This is the 'blue-hour' shot I promised yesterday of the Citadel at Carcasonne: unfortunately it cannot be nf-sooc because with a 50mm lens the image needs a crop to remove the busy foreground and the Citadel is lit with light sources of three different colour temperatures which a Jpeg can't handle... so I'm posting this in my Doubletakes album.
Here's the promised history:
"From dawn to glory
The oldest traces of man - 6th century B.C.- were found on the promontory where the Cité lies. Around 300 B.C., the Volques Tectosages brought the Iberians of Languedoc to submission. In 122 B.C., the Romans conquered the Provence and the Languedoc. They fortified the oppidum which took the name of Carcaso, and occupied this region until the middle of the 5th century. The Visigoths then became the masters of Spain and the Languedoc. The Cité remained in their hands from 460 to 725 A.D. In the spring of 725, the Saracens took the Cité. They were driven away in 759 by Pépin le Bref, king of the Franks. After the death of Charlemagne, the dismembering of the Empire gave birth to the feudal system. It was under the dynasty of the Trencavels, from 1082 to 1209, that the town began to gain tremendous influence.
The Crusade
During this prosperous period, Catharism grew rapidly. Raymond Roger Trencavel, vicomte of Carcassonne (1194-1209) both tolerated and protected the heretics on his own lands. He suffered the first impact of the crusade preached by Pope Innocent III and on August 15th, 1209, after a two-week siege, it was all over. The Cité and the lands of Trencavel were first handed to the military commander of the crusade, Simon de Montfort, then to the King of France in 1224.
Destroyed and rebuilt
As the Cité made its entry into the Royal Estate, its destiny took a new turn. Under the successive reigns of Louis IX, Philippe Le Hardi and Philippe Le Bel, it grew its modern-day shape. A new borough was born on the left bank in 1262: La Bastide Saint-Louis. Set on fire by the Black Prince in 1355, it was immediately rebuilt. While this new town was bustling with activity, the Cité consolidated its role as a royal fortress.
The end of the stronghold
But due to the use of new war techniques (gunpowder, cannon) and above all to the recession of the Franco-Spanish border in 1659 after the Peace of the Pyrénées, it was gradually abandoned. In the 18th century, the Cité was little more than slum, a poverty-stricken, outlying area in a town made wealthy by the wine trade and the cloth manufacturing industry. Only through the joint efforts of Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille, a historian and a citizen of Carcassonne, of Mérimée and the famous architect Viollet-le-Duc was it saved from demolition. Thousands of people today are able to see and admire the most accomplished fortified town in Europe."