April 2007

Carcassonne Cathar Castles & Cabardès

Second part of the circuit in Cathar Country (Part Aude), we will visit today and the Cité de Carcassonne castles Cabardès (Lastours and Saissac). In advance, I apologize for the few shots of the City: the attendance of an Easter Monday certainly was not the best idea of when to take pictures. We were in effect at the elbow to elbow in the streets, and as I hate to put my pictures in places steeped in history, tourists in colorful clothes, I admit I often left my Canon sheathed ... Never mind, I do not live far enough away from beautiful place (that I know well having lived there for 3 years), not to consider to come back soon ...

Start visiting under an overcast Lastours to castles, which forced me to find a palliative color to gray areas of my visit castles ... Irises bloom in early spring has been so welcome ...

City of Carcassonne

History

ORIGINS: The oppidum CARSAC

Around the eighth century BC, the oppidum Carsac is set at two miles south of the city today. The city extended over the top of a plateau over twenty hectares is protected by a moat and staggered entrances. Under pressure from population growth, the site was reorganized and expanded in the late seventh century: a second gap filled by dikes and wooden fence is then built to protect the new extension.
Without that one identifies with the real reasons, the oppidum Carsac is abandoned in the early sixth century BC. AD to be transferred on the hill overlooking the plain of the Aude. The remains collected during archaeological excavations testify to the occupation of the site of the first Iron Age until the Roman conquest: dry stone walls, grain silos, pottery kilns or bronze. The discovery of abundant furnishings, particularly of ceramics (jars, bowls, vases ...) show that agglomeration of activity open to trade between developed countries and the Mediterranean Aude.

THE ROMAN Carcaso
From the late second century BC. AD, when the town designated as the Carcaso is incorporated into the colony of Narbonne which was founded in 118, is the first milestone of the Roman conquest of southern Gaul. This small administrative and commercial center located on the path of Aquitaine became in the last quarter of the first century BC leader of the colony Julia Carcaso whose ascendancy occupies the western basin of the Aude. Archaeological research has clarified the morphology of the urban area which is extended around the hill through the construction strong embankments, and beyond to the north, along the road to Narbonne. The remains of walls of sandstone blocks, walls covered with plaster and floors decorated with mosaics in geometric patterns are the influence of ancient buildings whose guidance could suggest an urban orthogonal to own Roman town planning.

However, no public building has been discovered to date. Given the uncertainty of the invasions of the second half of the third century, the city is tightened on his butt that it equips more than 1,200 m of wall powerful armed of semi-circular towers and posterns .

MIDDLE AGE: THE INSTITUTION OF Visigoths COUNTS

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Carcaso, now Carcasona, is under the domination of the Visigoths, whose kingdom extends Spain and Gaul in the south and west. After the French victory over Alaric II at Vouillé in 507, the Visigoths retained the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania (Present-Languedoc) north of the border which remains one Carcasona border towns. The city is in the sixth century, Agde and Maguelone, seat a bishop that embodies the building of a cathedral Visigothic whose location is not determined. In the eighth century the Arab conquest of the Visigoths triumph, but in 759 the city was conquered by the Frankish king, Pepin the Short, who then took all Septimania. At these events relates the legend of Dame Carcass . The administration of the new empire is under the authority of the counts installing the head of the county of Carcassonne family of ancient lineage: the dynasty of the tenth century until Oliba relayed by Comminges-Couserans the eleventh century.

THE DYNASTY TRENCAVEL

The Viscounts of Trencavel eleventh and twelfth centuries
possessions of Couserans extend from the XIth Century Nimes and Albi with the alliance of Ermengarde and Bernard Raimond Trencavel.

Their son, Bernard Aton, is thus at the head of a vast principality covering regions of Carcassonne, Béziers, Limoux, Agde, Albi and Nîmes. His kingdom is from 1074 to 1129, a major step in the morphology of the city and the castle Narbonne, that tradition is the location of the towers of the same name, is neglected in favor of a new residence, the palatium, which is implanted around 1120 against the ancient fortifications on the Western Front. This project succeeded in gradually building the cathedral dedicated to Saint Nazaire and St. Celsus. The city probably already extensive extramural around the first millennium to the suburbs of Saint Vincent and Saint-Michel, is administered from 1192 by a consulate composed of notables and bourgeois but receives a custom charter that between 1209 and 1229.

