シトロエン・ワゴン、カルカッソンヌの城壁下、フランス、1960年代 — Archive & Atlas
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Carcassonne, France

シトロエン・ワゴン、カルカッソンヌの城壁下、フランス、1960年代 — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1960–1969

AA-2026-A97EBA

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誰かが薄い青色のステーションワゴンを八百年のモルタルの下に駐車し、何も思わなかった。これ以上にフランス的なことはない。カルカッソンヌの二重の城壁は中世から立ち続けており、前の世紀にはツバメ尾の城壁で修復されていた。修復したのは、要塞は実際の中世が成し遂げたことよりも中世的に見えるべきだと信じた男たちだった。

1960年代までに、この街の軍事的役割はとうの昔に引退していた。新しい役目はポストカード映えであり、城壁の根元でアイドリングしていたワゴンは、単に別の観光客が攻囲戦の現代的な同等物をしているだけだった。カタパルトの代わりにエンジンをかけたままで。写真の中で誰も城壁を見ていない。それは記念碑が家具になったことの最も確実な兆候である。

右側の木は、計画されず、どの建築家にも相談されず、数十年の間、静かに斜堡を大きく超えていた。それは、石工たちがかつて持っていたよりも長い建設スケジュールを意味している。

The historian's note

Carcassonne, in the Languedoc region of southern France, preserves one of Europe's most complete examples of medieval double-walled fortification, its origins reaching back to Gallo-Roman and Visigothic construction later expanded under the Cathars-era counts and the French crown. By the 19th century the fortress had fallen into disrepair and was slated for partial demolition before the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc undertook its restoration beginning in 1853, a project completed after his death and still debated by historians for its interpretive liberties, including the addition of the pointed, Italian-style merlons visible along the wall.

By the 1960s the restored cité had become a major stop on the postwar European touring circuit, drawing motorists in family station wagons on routes through the Aude countryside. The site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage location in 1997, decades after this scene, in recognition of its role as a rare surviving model of medieval military architecture.

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