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Well, where to start? Carcassonne is Disneyworld perfect. This fairytale walled city of drawbridges, towers and atmospheric cobbled streets, was in fact the inspiration for Walt Disney’s The Sleeping Beauty. It’s quite simply a must see on any trip through this part of southern France. Its medieval core, the cité, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997. Carcassonne is actually two cities in one – the medieval lower town with its shops and services, although still beautiful, is a great antidote to the picture-postcard beauty of the walled city above it. In reality, the citadel of the upper town is really the only sight in town, and once you’ve exhausted the charms of the cité there’s really very little else to do here. However, Carcassonne’s charms are to be found more in drinking in the medieval atmosphere than hurtling from one sight to another.
Although both the Romans and Visigoths were here, Carcassonne really flourished under the Trencavels, a well-to-do family around in the late 1100s, who lived here. In 1355 the lower town was burnt to the ground by the Black Prince, one of the key figures in the Hundred Years’ War of the Middle Ages, miffed at his failure to capture the citadel. Carcassonne’s key role in cross border trade with Spain, however, dried up with the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, when Roussillon was restored to France. As trade dwindled, the city walls, no longer needed for protection, fell into disrepair and it wasn’t until the architect Viollet-le-Duc began restoration in the 1800s that things started to improve. It was this project which helped save Carcassonne and ensure that the city of today is so outstandingly beautiful.
Official Carcassonne Website click HERE