The Trencavels and crusades against the Albigenses: 1209-1229
For twenty long years the war waged against heretics will feel deeply and rolling the south of France. Following the assassination of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, January 14, 1208, Innocent III launched a crusade against the Albigenses. In 1209, the lords from the north led by Simon de Montfort, rose against the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VI and his vassals whose powerful Viscount Trencavel to liberate the country from what they called "the Cathar heresy " . After submitting
Raimond VI, the Crusaders took in July 1209 the city of Beziers pushing Raimond Roger Trencavel to retreat into his fortress Carcassonne. Viscount capitulated after fourteen days of siege and must give up on papal decision, all his possessions to Simon de Montfort. Turnovers before the Count of Toulouse and at the end of the battle of Muret in 1213, Simon extends his authority to the county of Toulouse. After his death, his son Amaury, armed to win some of these hostile lands, assigned its rights to the King of France, in 1224. Raimond VII to take this opportunity to take the city and return to Raymond Trencavel II. Louis VIII responded by launching a military expedition and the city submit without a fight in July 1226. The Viscount was definitively annexed to the crown of France in Carcassonne which establishes a senechaussee . The crusade ends April 12, 1229 by the Treaty of Meaux-Paris by which Raymond VII should the marriage of his only daughter, Jeanne, with the king's brother, Alphonse of Poitiers, who will return and all his possessions .

From headquarters from 1240 to the creation of the walled royal
With the support of the local nobility and complicity of the inhabitants of the suburbs of St. Michael and St. Vincent, Raymond Trencavel II deprived of paternal inheritance , besieged the fortress. September 17, 1240, the offensive is launched, displaying great reinforcement for 25 days in mines and triggerfish. The active defense of
seneschal William Elm backed by troops of Louis IX Trencavel pushes into a corner on Oct. 12. He was forced to renounce his rights in 1246 and a year later he breaks his seal as a sign of submission to Louis IX, which authorizes the creation of the mansion on the banks of the Aude. As stated in the Treaty of Paris in 1229, Alphonse de Poitiers inherited the county of Toulouse to the death of Raymond VII. The king's younger brother and his wife Jeanne die without heirs in 1271, the County of Toulouse became the possession of the king which connects the south and definitely the Capetian domain.

ROYAL POWER AND THE NEW FACE OF THE HIGH PLACE

The first phase of work
events from the struggle between the ruling Capetian Trencavel Viscounts are responsible for major reconstruction projects in the city of Carcassonne. They have profoundly changed the face of the fortress by printing on its defensive elements, its castle and its cathedral, the brand of engineers and artists of Ile-de-France. The first works were made following the establishment of the Royal senechaussee (1226) and were interrupted during the siege of the city in 1240, the castle is with a fortification. It began building a second line defense designed to double the ancient walls. Army 16 laps and with barbican barbican d'Aude, it covers more than 1500 m. The bitches therefore constitute a clear and open between the two walls, designed to improve the defense. On the occasion of this work and to adapt to new techniques of fortress artillery, sections of the ancient ramparts are repaired, uplift and jagged; deadly archers and are then arranged in bays of Gallo-Roman who been blanked.

The second phase of work
After the siege of the city by Raimond Trencavel II, leaving the suburbs and the ruined fortifications of the city profoundly altered, as we repair several sections of the 1242 pregnant Outdoor and Aude Barbican which is an outpost on the western flank of the city. The suburbs of Saint Vincent and Saint-Michel located on the north-east and south-east of the city were destroyed to prevent possible uprisings of their inhabitants. The construction of the tower and Peyre Tower Vade (Completion is attested in 1245) comes in defense of the city on his forehead southeast. The castle who receives a permanent garrison was expanded: the main building novels earn a floor and are complemented by a new south building housing a ceremonial room.

