in summer and on holiday weekends, and on 14 July for the fireworks; enter early or in the evening, when the day visitors have left and the walls are lit. (editorial judgement)

Protected food & drink from here

AOP and IGP products whose official area includes this commune (INAO). Regional food: AOP & IGP →

Meat & charcuterie

Jambon de Bayonne IGP · cured meat

Butter, oil, honey & more

Huile d'olive du Languedoc AOP · oil

Cider & spirits

Marc du Languedoc ou Eau-de-vie de marc du Languedoc IG

Wine

Aude IGP
Cité de Carcassonne IGP
Le Pays Cathare IGP
Malepère AOP
Pays d'Oc IGP
Terres du Midi IGP

Festivals within 15 km

From the Ministry of Culture’s national list; it gives a season, not dates.

Festival	Discipline	Season
Conqu'en Oc Conques-sur-Orbiel	Music	1 Jan – 20 Jun
Convenanza Carcassonne	Music	6 Sep – 31 Dec
Festival Danses-cités Carcassonne Carcassonne	Theatre, dance & street arts	–
Festival de Carcassonne Carcassonne	Theatre, dance & street arts	–
Festival des arts de la rue de Carcassonne agglo Carcassonne	Theatre, dance & street arts	–
Festival international du film politique de Carcassonne Carcassonne	Film	–
Festival Réservoir d'artistes Gisc 02/03/04 avril 2022 Carcassonne	Theatre, dance & street arts	–
Fictions documentaires Carcassonne	Film	6 Sep – 31 Dec
Féria de Carcassonne Carcassonne	Music	21 Jun – 5 Sep
L'Agit'al Sol Villegly	Music	1 Jan – 20 Jun
L'Epopee hip hop Carcassonne	Music	6 Sep – 31 Dec
Langues de voix Pennautier	Music	1 Jan – 20 Jun
Le Printemps des notes Alairac	Music	1 Jan – 20 Jun
Les Cabardièses Pennautier	Music	21 Jun – 5 Sep
Les Kultur'elles Conques-sur-Orbiel	Music	6 Sep – 31 Dec
Régal sound Villegly	Music	6 Sep – 31 Dec

+ 3 — Festivals →

Also in this part of France

6h02 City · Occitanie Albi A red-brick episcopal city on the Tarn: a fortress-cathedral painted inside from floor to vault, and the world’s largest Toulouse-Lautrec collection.

6h18 Coast · Occitanie Collioure A Catalan fishing port where the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean, with a sea-washed church tower and the light that gave birth to Fauvism.

6h37 Village · Occitanie Conques A slate-roofed village hidden in a wooded gorge, built around a Romanesque abbey church, a famous Last Judgement and a golden reliquary.

3h36 Town · Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Arles A Roman city on the Rhône where Van Gogh painted his brightest year, with an arena still in use and the Camargue at its gates.

Sources

Original text. Train times computed from SNCF timetables (ODbL); climate Météo-France; products INAO; festivals Ministry of Culture. Methodology.