Aigues-Morte the Fortified City, Episode 313

<div class="entry-content"> <p> </p> <blockquote>This episode features our frequent and very popular guest Elyse Rivin. If you enjoy her episodes, please consider supporting her on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/elysart" target= "_blank" rel="noopener">Patreon</a>.</blockquote> <p>Aigues-Morte is a fortified city near Montpellier and Sète. It is part of the Petite Camargue. It is a marshland that is the delta of the Rhone river. This part of France used to be quite poor because there were no industries besides the salt trade. Aigues-Morte had its glory day in the 1100-1200 under Louis IX who was canonized and became Saint Louis.</p> <h2>Aigues-Morte and Saint Louis</h2> <p>Saint-Louis was extremely religious and that's why he brought back the Crown of Thorns to France and built the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. He went on several crusades, including the 7th crusade. He had departed to the crusade from various ports that belonged to the Italians. For the 7th crusade he decided to build a city that we talk about today.</p> <h3>Building the Fortified City of Aigues-Morte</h3> <p>Aigues-Morte is not on the Mediterranean sea directly, but it links to it through man-made canals. This allowed Saint-Louis to bypass Italian waters. There was a tower there built by Charlemagne in the 8th century. This was merely a tower to observe the arrival of possible assailants. The name "Aigues-Morte" means stagnant waters or more literally dead waters. It is the French Bayou without the aligators! It's only 20 miles from Montpellier and it's easy to get between the two cities.</p> <p>The original tower by Charlemagne is not there any more, they replaced it with the Tour Constance. It was a look-out tower and also a prison. The Constance Tower is 30 meters high and the walls are 6 meters thick.</p> <p>Louis IX decided to go on the 7th crusade in 1244. This particular crusade was not to "liberate" Jerusalem but rather to attack Egypt. They left for that crusade from Aigues-Morte when they could have used Marseille. Marseille was under th