Traces of human settlement have been found on the site of Carcassonne La Cite that date back to 600 BC.
The Romans marched into Provence and Langudoc in 122 BC. They fortified the strategic heights of the town they called Carcasso and for 500 years the town served as an important centre on the via Aquitaine, a thriving town between the port of Narbonne and Toulouse.
The Visigoths took the town in 460AD and held it successfully until they in turn were up rooted by Arabic, Saracen, raiding parties out of Iberia in the spring of 725AD. The Saracens installed sympathetic local rulers in the town they called Charchachouna until they too were forced out by the armies of the Carolingian king Pepin the Short in 759.
After the death of Pepin's son, Charlemagne, the Frankish empire of the Carolingians fell to pieces with local lords seizing the opportunity to gain control of vast areas. The age of feudalism had arrived. The Trencavels, vicomtes of Albi, Carcassonne, Beziers and Nimes set up their base in the imposing fortress of La Cité. In many ways this was the Golden era of the Languedoc, a thriving economy allowed a cultural explosion and Carcassonne hosted the most famous traveling poets, singers and story tellers of the era. The troubadours who performed for the court of the Trancavels included Ramon de Miraval and Peire Vidal.
This period of calm prosperity however was not to last. The break down of the twin axis of Carolignian power -heavy cavalry and devote, militant priests- had created a Catholic hierarchy more devoted to worldly pleasures than spiritual purity. In the vacuum this created grew a new religion- Catharism. This religion found many supporters both amongst the city's artisans, particularly in the economically important textile trade, and in the countryside beyond. Tolerated by the Trancavels, like many lords of the South, because of the income they derived from the cathar dominated textile industry, the heretics soon caught the eye of an offended Pope and an expansionist French king.
The alliance of Pope Innocent III and Louis VIII lead to the Albigensian Crusade. Carcassonne fell to the armies of Simon de Montfort on the 15th August 1209. Simon's son, Amaury, unable to hold the territory ceded Carcassonne and it's lands to the King in 1224.
Under royal control this crucially important town was further fortified, a large second exterior wall and mote added as well as the Saint-Nazaire cathedral. The "new" low town at the foot of the fortress expanded greatly and Carcassonne as we know it today began to take shape.
This development however was not without tragedy, in 1355, the English under Edward, the Black Prince, razed the lower town in frustration at the French resistance. It was immediately rebuilt around the churches of Saint Michel and Saint Vincents which had survived the fire.
Ancient fortifications however proved to be no protection in the age of gunpowder and canon, the continual border struggles with the powerful counts of Barcelona and later the Kings of Aragon, led to numerous devastating bombardments of the walls and towers of both high and low towns.
The Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, which finally ceded Roussillon to France marked the end of Carcassonne's days as an important strategic town. From that date onwards Carcassonne the fortress went into gradual decline. In 1764 the Bishop Armand Bazin de Bezons completed the job on the low town by filling up the mote and pulling down the walls to create the boulevards which now surround the centre.
The opening of the new construction of the Pierre Paul Riquet, Baron of Bonrepos, Royal Canal- Canal du Midi, in 1681 gave a new lease of life the towns of Languedoc and the Aude in particular.
Economically Carcassonne continued to thrive, the cloth industry of Toulouse, the wild silk of Languedoc and the woollen cloth of Carcassonne as well as the wines and cereals all were very successful both in the French market and throughout Europe and the Middle East. The architecture of the period can still be seen, the fabulous "hôtels" that can be found scattered throughout the low town show the enormous wealth the towns leading merchants amassed.
La Cité had not fared so well and by the beginning of the 1800's was a squalid, tumbling down mess of old walls, decaying towers and hovels. In 1803 Saint Nazaire's cathedral status was removed and handed over to the low town's more prosperous Saint Michel's. In 1850 a decree was passed ordering the final demolition of the towers and walls. Luckily La Cité found an eloquent champion in local personality Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille and the famous achitect-restaurer Viollet-Le-Duc who between them both saved the site and rebuilt the walls and towers, albeit in a style that would have been unrecognizable by their original outlook.

History of the Carcassonne