The recent Google Doodle celebrating the 200th anniversary of the architect who renovated the walled city of Carcassonne brought back happy memories of my visit there in 2012.

From the Telegraph regarding the man and his anniversary:

Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the architect known for his distinctive restoration work on medieval buildings, has been celebrated with a Google doodle.

The doodle depicts one of Viollet-le-Duc’s designs and celebrates what would have been his 200th birthday today.

Born in France, Viollet-le-Duc was involved in the July Revolution of 1830 and embraced republicanism and anti-clericalism.

The French theorist started restoring medieval buildings in 1835 and achieved national fame with his work at Notre Dame de Paris.

Viollet-le-Duc became known for the gothic elements of his designs and for combining historical fact with creative modifications, which led to criticism from his contemporaries and John Ruskin.

His works also included Basilica of St Denis near Paris, Carcassonne and Chateau de Pierrefonds.

As well as his work on restorations he was considered a theorist on modern architecture, making numerous drawings.

He had a second career in the military, defending Paris during the Franco-Prussian war from 1870 to 1871 and developing theories of defence that were to influence the engineers behind fortifications for both the first and second world wars.

Viollet-le-Duc later relocated to Switzerland where he built a villa, and remained there until his death in 1879.

From my archives:

The walled city (La Cite) of Carcassonne was built on the site of a former Roman fortress.  The city is protected by two heavily fortified walls and has no less than 52 towers and barbicans. In medieval times Simon de Montfort led crusades against the Albigensians (Cathars) whom the Catholic Church had branded as heretics due to their beliefs.

At that time that city and its inhabitants were under the protection of Raymond Trencavel, “Vicomte de Carcassonne”. The town surrounding the city was destroyed during these crusades and King Louis IV authorised the building of the Bastide on the left bank of the river Aude as a replacement.

When the Roussillon region became part of France in 1659 the city’s strategic importance as a border fortress declined, the inhabitants moved to the lower town and the city fell into disrepair. In 1844 the architect Viollet-le-Duc was put in charge of the restoration of Saint-Nazaire and Saint-Celse basilica and subsequently he undertook a study of all the city fortifications. This study was used as a basis for the restoration of the city and its fortifications.

One of the books I am currently reading is ‘The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars‘ by Stephen O’Shea.  At the beginning of the chapter on Carcassonne there is a perfect description of what I saw and how I felt when I caught my first fleeting glimpse of Carcassonne as I traveled from Toulouse airport:

TO APPROACH CARCASSONNE for the first time is to dream with your eyes open.  the turrets and bastions of the old city stand on a deceptive rise in the valley of the River Aude, so the crenelated citadel appears suddenly, floating in the middle distance, a visitor from another time.  The tan stone blocks of the ramparts turn auburn, then mauve in the late afternoon sun.

After the taking of Jerusalem by crusaders in the year of grace 1099, pilgrims started to travel to Palestine in ever greater numbers to worship at the tomb of Christ, the Holy Sepulchre.  It was to ensure their protection that in 1119 – 1120, a knight from Champagne, Hugh de Payns, founded an order which was going to become extremely famous, the “Templars”.  Yet, who, today, still recalls that, originally, the “Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” could be counted on the fingers of one hand?

After the Council of Troyes in 1129, the Order of the Temple experienced huge growth, creating hundreds of commanderies in the West and playing a key role in the defence of the Crusader States.  Enjoying the unfailing support of the papacy, in the 13th century, it became such an economic and financial force that it soon generated jealousy among temporal powers and, in particular, the King of France, Philip IV of France.

From glory to tragedy, this was the fate of the brothers of the Temple, who were accused of all forms of evil in 1305 and who were all arrested on teh same day, the “fateful” Friday 13th October 1307.  As was their Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, most of the were burnt at the stake after being unfairly tried.

Removed from the esotericism of which, all too often, they are the subject, this work offers to take a clear look at the incredible history of these soldier monks, the Knights Templar.

Review:

I picked this book up as a companion to a book about the Cathars when I visited Carcassonne last year, it gives a brief but very detailed overview of the “knights Templar”.  The book starts by explaining the idea of a crusade and then goes on to detail  the various crusades, the notable characters that were involved and the conflicts between the Templars and politic and religious authorities.

The book contains many illustrations and there is a lot of information packed into a book of only 126 pages.  There is a bibliography giving ideas for further reading and also a page detailing places/organisations where you can ‘find out more’ about the Templars.

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like a brief but thorough introduction/overview of the Knights Templar’.

The book is published by Editions OUEST-FRANCE

Albert Einstein

More of this weeks theme can be found in the ‘golden’ gallery.

Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694)

The Moulin de Cugarel is an intact and restored 17th-century windmill. Typical of the 32 mills built here with the arrival of Riquet’s canal, the Cugarel was in use until 1921.

The top and roof (capelado) of the mill rotates, with a gear mechanism controlled by the miller to keep the 7-m long sails directed into the wind. The mill was restored in 1962, with complete with working interior. The giant millstones were turned at 60 revolutions per minute, producing three 50-kg sacks of flour per hour.

Neville Goddard (1905 – 1972)