Cité de Carcassonne
A fortified medieval citadel with double walls and dozens of towers.
The Cité de Carcassonne is a hilltop fortified town above the river Aude, ringed by a double line of walls about 3 km long with 52 towers. Its origins go back to the Gallo-Roman period, and at its heart stands the Château Comtal, built in the early 12th century by the Trencavel viscounts and heavily strengthened by the French crown after the Albigensian Crusade in the mid-13th century.
Left to decay after it lost its military role, the Cité was saved in the 19th century, when the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc led a long restoration from 1853 that gave it its famous, somewhat romanticised silhouette. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. Today the Centre des monuments nationaux runs the castle and a large part of the ramparts, which visitors explore on a self-guided route with sweeping views over the town and the countryside.
Highlights
- The Château Comtal and its drawbridge entrance
- Walk along the ramparts between the two walls
- Viollet-le-Duc's restored towers and roofs
- Lapidary museum of medieval sculpture
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
