Although Carcassonne is in the “Top Ten Castles” list, it is not, in fact, a castle, but a medieval fortress and walled city. Carcassonne is located in the Aude department in the region of Occitane, which is in southwest France. It is on a hilltop in the Aude plains. It is between the Atlantic and Mediterranean, which gave it a very important postion on the medieval trade route. Carcassonne, or “Cité de Carcassonne”, was a town surrounded by 2 outer walls: the lower and higher walls. The lower was for defense whereas the higher walls had many towers. Cité de Carcassonne had 1-mile long fortifications encircling the city, 53 towers, barbicans, a drawbridge, and a ditch leading to a central keep. The wall also had a section distinctively built by Romans; it was made of red bricks, was built in the 13th century, and was called the “Inquistion Tower”. Inside it’s walls, Carcassonne was a medieval town; it had cobbled streets, alley ways, stone walls, houses, archways, a cathedral, and a “chateau” (castle). Settlement in the region dated back to 3500 BC, and the fortress was occupied for over 5000 years. Romans first fortified the hilltop upon which Carcassonne stood in 100 BC, it was also an important trading place since the 6th century BC. However, as Carcassonne’s conditions were declining, it’s rebuilding began in 1853 to restore it to what it once was. When the Romans lived in Carcassonne, they named it “Carcaso”. In 426, the Romans then started Septimania to Visigothic King Theodoric 2 who had reigned since 453. Saracens from Barcelona took over in 725, and after that, Napoleon. In a typical castle though, the more specific people groups were blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, candle makers, marshals, clerks, stewards, bailiffs, priests, pantlers, butlers, ewers, pages, grooms, farmers, soldiers, archers, a baron or lord, a lady, armorers, swordsmiths, arrow smiths, a jester, and reeves. Some things that some of these people groups did were that the marshal was in charge of the garrison and deciding who should have which rooms, clerks kept accounts, stewards were in charge of the household, bailiffs collected rent, reeves managed the lord’s farms, priests held services and were secretaries for the castle, pantlers bought food, butlers dispensed wine, and ewers did laundry and cleaned cloths for the table. Carcassonne was a grand medieval city, and now is a famous tourist attraction in France. This fortress truly deserves to be on the Top 10 Castles list.

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