Among conservationists there is a lot of controversy about the restoration job which the archichet Viollet-le-Duc did in the 1850’s in Carcassonne above.
The conical tops with which he crowned the towers, even though greatly admired, are thought to be not authentic and not the way they would have been originally topped.
Síle, seeing similar conical tops on the towers of the Chateau de Margon(see last entry) asked the guide were they original.
He equivicated, and said the Viollet-le-Duc had done some great work, but admitted that some of his people had been involved with the restauration in Margon.
Yesterday while searching for some more information about the place I found this old post-card from (I would hazard a guess) around the 1900’s.
I can’t see any conical towers.
It looks like Carcassonne was not the only castle to be crowned by our Viollet-le-Duc.
Comments
oscar
on May 9, 2010In that postcard is the castle actually inhabited? I seem to remember something about the towers in castles like that being finished in wood and that they generally collapsed after years of neglect thus creating confusion a few hundred years later when people wondered if they were conical or otherwise…?
Martin
on May 10, 2010You could be right. The guide told us that it had been attacked and damaged on various occasions and that might have been one such. Your theory might also explain the many truncated towers we see in the Languedoc.
brian and beth
on May 12, 2010Your old postcard probably shows tiles on the tower roofs as one would expect in the south. The idea of conical slated roofs comes from the Loire chateaux. Slates need a steep pitch on the roof, tiles a shallow pitch. Margon is a little gem. Thanks Martin and Sile for a wonderful (except the weather) time.
The comments are closed.