Carcassonne The Basilica of Saint-Nazaire

The walled city of Carcassonne, with its two rings of ramparts and fifty-two towers, was taken in 1209 by the crusaders at the start of the Albigensian Crusade. It was restored in the nineteenth century by Viollet-le-Duc.

Inside the walls, the basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus joins a Romanesque nave to a Gothic choir of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, with fine stained glass. Saint Dominic preached in Carcassonne in 1213.

• The basilica of Saint-NazaireThe rose windows and the windows of the choir.
• The rampartsNearly two miles of walls around the old city.

• August 8Feast of Saint Dominic

• Saint DominicFounder of the Order of Preachers

• Via DominiciThe Way of Saint Dominic, seven daysDay VI, Carcassonne · Day VII, Carcassonne, then Toulouse

About an hour by road from Toulouse.

• ProuilheThe Monastery of Notre-Dame de Prouilhe, about 15 miles as the crow flies
• FanjeauxThe House of Saint Dominic, about 16 miles as the crow flies
• AlbiThe Cathedral of Sainte-Cécile, about 51 miles as the crow flies
• ToulouseSaint-Sernin and the Jacobins, about 53 miles as the crow flies