Urban Design Case Study - Carcassonne Castle

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Carcassonne Castle

MEDIEVAL CITY : MORPHOLOGY & HISTORY STUDY


CONTENT
● INTRODUCTION
● LOCATION (SOUTHERN FRANCE)
● HISTORY & CULTURE IMPACT
● TIMELINE AND INFLUENCES BY RULING
AUTHORITY
● CHARACTERISTIC OF CITIES
● MORPHOLOGY
● DEVELOPMENT PATTERN
● PLANNING PATTERN
● ANALYSIS OF MATERIALS, NODES & UNESCO
RESTORATION
● INFERENCES
LOCATION & HISTORY
LOCATION
Carcassonne is located in south of
France.The medieval walled city of
Carcassonne sits in the luscious valley
of the Aude river between the Atlantic
FRANCE Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea has
been known since the neolithic era.
COUNTRY : France
REGION: Occitanie
AREA: 65.08 km2
POPULATION: 46,031
ELEVATION: 81-250m
LANGUAGE: French/ Occitan
RESTORATION: Ar. Viollet-le-Duc
INTRODUCTION
● Carcassonne is a French fortified city and a capital
in the department of Aude which was founded
during the Gallo-Roman period.
● The City has the finest remains of medieval
fortifications in Europe.
● Within these fairy-tale fortifications sits a castle, a
basilica (church), and a small town.
● The rivers Aude, Fresquel and the Canal du Midi
flow through the town.
● In the 19th century, the architect Viollet-le-Duc
restored the city and its mediaeval look. It was
listed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997.
● Carcassonne is huge and completely
over-the-top, with The city walls having 52
massive towers, strung together by two
enormous concentric walls.
● The walls of the city are 1.9 miles (3 km) long
with its massive defences encircling the castle
The Walls of Carcassonne.
and the surrounding buildings, its streets and its
fine Gothic cathedral.
● Its surrounded by a moat, and punctuated here
and there by heavy barbicans, portcullis and
drawbridge.
● This massive fortress was certainly strategic to
serve as a military base to anyone wishing to
conquer and rule the region.
Massive fortifications
CONCEPT

The castle takes its shape


and position of the need to be
a safe, fortified and capable
of receiving attacks without
succumbing to them.
It is a fortress within a
fortress that is the city itself,
since both have their own
walls and watchtowers and
defense.
HISTORY
The first signs of settlement in this region have been dated to about
3500 BC .During its 2500 year long history, this fortress-town was
held by numerous conquerors, such as Visigoths, Saracens, Romans and
Crusaders.

At the beginning of its history it was a Gaulish settlement then in the


3rd century A.D., the Romans decided to transform it into a fortified
town.The Roman defences were in place by 333 AD, when the town is
described as a castellum.

In the mid-13th century, Cité de Carcassonne become part of the


Kingdom of France, serving as one of the most important military posts
on the frontier between France and confederation of Crown of Aragon.
It remained in use as military post until mid-17th century when
surrounding lands all became part of France, leaving castle and
surrounding city to be transformed into center of the French woolen
textile industry.
TIMELINE & INFLUENCES
ECONOMICS

The city of Carcassonne profited greatly from its location;


situated in the south of France close to both the Spanish
border and the Mediterranean coastline.
The closeness of the city to the trade routes of the
Mediterranean enabled its inhabitants to deal easily and
directly with a greatly expanded market when compared to
northern French cities.
Carcassonne gained economic strength through its wool
and cloth trade. As discussed earlier, this provided the
support required for its military viability.
With the expansion of the commerce resulting from the
closeness of the Mediterranean trade routes, the city
flourished as one of the centres for cloth trade in the
medieval world.
CULTURAL IMPACT
● Carcassonne was incredibly prominent in relations between
Franks, the Aragonese, and the Arabs during the course of
the Middle Ages.
● It was also especially impacted by the spread and
cementing of Catholicism within the region.
● The Catholic Church was considered the cornerstone of all
French Gothic Architecture
proper society, and it provided the background to all
Medieval life.
● It heavily features Gothic architecture and is stylized
similarly to other Cathedrals of its time.
● Even with the reconstruction in the Gothic style, there are
still remnants of the Romanesque to be seen today. These
two styles of architecture combine to form a unique
component of the cathedral; in fact Eugene Viollet-le-Duc
(the architect who reconstructed Carcassonne in the 19th
century) Carcassonne Basilica
CITY RESOURCE

RIVER AUDE THE CANAL DU MIDI


The river crashes it’s way down through Carcassonne from its The canal is more sedate but no less beautiful. Join the towpath near
source in the Pyrenees en route to the Mediterranean. In summer, the railway station and walk in either direction. About 10km out of
it’s quite gentile and its banks are a cool and shady spot to stroll town, before heading off into the vineyards and sun-soaked farmland
and escape the heat of the day. we also find some great campsites beyond. Cycling alongside the canal is glorious, and on a hot day the
alongside it as you head out of town. tall trees along its banks offers a little relief from the sun.
CHARACTERISTICS
TYPE OF FORTIFICATION Containing the non military
residents, markets, and
workforce inside the same walls
as the soldiers who would
generally reside in a castle,
within one large structure seems
a rather sensible choice. This
eliminates need to rush the
townsfolk inside the walls when
STONE KEEP MOTTE & BAILEY
under attack, limits the damage
to the non military buildings that
would normally be placed outside
of the walls and offers greater
control of items
such as food

As you approach
Carcassonne it looks
Like you are coming up on
a giant fairy tale castle until you
realize it is actually an entire village
surrounded by a large city wall. The impressive
medieval wall easily makes this one of the best
CONCENTRIC FORTIFICATION
Medieval cities in Europe to visit.
Construction of a second
defensive wall was the most
important addition to the city’s
defences.

