The fortress is known as an almost completely preserved (more precisely, well-restored) system of powerful medieval fortifications. Seeing it up close, one simply marvels at how such a thing could have been built so long ago and how one can even try to besiege such an impregnable structure. Two rows of fortress walls, 52 towers, inside the castle - few places else can so clearly plunge into the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. It seems that he got to many centuries ago in a time machine. Previously, Carcassonne was an important and wealthy city in the Languedoc, many Cathars (Albigensians) lived here - adherents of a religious doctrine declared heresy in 1179.→