The third phase of work
The third major phase of work is undertaken from the last years of the reign of Philip III the Bold (1270-1285) until the beginning of the reign of his son, Philippe le Bel (1285-1314) to upgrade a fortress became emblematic of royal power at the border Franco-Aragonese. The inner ancient, previously restored between 1226 and 1239, has a major reconstruction by implementing the art of Royal Engineers. The new masonry is made of aircraft to bosses whose relief contrast with the old siding.
The southwest corner and the part between the door and the curtain comparing Narbonne Tower Moulin du Connétable are rebuilt.
However, on the southern and northern fronts, the choice is to preserve the ancient fortification that need some renovation, however siding and parties underpinning. North-east, are abandoned on a section only the ancient route to raise the curtain that connects the towers and the Trésau Moulin du Connétable. The defensive line is complemented by circular towers, with the exception of the towers of Saint-Nazaire and the Bishop built on a square plan. Many of them are rebuilt on the foundations of ancient towers. The tour Trésau and the Narbonne Gate are erected on the eastern front, and are outstanding examples of Gothic architecture that combines military ingenuity here to comfort and lavishness.

LA BASTIDE SAINT-LOUIS - XIII-XIV centuries

After submitting Trencavel Raymond II, Louis IX (later St. Louis) grants to the inhabitants of ancient suburbs destroyed the right to settle on the right bank of the Aude at the foot of the city. Soon however, the site is inappropriate and Seneschal decides to establish a country house on the opposite shore. Founded in 1248, the city is constituted by a plane orthogonal to 1000 m square enclosure walls. The place where the fairs and markets shaped the social and economic center, while the churches of St. Michael and St. Vincent are the spiritual heart of both parishes. The city thrives - it became one of the most important centers of Languedoc clothiers - promotes the installation of the mendicant orders, Cordeliers, Jacobins, Carmelites and Augustinian Hermits who set off the walls. Pestilence, famine and the Hundred Years War who settled in its walls cut in the fourteenth century ambitions. Despite resistance from Carcassonne, the Prince of Wales (Black Prince) did not hurt in November 1355 to the present, the burn and loot. She was quickly rebuilt by ensuring raise, however small an area, a rampart with circular towers, coupled with a wide ditch. Bridge (Old Bridge) crosses the Aude now to connect the Lower Town and Upper Town.

MODERN TIMES: The Rise of the Bastide St-Louis and the decline of the City
the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, the textile industry to ensure a prosperous country house is shown by the mansions erected by the rich Carcassonne merchants. Gradually, community leaders and civil authorities, legal and religious prefer the lower town to the city that lost its military reason with the Treaty of the Pyrenees, linking finally in 1659 the French Roussillon area. In 1801, the episcopal see was transferred to the Saint-Michel de la Bastide abandoned the former cathedral of Saint-Nazaire and Saint Celsus. The decommissioning of the fortress is delivered three years later by Napoleon.

Listed in 1820 among the strongholds of the second category, it is maintained at a minimum by the Ministry of War. The process of abandoning it is reversed, however, be under the July Monarchy, when local scholars relayed by the recent service Monument involved the fate of the old city. With a new awareness of heritage that began in 1844 under the direction of the architect Eugene Viollet-le Duke , one of the most outstanding restoration projects nineteenth century.

CONTEMPORARY TIME: The City in the twentieth S: a new face
In the early years of the twentieth century, the city of Carcassonne restored by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc regained her figure of the thirteenth century. With more than 2000 years of history, the ancient fortress starts a new destiny, engaged in the first half of the twentieth century the image and decor a medieval ideal and legendary. medieval melodramas presented in the open air theater, the two thousandth anniversary party, fire and therefore constitute the main events of the tourist season. By 1908, the City provides the backdrop for its walls and towers to the inspiration from filmmakers in search of the evocation of a medieval disappeared. Recognized World Heritage Site in 1997, the city of Carcassonne form since its renaissance in the nineteenth century, a privileged place for knowledge and human imagination.

The Visit

The city of Carcassonne is a walled city that houses a hundred cities. It is surrounded pregnant by two stone corbels and have 52 towers.
Inside:
- The Basilica of Saint Nazaire and Celsus: The old cathedral combines a Romanesque nave and aisles with a transept and a choir Gothic. It houses some remarkable stained glass, the oldest dating from the thirteenth century.

