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Bastide (planned town)Aude

Bastide Saint-Louis de Carcassonne

Carcassonne

Dimensions
The chequerboard plan of the lower town, a hexagon whose angles are flanked by bastions and whose ring boulevard follows the line of the old ramparts; the place Carnot at the centre; the church of Saint-Vincent, begun in 1269, whose tower of 54 metres carries the belfry; the cathedral of Saint-Michel, southern Gothic with a single nave of eight bays; the Pont-Vieux, which links the bastide to the Cité; the houses of the cloth merchants in the heart of the blocks.
Period
Foundation in 1247; enclosure of 1276; fire of 1355 and fortified rebuilding from 1359; ramparts demolished in 1764.
What stands there
The bastide Saint-Louis has been a designated conservation area since 1997. It was laid out in blocks, that is 73 carrons of 79 metres a side, with squares, parks and gardens. A cloth-making town of the Renaissance, it is today the administrative and commercial centre of Carcassonne.

Facing the medieval Cité, on the left bank of the Aude, stretches another Carcassonne: the bastide Saint-Louis, or lower town, created in 1247 by Louis IX to house the inhabitants driven from the slopes of the Cité after the revolt of 1240. The king granted them a vast new town laid out by the line, in regular blocks around a central square, the present place Carnot, linked to the Cité by the Pont-Vieux. Closed by walls under Philippe III in 1276, burned for five days by the Black Prince in 1355, rebuilt half the size and fortified in 1359, the bastide became the town of the cloth merchants and gradually eclipsed the fortress. Its ramparts, pulled down in 1764, gave way to the boulevards that still ring the hexagon of right-angled streets, its churches of Saint-Vincent and Saint-Michel, its town houses and its market halls.

Further reading

Getting there : An urban quarter with free access. Carcassonne tourist office in the bastide (itinerary "From the bastide Saint-Louis to the medieval Cité"); markets on the place Carnot noted by the Grand Site, with no days documented in the texts.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Bastide Saint-Louis de Carcassonne
FrDr · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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