A Museum Stop – The Director’s Cut…

I was prepared to visit Carcassonne as a museum unto itself. I would discover museums within the museum. This is one I discovered in the Count’s Chambers, opened to the publicn in 1927 but only accessible from the ramparts.

These rooms were home to the Counts of Trenvacal during the 13th century, and were later converted to house military garrisons when the castle became property of the King of France. It now houses sculptures that were salvaged during restoration work in the 19th century.

The Lapidary Museum has a fun collection ranging from Roman milestones to medieval era sculptures. The last photo shows an effigy dated 1299 of Saint Louis (Louis IX), the only French king to ever be canonized. The piece below it is the arms of the Seneschal of Carcassonne which the placard seems to indicate as a modern reproduction.

The Count’s Chamber has a barrel ceiling painted blue, and a fresco on the wall depicting the count’s battle against the Moors in Spain in 1118. In the center of this room is a 12th century ablutions fountain carved from white marble.

The “Gothic Room” displays a beautiful set of 14th century Gothic arches and an unknown 13th knight in repose. There’s a collection of stone cannon balls here, dating from the 14th century. Iron cannons and stone balls proved to be pretty fragile and were replaced with bronze cannons and iron balls in the 15th century.

The museum provided me with a rest between staircases and towers at about the halfway point on my trek around the city.