The turbulent history of Carcassonne, one of the greatest medieval fortresses still standing

Long before its towers rose above the plains of Languedoc, the hilltop held a fortified Gaulish settlement of the Volcae Tectosages, whose oppidum was established in the third to second century BC.

By the first century BC, Roman engineers had reinforced the site with stone walls. These works transformed it into a defensive post along the Via Aquitania.

They elevated it into a colonia known as Colonia Iulia Carcaso under Augustus around 7 BC, according to inscriptions, and they established a small military presence with a grid of paved streets that surrounded a forum with a basilica, temples, and baths.

Roman Carcassonne developed into a modest town that milestones and inscriptions still surface today attest to, and it retained strategic relevance as Roman authority in Gaul began to weaken. 

After the collapse of Roman rule in the fifth century, Carcassonne fell into the hands of the Visigoths.

They rebuilt much of the crumbling Roman defences, likely during the reign of Theodoric II before his death in 466 AD, though direct attribution remains uncertain and further work possibly continued under his successor Euric.

Archaeological evidence suggests that new towers and curtain walls were added to withstand Frankish attacks from the north after the Battle of Vouillé in 507 AD and to resist Moorish incursions from the south.

In 725, a Muslim army advancing from Iberia seized control of the town and held it until 759, when the forces of Pepin the Short pushed them back beyond the Pyrenees.

Few written sources survive, but reused Andalusian roof tiles and Arabic graffiti discovered in later digs attest to Islamic occupation.

Following its recapture, Carcassonne remained under Frankish control but its importance diminished until the rise of regional dynasties in the High Middle Ages. 

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Carcassonne thrived under the rule of the Trencavel family, who built the Château Comtal and extended the city's reach across the surrounding countryside.

The city became a centre of trade and administration, with weekly markets, toll rights, and guild activity that underpinned its economy.

Its lords became closely linked with the Cathars, a Christian sect that the Catholic Church declared heretical.

Cathar beliefs combined rejection of the physical sacraments and denial of the Church’s authority with a dualistic theology that separated spirit from matter.

As Catharism spread through Languedoc, papal hostility increased. By 1209, Pope Innocent III called for a crusade against the Cathars.

The Albigensian Crusade brought Carcassonne into the path of one of the most violent campaigns of the medieval period. 

In August 1209, Simon de Montfort led a crusading army of some 10,000 men to the gates of Carcassonne.

From 1 to 15 August, the city already held many refugees from surrounding towns and faced starvation and betrayal.

On 8 August, Raymond-Roger de Trencavel, a youthful viscount in his twenties, attempted to negotiate but was imprisoned by the crusaders and later died in captivity under suspicious circumstances on 10 October.

Because Carcassonne was leaderless and encircled, it surrendered. The victors expelled the civilian population, several hundred families by some estimates, redistributed the land and installed a northern French ruling class.

Contemporary accounts note the use of mangonels though covered rams are not clearly evidenced and remain speculative.

The city fell more by isolation than by direct attack. From that point onward, Carcassonne operated as a garrison town under direct royal control. 

Construction during the thirteenth century turned Carcassonne into one of the strongest fortresses in France.

King Louis IX oversaw work from around 1247 to 1250 and Philip III continued from 1270 to 1280.

They built a second outer wall outside the original Roman and Visigothic ramparts, complete with machicolations, hoardings, drawbridges, and barbicans such as the Narbonnaise Gate with its twin towers.

The outer curtain stretched nearly three kilometres and featured over fifty watchtowers across both ramparts.

This double-walled design made the city nearly unbreakable by medieval siege standards.

Royal records refer to crown oversight of the project but do not name a single engineer. 

During the Hundred Years’ War, Carcassonne prepared for conflict but never faced a serious siege.

It maintained a garrison in the 1350s to deter threats, remained under French royal control, and levied taxes on the local population.

The rise of artillery gradually weakened its massive walls. After the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 pushed the Franco-Spanish border to Roussillon, Carcassonne lost its military role.

By the eighteenth century, much of the fortress had fallen into disrepair and some walls were taken down for stone.

The city’s medieval character seemed likely to disappear under modern growth. 

Attempts to tear down the walls in the nineteenth century met resistance from local historians and architects.

Prosper Mérimée listed Carcassonne as a monument historique in 1840. Under Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, restoration began in 1853 with a larger budget than most similar projects and drew on medieval manuscripts and Viollet-le-Duc’s own ideas, including grey slate roofs instead of terracotta.

Observers such as John Ruskin and Paul Boeswillwald criticised changes to tower shapes and crenellations.

Their debate helped save the fortress from destruction. 

By the twentieth century, Carcassonne had become both a visitor destination and a symbol of France’s medieval past.

The legend of Lady Carcas, who defended the town through cunning, enriched its story.

Restoration continued under state supervision and the city was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1997 under criteria II and IV, recognising it as an outstanding example of medieval military architecture and its balanced integration into the surrounding lands.

Today, more than a million visitors each year walk its ramparts and explore the Saint Nazaire cathedral.

Medieval ceramics, coin hoards, and fresco fragments attest to centuries of siege, conquest, and resistance.

The cathedral retains a Romanesque nave and a Gothic choir that date to the thirteenth century.

Carcassonne continues to be one of the finest surviving examples of a fortified medieval city where layers of Roman, Visigothic, and Capetian construction still echo the turbulence of its long and contested history. 

By the dawn of the 19th century, the passage of time had taken its toll on Carcassonne.

The once-majestic walls and fortifications were showing signs of decay and neglect.

The city, which had been a symbol of power and resilience for centuries, was on the brink of losing its historic charm.

However, a burgeoning interest in medieval history and architecture was about to sweep through Carcassonne, leading to one of the most ambitious restoration projects of the century.

Enter Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a visionary architect and historian with a deep passion for medieval architecture.

Commissioned in 1853 to undertake the restoration of Carcassonne, Viollet-le-Duc approached the task with a mix of meticulous research and creative interpretation.

His aim was not just to repair the crumbling structures but to revive the spirit of the medieval fortress, to breathe life into its stones and recreate the ambiance of its heyday.

The towers were reinforced, the battlements rebuilt, and the Gothic spires, which had long vanished, were reimagined and reintroduced, giving the city its fairy-tale silhouette.

However, Viollet-le-Duc's restoration was not without its critics. Some historians and contemporaries argued that his approach was too imaginative, that certain elements he introduced were not historically accurate.

They contended that the restoration, in parts, focused more on recreation rather than accurate preservation.

Yet, despite these criticisms, there's no denying the transformative impact of Viollet-le-Duc's work.

Carcassonne was reborn, transitioning from a state of decay to becoming a beacon for tourists and history enthusiasts from around the world.

In 1997, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding medieval architecture and historical importance.