{"id":1709,"date":"2019-03-13T17:32:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T22:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2025-02-27T17:13:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T23:13:21","slug":"two-nights-1-knight-1-lady-in-13th-century-carcassonne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2019\/03\/13\/two-nights-1-knight-1-lady-in-13th-century-carcassonne\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Nights, 1 Knight, 1 Lady in 13th Century Carcassonne"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\"\"<\/a> March 13, 2019<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a>Carolyn\u2019s other bucket list stop on this trip was the medieval fortress at Carcassonne, the best preserved (or perhaps restored) architectural gem of its kind in Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s no wonder it was important as long ago as Roman times (typically, the Romans founded the locations for what are now the great cities of Europe). It\u2019s on a hilltop overlooking a river valley, in sight of the Pyrenees (another important dimension), and on the trade route from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Roman garrison built the first wall in the 4th<\/sup> century A.D., which did not spare the city from being conquered by the Visigoths, initiating a millennium in which warfare played a role in defining the city.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One major incursion apparently gave it its name.\u00a0 It was ruled briefly by the Saracens, including the cagey wife of Bulcak, Lady Carcas.\u00a0 According to legend, when Charlemagne besieged the city, she propped up dummies at the ramparts to trick Charlemagne into thinking the city had more defenders than it did. \u00a0Then she fed the last pig the last remaining grain and threw it over the wall, and Charlemagne was supposedly convinced the city could not be taken, and called off the siege; the city has since been known as Carcassonne.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Another highlight occurred in the 13th<\/sup> century, when the viscount was one of the staunchest supporters of an early effort to reform the Catholic church.\u00a0 The Charthars, Albigensians, rejected the authority of the Pope.\u00a0 In 1209, one of the Pope\u2019s crusading armies swooped down and conquered Carcassonne under Simon de Montfort, whose ruthless Catholicism had originally taken him on the fourth crusade (the one that detoured from Jerusalem to Constantinople); he left it when the Crusaders plundered the Christian city of Zara.\u00a0 He came back to France and took up arms against the Albigensians.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Shortly thereafter, the victor transferred the city to the King of France, who built its second wall and reinforced a number of its towers, creating an imposing fortress that was then on the boundary with the Kingdom of Aragon.\u00a0\u00a0 Added were the trappings of castles: the barbican, a curved wall in front, and hoardings, a temporary wooden platform to enable archers to shoot directly downward, and death holes (we learned a lot of vocabulary today).\u00a0 It had 52 towers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>In the mid-19th<\/sup> century, Viollet de Luc, an archeologist interested in medieval restoration (Notre Dame was one of his projects), made the restoration of the fortress one of his major goals.\u00a0 He was hampered somewhat because the archives had burned down, leaving only one portrait of what the old city had looked like.\u00a0 He recreated the city of Louis IX, in the thirteenth century, a task which took 50 years.\u00a0 His first renovation was of the church, an interesting combination of Romanesque (early) and Gothic (under the King); interestingly, it was the discovery of the tomb of one of the early bishops in the church that inspired Monsieur Violett le Luc.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>Parts of the city have since been changed\u2014for example, some of the towers have been restored to appear as they might have been built by Visigoths; part of the Roman wall is still there, marked by smaller bricks, and a row of red bricks so the builders could level the tower.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a statue to the long time Maire, he who brought water to the hilltop.\u00a0 Our guide told us that probably no more than 50 people live in the city today \u00a0(\u201cYou have to get to the supermarket in the lower city before 9, and back before the tour buses get here,\u201d she stated), but nearly 4 million visitors come here every year.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We\u2019re lucky it\u2019s relatively quiet now, and my lady and I can really enjoy our two nights (and one knight) in the 13th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 It\u2019s much easier based in our 5 star hotel!<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 13, 2019 Carolyn\u2019s other bucket list stop on this trip was the medieval fortress at Carcassonne, the best preserved (or perhaps restored) architectural gem of its kind in Europe.\u00a0 It\u2019s no wonder it was important as long ago as Roman times (typically, the Romans founded the locations for what are now the great cities … Continue reading “Two Nights, 1 Knight, 1 Lady in 13th Century Carcassonne”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe-2019"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8410,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions\/8410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}