Some Stained Glass of St Nazaire

- Castle: Built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the face western primitive fortification at the highest point of the hill, it is protected by an enclosure which galleries hoardings have been reconstructed.

Castle Comtal

can be reached from inside the city after crossing the Barbican is the stone bridge that spans the dry moat and the gate which flanks the passage, protected by a dual system of defenses. Inside: the courses and the Palace including the home and keep.

Visits:
Visit Freestyle: The lists, instead of defense and movement between the two speakers, the basilica and inside the castle, exhibition spaces, the lapidary, the 3D model showing the construction of the city, the facilities contemporary art. Free visit with paper or audio tour.

Tours:
- "Path Drive" of 40 minutes on the wall inside the castle at the theater. French, starts at a fixed time at 10:15 every joursEn English, German, Japanese and English as day and by reservation for groups
- 1:30 Visits conferences including the castle, the Gallo-Roman royal towers, In French, Saturdays and Sundays and during school holidays. By reservation for groups as well as English, German, English, Italian and sign language
- Tours tailored for the public with disabilities on-reservation activity Themed visits by cultural monument visits for schoolchildren alternating découvertedu
site visits and activities with a costumed character, guided discovery, themed tours and heritage workshops. All year Booking

Schedules & Fares

October to March: 9.30-17h (closing ticket 16:30) from April to September: 10h-18h30 (closing ticket 17:45) Closed on 1 January, 1 May, 1 November, 11 November and 25 décembreAdulte: 7,50 € Child (- 18): gratuitCarte inter-site and tourism professional: 5,70 €

CASTLES OF LASTOURS

History

lock Cabardès since the early Middle Ages, the site is an outstanding Lastours with its four castles built at 300 meters above sea level, atop a rocky outcrop. Cabaret, Surdespine, Tour Régine Quertinheux and dominate the course of the torrent and Orbiel Grézilhou, deeply incised into the valley.

The oldest known remains date back to the Middle Bronze Age to 1500 years before our era: a cave yielded the grave of a girl "the princess necklace": his body was covered objects among which there were beads of amber and jewelry reminiscent of Egyptian or Mycenaean art.
Castles Cabaret, and Surdespine Quertinheux existed before the Crusade against the Albigenses, but in a form different from their current appearance. At the time of the Cathar flourishing, Lord Pierre Roger de Cabaret is closely linked to followers of the new religion and suffered from the onslaught of the Crusaders in 1209.
Between 1223 and 1229, activity is intense, the Cathar castles in Cabaret and will be besieged in vain a second time in 1227. It was not until 1229 to attend the final surrender of these strongholds and see the latest on the Perfect refugees Site flee to join the Pays de Sault.

After the crusade, King of France recover possession of the lords, shaved the village and castles. He rebuilt it on the ridge, including adding a fourth round: Tour Régine.
At the end of the sixteenth century, during the Wars of Religion, Cabaret is an important platform for Protestants who TREAT for firearms. They were dislodged in 1591 by troops of Marshal Joyeuse.
During the revolution, the castles of Lastours are permanently abandoned. They are classified as Historical Monuments 1905.

Visit

The visit takes place in two stages:
- visiting castles and "medieval village" by a trail built from an old textile factory
- the discovery of the panorama of the entire site from the Belvedere Montfermier.

Cabaret includes three parts: a polygonal tower, a main building, a polygonal curtain wall enclosing the whole. The northern end contains the remains of an ancient square tower.

Surdespine is dominated by a square tower with a separate house attached to a quadrangular tank.

Tour Régine and Quertinheux , built during the thirteenth century are easily identifiable through their towers. Régine tower is the smallest of the castles. Cabaret and Quertinheux were largely reworked in the sixteenth century by the addition of devices related to firearms.

You will also discover the "hole in the city." This is the largest cave Lastours who counted forty. This underground tunnel many times revised, has been repeatedly used as a reserve, refuge or fold.

