There is no question that the medieval walled city of Carcassonne is one of the most unique and beautiful places to see in southwestern France. While the surrounding modern city is home to about 50,000 people now, it is the tiny walled portion that attracts visitors in droves. And it rightly should.

This is my second visit. I was here in 2019, and wrote about the experience. I didn’t expect to be back, but with my weekend from Toulouse to Andorra canceling, and having some extra time, I thought I’d see if the place was still just as enchanting. Well, it is, even on a drizzly March day.

On my last visit, I didn’t have a chance to walk the city walls. Yes, I did a portion of the walks both between Carcassonne’s two sets of walls, and outside the outer curtain wall (both free to do), but walking the length of the inside wall from the top is an experience I missed. So today, that’s my focus, and this article will delve into what we can specifically learn about medieval defenses from doing that. (You can click that link above for a more general overview of Carcassonne.)

What we see today in Carcassonne is a 19th century reconstruction (the city’s walls and towers were in ruin) of what the city would have looked like in the 14th century when it was a major French fortress facing the kingdom of Aragon to the southwest. Obviously construction has been updated slightly for safety of visitors, but the experience is as close as one can get to an actual medieval castle city, making it a fascinating study.

I’ve gone back and forth with how to structure this. Do we start with the oldest portion of Carcassonne’s defenses, since part of its curtain wall dates to Roman times? Do we begin from the inside, the city’s keep? Or do we imagine attacking from the outside of the city? At the end, I think that I’ve decided that while yes, we do talk a lot about history here at The Royal Tour, we are first and foremost a travel outlet, and therefore our journey through the city and its defenses should be done in the order you will as a visitor.

The experience begins with a view of Carcassonne from the outside, and so its defensive position can be admired. Carcassonne sits atop a hill that ranges from a medium sort of grade to quite steep in places. One side is bordered (perhaps 100 yards or so from the hill’s base) by the Aude River. Looking at the town from the opposite bank past the Pont Vieux (Old Bridge) that was completed in 1359, you can appreciate the flood plain of the river, which was much wider than in modern times where the flow is controlled. This was the only bridge over the Aude until the 19th century.

So we can see that the city’s site was well chosen defensively. It occupies high ground with a good field of view. It sits along a river only crossed by a single bridge. And the hill itself is only really a gradual grade from one side, the remainder being steeper.

The Porte d’Aude overlooks the river, with steps leading up the hill to a gate. This is a secondary entrance, since invaders would have to cross the river first via a narrow bridge. The main city gate, and the one on the less steep side, is the Porte Narbonnaise, named because it faces southeast toward Narbonne. While it is hard to get a photo without people coming in or out, one can appreciate the gate itself. It is actually a series of three gates traversing a bridge over what was the city’s moat. Each had a portcullis (metal gate with spikes that could be slammed down) and the bridge itself draws upward. Most importantly, we note the ramparts atop the gates, at which archers could be positioned, and which allowed for openings above the gate through which hot oil could be poured on attackers. There is also a bend between the gates, which would have made it difficult to bring a battering ram to bear.

The gate sits in Carcassonne’s outer of two complete rings of walls and towers. This outer wall is 1.9 miles around, and while I don’t walk its length in the mud on a rainy day to count, between the two walls and the castle there are a total of 52 towers. So one can imagine roughly half – give or take – offering defensive positions along this outside wall. It would have had a moat, though I don’t believe it was filled by water, around it.

The walls can appear low in places from behind them, as the city is built on the hill, but it is at least several meters high from the outside at all points, with towers rising beyond that, and more than a meter thick, enough to withstand most siege engines of the 14th century. (More modern cannons made such walls obsolete a few centuries later.)

After crossing the Porte Narbonnaise, one finds oneself between the walls. In front stands an imposing gatehouse with two high towers. If unable to breach the gate, invaders would find themselves between defenders in the towers on both walls. So while some of the outer wall towers are at wall-level and mainly open to the area between, some are significantly higher and rounded to provide both cover and fields of fire.

Here we also note that the ground is flat. This was done to provide places from which the city’s own long range weapons (catapults and trebuchets) could be placed and not deal with uneven terrain affecting their accuracy, which wasn’t great to begin with.

If we breach that second gate, we find ourselves inside the city itself, but there is still one more set of defenses: the city’s castle. And this – along with the top of the interior walls on a combined admission – is the one place within Carcassonne that visitors have to pay to experience other than from the outside.

Think of the castle as the city in miniature. One has to contend with another moat outside of another set of walls (this moat was probably water-filled), breach another gate in another gatehouse, and deal with fire from a series of towers and barbicans (curved defensive walled positions).

But here inside the castle’s courtyard, Carcassonne gives us a rather unique glimpse into additional defensive positions. These wooden structures, while today permanent, would have been temporary in the 14th century, removed to prevent weathering and reinstalled into holes built into the walls and towers when enemies were approaching. They allow for easier movement along the castle wall, since it was not as wide as either the interior or exterior city curtain walls.

The back side of the castle is built directly into the interior wall of the city, with its additional towers serving as defenses overlooking the aforementioned “back” gate.

Today, the castle holds a small museum with artifacts from the medieval period and back to Roman times, but in those earlier days it would also have been the home of the local noble ruler, or the French seneschal.

From the castle, visitors can walk the top of the entire interior curtain wall. Signage (in both French and English) talks about the defenses, the rebuilding process, and more. There are a lot of steps up and down as one completes the circuit, with different portions of the walls – and different towers – being at different heights.

One can appreciate the differences here between the towers. Some are full circles while others are semi-circular. Some are larger than others, or higher than others. (The most imposing tend to face toward the perceived threat of Aragon.) Some are newer and some date back to Roman times, and can be denoted by their different shape.

But perhaps most importantly, every turn of the wall walk brings a new view of a truly beautiful place. Likewise, every tiny street of the small city brings a lovely new perspective.

Carcassonne is a marvel. It is stunningly beautiful, but also provides a unique view of what a medieval castle town would have been like. One can imagine oneself as a defender on the walls, a noble in the castle, or an attacker staring up at the imposing city gates. And while yes it is incredibly popular with tourists, it is absolutely worth visiting.

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