Cité de Carcassonne

The Cite de Carcassonne is a fortified medieval citadel on a hill above the Aude River in the city of Carcassonne, in the Aude department of southern France. Its double ring of walls, studded with 52 towers, encloses roughly 2,500 years of occupation from Roman and Visigothic times through the Crusades. Restored in the nineteenth century under the architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the citadel was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 for its exceptional testimony to medieval fortress town planning.