Cité de Carcassonne, Medieval fortress in Carcassonne, France
The Cité de Carcassonne is a walled medieval town on a hill above the Aude River in southern France. Two concentric stone walls enclose a maze of cobbled lanes, a Romanesque basilica, and the central castle of the counts with its own defenses and a rectangular courtyard.
Roman occupiers built the first fortifications here in the first century after Christ, later expanded by Visigothic rulers. In the 13th century, French kings added the outer ring of walls and reinforced the inner defenses heavily after conquering the region.
The name comes from pre-Roman times and changed through many languages before settling into its current form. The outer ring of walls forms a kind of village street today, where visitors walk between shops and homes and see stone arches above their heads.
The entrance is on the west side of the complex, and visitors can walk along the ramparts and through the lanes without a guide. The paths between the two rings of walls are mostly unpaved and can get slippery when wet, so sturdy shoes help.
During restoration work in the 19th century, architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc added pointed slate roofs to the towers, even though the medieval towers had flat roofs. The silhouette visible today with its characteristic roofs reflects a romantic vision of the Middle Ages rather than the original construction.
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