It’s true. There’s no place like Carcassonne. It’s a medieval city with massive walls, turrets, and towers still in tact. It’s the only one, in fact. Carcassonne is awesome.
There are actually two Carcassonnes. One is the medieval walled city. The other is the present-day city outside the walls, just across the Aude river. We left St. Jean de Luz this morning. We’ll be in Carcassonne tonight.
The city across the river was established long before the walled city became over-populated. Why would people move out from the protection of the city walls? It wasn’t by choice.
Here’s the Story
Like just about every other city in southern France, Carcassonne was a Roman conquest. The Romans moved in and made improvements, but eventually they’d have to deal with their arch-enemy, the Visigoths. The Visigoths had expansion ideas of their own.
The Romans built a defensive wall around the town, but the Visigoths proved to be too much for ‘em. Visigoths defeated the Romans at Carcassonne, then continued to sweep across France and Spain.
Visigoths moved in and added on to the wall surrounding Carcassonne. It was a good thing, too. They had to fend off attacks by Saracens from the west and the Franks from the east.
The Franks ultimately won out. Inhabitants of Carcassonne became subjects of viscount Raimond Trencavel. With the support of the king of France, he fortified and expanded the city’s defenses.
He built a second, mile-long wall around the existing city wall. The new wall had turrets and towers, slits to accommodate cross-bows, and fixtures to allow defenders to drop boiling oil on would-be wall-scalers.
When construction was completed, the walled city of Carcassonne looked just like it does today.
Trouble Coming
So far, so good. But trouble was brewing. In the 13th century, a lot of Catholics weren’t happy with their Church. Things had gotten a bit too fast and loose for pious practitioners.
Catholics started breaking away from the Church to form their own sects. One of the break-away sects, the Cathars, was especially popular in southern France.
When I think of religious Crusades, the only ones that come to mind are the crusades against muslims in the Middle-East. But it turns out that there were quite a few others much closer to home.
If a pope felt threatened enough, or maybe just got fed up with a pesky religious sect, he’d launch a crusade to take them out no matter where they lived.
The crusade against Cathars started in the year 1209. Land and loot were offered to any French nobleman who would join up. Wipe ‘em out, take their land, and get rich.
Massacre at Béziers
Crusaders swept through southern France, wreaking havoc along the way. They didn’t face much resistance until they reached the walled town of Béziers. It’s just down the road from Carcassonne.
Béziers’ inhabitants put up a fight, but the crusaders prevailed. It’s said that when the crusaders’ commander was asked how to distinguish Catholics from Cathars in Béziers, his answer was something like, “Kill them all. God will know his own.”
Crusaders entered the town and massacred nearly all of it’s 15-20,000 inhabitants. Carcassonne would be next.
Carcassonne was overflowing with Cathar refugees seeking safety. Crusaders laid siege to the great walled city. They couldn’t breach the walls, but they cut off the city’s water supply, and that ultimately forced Carcassonne’s surrender.
Crusaders didn’t massacre Carcassonne’s inhabitants, but they burned buildings and forced everyone to leave the city – in their skivvies. The former citizens of Carcassonne crossed the river Aude and established the city that is present-day Carcassonne.
To be continued…
