T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 46

necessary repairs. (1) In the story of the siege mention is made of the "old Sarcenic wall in the lists." This probably stood on the site of the present outer line of Philip the Fair, just as the 12th century castle itself, with[in] all the walls, occupies what was undoubtedly the site of a Roman citadel, or the "military quarter" of the town.(No.) If the Visigothic city of Carcassonne cannot be called concentric, it is only because there never were any concentric castles, except here and there by accident. The aim in the mind of every architect of the smallest intelligence was to find such a site for his building that the waste and weakness of equal accessibility on all sides might be avoided : then he could multiply defences on the one weak face alone. And this he did in all ages, from the earliest earthworks to the latest fort before the in- -troduction of siege cannon. The Roman, and of course the Visigothic, towers of Carcassonne are solid to a height of nearly forty feet : (V. No. 5.) the idea of loopholes, whose narrowness makes hollow towers nearly as secure as solid, does not seem to have occurred to classical architects. The openings at the top (and in the room under it in some towers) are (1) The honour of improvement was reserved for Napoleon III and his architect Viollet-le-Duc who rebuilt some of them on what they imagined to be the original plan.