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| April 2007 |
IN
THE SPOTLIGHT: Carcassonne
The city of Carcassonne was the site of
a Roman town until the invasion of the Visigoths in the 5th century.
In the 8th century it came to a Franks tribe. During the 13th century
crusade against the inhabitants of Albi, Carcassonne was captured and
its inhabitants were killed by the Anglo-Norman soldier Simon de Montfort.
In 1247, Carcassonne came under the French crown.
Carcassonne was struck from the roster of official fortifications under
Napoleon and the Restoration, and the fortified cité of Carcassonne
fell into such disrepair that the French government decided that it
should be demolished. A decree to that effect that was made official
in 1849 caused an uproar. The antiquary and mayor of Carcassonne, Jean-Pierre
Cros-Mayrevieille, and the writer Prosper Mérimée, the
first inspector of ancient monuments, led a campaign to preserve the
fortress as a historical monument. Later in the year the architect Eugène
Viollet-le-Duc, already at work restoring the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire,
was commissioned to renovate the place.
Fortified wall of Carcassonne, with its cleared dry moatIn 1853, works
began with the west and southwest walling, followed by the towers of
the porte Narbonnaise and the principal entrance to the cité.
The fortifications were consolidated here and there but the chief attention
was paid to restoring the roofing of the towers and the ramparts, where
Viollet-le-Duc ordered the destruction of structures that had encroached
against the walls, some of them of considerable age. Viollet-le-Duc
left copious notes and drawings at his death in 1879, when his pupil
Paul Boeswillwald continued the rehabilitation of Carcassonne.
The restoration was strongly criticized during Viollet-le-Duc's lifetime. Fresh from work in the north of France, he made the error of using slates and restoring the roofs as pointed cones, where local practice was traditionally of tile roofing and low slopes, in a snow-free environment. Yet, overall, Viollet-le-Duc's achievement at Carcassonne is agreed to be a work of genius, though not of strictest authenticity.
Fortifications consists of a double ring of ramparts
and 53 towers.
For
more on Carcassonne as well as photos, visit this page
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AF004 from Paris to JFK: departure 9 PM. ; arrive the same day inNew
York at 11:15 p.m.
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