Carcassonne (Carcassona within Occitan) is a fortified French town, in the Aude département, of which it is a préfecture, in the former province of Languedoc.

Geography

Carcassonne is placed Xc klick (56 miles) south-sou'-east of Toulouse. It fill in a gap between the Pyrenees and the Massif Central of France.

History

Foremost signs of award around Carcassonne region use at times been dated to astir 3500 BC. Within astir 800 BC, the hill places of Carsac became an crucial swing trading place..

Carcassonne became strategically crucial while Romans fortified the brow around 100 BC and eventually mass produced it the capital of a colony of Julia Carsaco, afterwards Carcasum. Independent section of the northern ramparts date from people days.

In the 600s, Visigoths took over & built supplementary fortifications that still could have. It with success foiled attacks of Franks. Saracens took Carcassonne in 725 however King Pepin the Short drove them away inside 759.

Within 760, Pepin took virtually all of a south of France, although was unable to penetrate the impregnable fort of Carcassonne. Undaunted, he placed his army in a bulwarks of a castle by having a intention of finally starving retired the denizen. A project began to function, & shortly a citizens suffered from either starvation. Nevertheless, legend says that Dame Carcas, a widow woman of one of a castle's lord devised the clever bluff. 100% of the unexpended grain that can be uncovered in the castle was brought together & fed to a single pig. A fattened pig was so flushed & catapulted above a bulwarks toward a offending army. While Pepin saw that despite all a wait & then far, the villagers were however breathe to feed big portions of grain to their stock, he & his army became disheartened and it withdrew their offence. A population of Carcassonne were thus supprised sustaining Dame Carcas, that bells through a castle rang around her honor. Numerous historiographer imagine this legend is the source of the title Carcassonne, from either "Carcas sonne" (Dame Carcas rings).

Inside 1067 Carcassonne became, across marriage, a property of Raimond Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes. In a charted centuries the Trencavel family allied in succession either by owning Barcelona or Toulouse. It built a Chateau Comtal & a Basilica of Saint-Nazaire.

Carcassonne became notable withinside its role in Albigensian Crusades when the city was the fastness of French Cathars. Around August 1209 a crusading army of Simon de Montfort forced its citizens to surrender. Monfort experienced Trencavels flushed & became a fresh viscount. He added to the fortifications. Carcassonne became the border bastion between France & Aragon.

Within 1240 Trencavel's boy tried to reconquer his old domain however vainly. A city submitted to the rule of kingdom of France within 1247 & King Louis IX founded a newly section through the flow of any stream. He & his successor Philip III built the outer bulwark. Contemporary opinion considered a fort impregnable. In a period of the Hundred Years' War, Edward the Black Prince did fail to take a city inside 1355, although his troops destroyed a Lower berth Town.

Around 1659, a Treaty of Pyrenees transferred the border province of Roussillon to France and Carcassonne's military significance was reduced. Fortifications were abandoned & city became chiefly an economic center that concentrated in textile industry.

The fortified city

Finally a fortified a portion of Carcassonne fell into disrepair around such an extent that a French government seriously considered that it should exist as demolished. The fiat to it symptom was manufactured official around 1849 however it driven an uproar. Historian Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille and writer Prosper Mérimée lead a campaign to preserve a fort when historical monument. Late in the month an designer Eugene Viollet-le-Duc was commissioned to renovate the place.

Fortifications consists of the double ring of bulwark & 53 towers. A fortress was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997.

A fortified city of Carcassonne serves as inspiration for the German board game Carcassonne by Hans im Glück.

Economy
A recently a portion (Ville Basse) of the city on the other side of the Aude river manufactures shoes, rubber and textiles. These are as well center of the major AOC wine-growing region. Major section of a income, even so, comes from either the touristry attached to the fortifications (Cité) & boat cruising on the Canal du Midi.The bridge,Pont Marengo, crosses the Canal du Midi & will bring access to the railroad station. Carcassonne receives astir Three million visitant annually.