One of the most well preserved mediaeval fortifications in Europe surrounds the small town of Aigues-Mortes along the western periphery of the Camargue in the south of France. In the 13th century King Louis The Ninth was in search of a suitable location for a harbour on the Mediterranean that would serve both trade and military purposes. The Aigues-Mortes region was far from ideal as it was a swampland on which it was almost impossible to build, however, the orders of the King had to obeyed!

The seventeen hundred metre long town wall consists of ten gates and five defensive towers, a true masterpiece of mediaeval architecture.

King Louis The Ninth and his army embarked from Aigues-Mortes to conquer the Holy Land for Christianity and in 1246, two years before the king’s crusade to Egypt, the town’s inhabitants began to prepare the machinery of war for this great adventure. However, the crusade was unsuccessful, the king having been taken prisoner. Even so, this was not to be his final military expedition and following his liberation and return to France he was encouraged to mount a new crusade in 1270, one which he did not survive. The harbour also suffered a terrible fate: it silted up! Thus the town’s inhabitants experienced a difficult period in their history.

But thanks to its splendid town wall Aigues-Mortes still manages to capture the atmosphere of the Middle Ages.