Site officiel de la ville et de la Communauté d'Agglomération du Carcassonnais
Narbonnaise Gate
(Map)The Narbonnaise Gate on the east side of the walled town is a complex construction combining various military features with other structural elements designed to give prestige and comfortable living conditions.
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Two tall twin towers strengthened by projections designed to deviate attacking fire are linked by a small fort containing the gate protected by a system of two portcullises. This system of defence is completed by machicolations in the passageway and by slit windows placed at various heights to provide crossbowmen with positions from which to fire out and down.
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In a war situation, wooden hoardings supported on beams fixed in the walls could quickly be installed above the gate and at the top of the towers to improve the active system of defence. The domestic amenities equipping the castle (salting house, water tank, fireplaces) shows the intention to maintain a garrison for some considerable time in case of attack or siege. However, the Narbonnaise Gate is not only a remarkable construction designed for the art of warfare. The chambers built one above the other on the various floors express all the elegance of Gothic architecture and show the care and attention paid to the traceried windows opening onto the town, to the ribbed vaulting and to the huge fireplaces.
Dame Carcas
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From the 16th century onwards, the walled town gradually lost the trappings of power in favour of the lower town (the "Bastide") and this undoubtedly explains the appearance of legends designed to give it back some of its erstwhile prestige. The stories are part of a Charlemagne epic, and the most famous is the tale of Dame Carcas, a Saracen woman who is said to have defended the town for seven years in the face of the fearsome emperor. As Charlemagne was preparing to lift the siege, Dame Carcas is said to have called him, causing one of his close advisers to say "Sire, Carcas is calling you" (Carcas te sonne), hence the name of the town.
The bust on the Narbonnaise Towers is a stone reproduction of the original statue that is kept in the walled town's archaeology museum (Musée Lapidaire).
Claude Marquié - Le patrimoine des communes de la Méridienne Verte – Editions Flohic.
Site Officiel de l'Office de Tourisme et de la ville de Carcassonne - www.carcassonne.org
Site Officiel de l'Office de Tourisme et de la ville de Carcassonne - www.carcassonne.org