Cité de Carcassonne
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How it came to be
There was a fort on the hill of Carcassonne in southern France before the Romans. They made it a walled town in the 3rd century, and the Visigoths rebuilt the walls in the 5th and 6th. In 1130 Bernard Aton V of the Trencavel family began a castle, and the city was fully enclosed for the first time.
In August 1209 the Albigensian Crusade besieged the city, and Raimond-Roger Trencavel surrendered on the 15th. Carcassonne was annexed to the Kingdom of France in 1247, and its double walls were built mainly in the 13th century. When the Treaty of the Pyrenees made Roussillon French in 1659, it lost its role as a border fortress.
In 1849 the government decided to demolish the walls, but a campaign led by Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille and Prosper Mérimée reversed the decision. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc led the restoration from 1853 until his death in 1879. The city, with about 3 km of double walls, was inscribed in 1997.
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