The "princess necklace" was based nearby in a cavity called "sheltered from the collar."
At the foot of the castle of Cabaret, archaeological excavations for 25 years, under the direction of Marie-Elise Gardel, helped uncover the medieval village of Cabaret, the Mecca of the Cathar and resistance against the Crusader armies. Former fortified settlement called "Castrum", it included a hundred houses and many ironworks. These sites were abandoned abruptly without people have been able to bring any object.

At the end of XII century the medieval village of Cabaret reflects an intense spiritual and artisanal activity as well as a large population. One can discover the remains of houses, shops, streets and many objects of everyday life.

Castle Quertinheux

View Cabaret

In the old textile factory The Exhibition "Lastours, 4000 Years of History" presents the main findings from 25 years of excavations. It comes in three parts: "From prehistory to history", "Live at Cabaret," "From Cabaret to Lastours.
Complemented by an interactive panel, exposure is additional coherent visiting the site.

Schedules & Fares

Closed in January February, March, 12 November to 31 December (weekends, holidays and public holidays except December 25): 10h-17h April, May , June and September: 10h-18h July and August: 9h-20h October and until November 11: 10h-17h Adults: 5 € Child: 2 € map Inter-Site: 4 € adult viewpoint only 2 €

The First Poppies

CASTLE SAISSAC

History

At the heart of the Black Mountains, northwest of Carcassonne, the castle Saissac floor terraces in front of a unique landscape with stroke the horizon by the chain of France.Surrounded castle appears verbatim in 960: it is bequeathed by the Bishop of Toulouse to the Count of Carcassonne, which from the eleventh century, the subjection to powerful vassals.

the eve of the crusade against the Albigenses, the place belongs to Bertrand Saissac, designated in 1194 as tutor to the young Raymond Roger Trencavel, heir to the Viscount of Carcassonne. Bertrand Saissac is particularly known for its intervention in the election of Abbot of Alet: he did not hesitate to dig up the old Abbot and put it back on the throne to force the election of one of his friends.

In 1209, the lords of Saissac submit themselves to the Crusaders and will be stripped temporarily in favor of Bouchard de Marly, and after 1234, Lambert Thurey. From this period, the lordship of Saissac remained fragmented among several co-lords: one part was returned by Louis IX to the Lords' faidits "Saissac. Subsequently, Saissac passed from hand to hand.

In this historical context that we must attach the "Treasure of Saissac. Indeed, in 1979, work on the town, unearthed a treasure of about 2000 years dating from 1250 to 1270 denier. Almost all the coins from the royal authority therefore attests to the stranglehold of government Capetian central region of Languedoc.

Partly ruined by the mid eighteenth century, the monument was gradually abandoned. It is Moreover degraded by treasure hunters in 1862.

Visit

After the Crusade Castle Saissac will probably be rebuilt with the help of the Royal Engineers. The dungeon, square towers and curtain walls date back to this period (late thirteenth - early fourteenth century).

Subsequently, the building will be extensively remodeled in the mid-sixteenth century by the family of Bernuy rich pastel merchant. Remnants large mullioned windows are remarkable renaissance in evidence.

Religious wars will still change the monuments by adding numerous gunboats. From this period, would date also watch towers, circular towers and the central main building, recently restored.

The original castle was reached at the side of the town through a drawbridge protected by a moat. Today, the drawbridge and moat have disappeared. The monument consists of an enclosure defining an irregular quadrangle about 115 m long 30 wide.

Established in three successive terraces, all buildings accompanies the natural slope. On the first terrace, lie the remains of a powerful polygonal keep about 20 meters in height. Meticulously designed, it is preceded by a courtyard. The second terrace is dominated by a large main building with four levels, two of which are underground. It is served by a postern and a ramp. The third terrace, probably more recent, is flanked by two circular corner towers. The whole construction of the castle is run shale locally originated while details such as cornices are made of granite.

At the foot of the castle, in the ravine, are staged in the ruins of the ancient village castral Saissac served by an extensive network of paths and through the door of Toulouse.

To take advantage of the castle with your kids a discovery game for 8-13 years is offered a free visit.

The fortified village still offers the remains of his pregnant group, one of its old medieval gates and two defensive towers. the largest houses the Museum of Traditional Crafts.