Site officiel de la ville et de la Communauté d'Agglomération du Carcassonnais
Dame Carcas
(Map)
The Sarrasin occupation provided inspiration for one of the best-known legends of the Middle Ages. The hero is of course Charlemagne.
)
The emperor Charlemagne laid siege to the medieval town of Carcassonne, then ruled by the Sarrasin king BALLAK, who was succeeded after his death by his wife, “Dame Carcas”.
The town had already been under siege for 5 years when famine overcame the last of its defenders. Now all alone, Dame Carcas kept watch from the ramparts. In order to give the impression that the city remained well guarded, she made straw dummies dressed as soldiers and fired arrows from a crossbow at the besieging army.
All that remained in the town was a little pig and a sack of wheat to feed the population. Dame Carcas stuffed the pig with all the wheat and then threw if from the ramparts. When the pig hit the ground, its belly burst open and all the good wheat flooded out.
As soon as he saw this, Charlemagne called off the siege in despair: there was clearly so much wheat in Carcassonne they where feeding it to pigs! Before the huge army had quite disappeared, Dame Carcas had the town bells rung at full volume to announce the good news to the surrounding area.
At that point, one of Charlemagne’s vassals said to the emperor “Sire, Carcas sonne!” (which means: “Sire, Carcas is ringing”)
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