The building of this second wall,


which also comprised towers,
left a narrow terrace between
the two lines of fortification,
known as the ‘lists’ or ‘lices’.

As was consistent with


concentric fortifications, the
outer wall of Carcassonne was
noticeably lower than the inner
wall; this allowed for
simultaneous resistance from
both levels of the defensive
platforms.
MOAT SECURITY

By the time of the completion of the


works in 1285, the defences of the city
featured more than forty towers spread
across its double walls.

The line of which spanned a length of


1650m.

To further bolster the defences of Dried up moat


Carcassonne, and to impede potential
attackers’ siege machinery, a moat
running the entire length of the
outermost side of the outer eastern wall
was constructed.

This was not mirrored on the western


side of the city, as this was afforded
natural defence from the steepness of
the land.
DEFENSE FORT TOWERS

The towers of the Narbonnais


gate, among others, received
pointed beaks on their outer
face; this allowed the
defensive combatants on the
emplacements increased line
of sight for the use of flanking
or enfilading fire upon the
attackers.

There was a general move


away from square or
rectangular towers as the
polygonal or D-shape afforded
a better line of sight and
additionally aided defence by
deflecting artillery stones.
BARBACANE DE L’AUDE

It is the outer defence of a castle or walled city, especially a double tower


above a gate or drawbridge. It is now destroyed.
FIRST FORT WALL

SECOND FORT WALL

THEATRE JEAN-DESCHAMPS

BASILIQUE ST NAZAIRE

CHATEAU COMTAL

With the long history of fortifications on


the hill that is located in the right bank
of river Aude, Cité de Carcassonne was
built initially by Romans and finished by
French. First construction of this walled
city that eventually received 52 towers
and 3km of strong walls started in the
Gallo-Roman period.

AERIAL PLANNING
ARCHITECTURE STYLE
NEO GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

Dame Carcas

www.GreatBuildings.com - UNESCO
www.GreatBuildings.com
SAINTS NAZARIUS
CHURCH

Neo-gothic buildings are


often tall, as if they are
reaching upwards towards
the sky.

The use of flying buttresses


allowed architects to build
up taller, as they could easily
spread the weight of this
height.

Another characteristic is its


pointed arches, it is meant to
be both a support system
and a decorative feature.
RESIDENTIAL + COMMERCIAL

Influenced by Medieval architecture, symmetry was dropped and


houses were adorned with vertical framing and highly decorated
corner gables.
MORPHOLOGY
NUCLEATED SETTLEMENT
•Irregular pattern of streets are seen.
SETTLEMENT PLANNING
•The market square has narrow streets
which also follows a irregular pattern.

•The walled town of Carcassonne is


roughly rectangular in shape, up to 525
meters long and 250 m wide. It is
surrounded by its medieval double
enclosure wall; the inner curtain is 1245
m in length, with 29 towers, while the
outer has 18 towers and is 1320 m long.

•The outer wall contains seventeen


towers and barbicans. Most of the outer
towers were built with open sides facing
the inner walls so that if taken the
towers could not provide protection for
the attackers.

NUCLEATED SETTLEMENT
With its 3 kilometres of defensive ramparts,
the old city of Carcassonne is one of the largest
surviving medieval walled cities in Europe.

As a natural defensive spot beside the River


Aude, the site has been occupied and fortified
since before Roman times.

It was a Roman stronghold, before being ceded


in the 5th century to the Visigoth king
Theodoric II. From then until the 14th century,
the fortress of Carcassonne remained one of
the main strongholds in an area that was much
fought over by dukes, kings and counts from
the north and from the south.
INTERNAL TOWN PLANNING

world heritage (11 ha)

Carcassonne 1997
world heritage (11 ha)
buffer zone (1,358 ha)
THE CITY CAN BE SEEN WITH
2 WALLS AND DOTTED WITH
53 TOWERS AND BARBICANS

WALLS STRETCH FOR 3KM


ROAD NETWORKING
TRAFFIC & NODES
MATERIALS
“CASTLE OF STONE”
The structure is made with rough
materials :

The wooden structure is rough


oak as well as the other wooden
constructions of Viollet-Le-Duc,
the floor is made of the typical
stone “calade” as the rest of the
central space.
INFERENCES
1. Perfect nature of the restoration coupled with the glazing of the 'town' undermine
the atmosphere and 'realness' of the fortifications.
2. Within these fairy-tale fortifications sits a castle surrounded by massive fortress
was certainly strategic to serve as a military base to anyone wishing to conquer
and rule the region.

3. Medieval fortifications were, an expensive and often audacious symbol of power.

4. It remains a living artifact of over a millennium of human history and


progress, and its story is still ongoing.
REFERENCES
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1019&context=history

http://www.famouscastles.net/list-of-famous-castles/cite-
de-carcassonne/

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/345/

https://interestingengineering.com/carcassonne-the-forti
fied-town-of-southern-france-built-by-the-visigoths-with-
an-inner-medieval-fortress
THANK YOU!

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