Carcassonne is a city in the Aude département of the Languedoc-Roussillon region
in the South of France.
The modern city is build around two medieval cities, the original hill top Cité of
Carcassonne on the north side of the river Aude, and the thirteenth century Bastide
of Carcassonne on the South side of the River Aude. The older Cité is a spectacular
walled town – the largest medieval town in Europe with its city walls intact.

The Cité of Carcassonne is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the setting for many
films featuring medieval castles. It is one of the few sights in the world that
genuinely justifies the epithet "breathtaking". In recent years it has become
a major tourist attraction, with all that that entails.
The present Cité is recognisable as the medieval one which was the seat of the
Trencavel family, Viscounts of Carcassonne, before the area was annexed by France
in the thirteenth century. It was besieged by the French in 1209 soon after the
famous massacre at Béziers, during the early stages of the wars against the people
of the Languedoc, sometimes known as the Cathar wars or the Albigensian Crusade.