This is an old picture of Castelnaudary. As so often the Romans were the first to give a name to the settlement “Sostomagus” and later “Castellum Novum Arii”. 1000 years later it became “Chateau neuf Ari” and that has mutated into Castelnaudary. The area was central to the heretic sect of the Cathars, which flourished early in the 2nd millenium AD. The Cathars were finally wiped out by a vengeful Catholic church in the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 12th century the campaigns were led by Simon de Montfort, the father of the Simon of Magna Carta fame. In 1235 when the Inquisition arrived the grey robed dominicans had great difficulty rooting out the heretics, since their fellow townsfolk refused to implicate their fellows.

It was at this point that the legend of Cassoulet was born. The Black Prince Edward of Wales was on his way to the crusades and to earn some glory (if not money as well) besieged Castelnaudary for the Pope. The siege was not going well for either side. The town was running out of food and Edward’s troops were becoming ill and were also short of food. The town played a final trick, boiled all their remaining food in a cauldron and threw it at Edward over the town walls. The besieging army, thinking that there must be plenty of provisions left in the town, packed up their camp and left the town. Though most unlikely to be the basis of cassoulet it makes a good legend.

The region has always been fiercely independent and later, in 1632, the final dreams of languedocian independence from France were dashed with the capture of rebellious Henri de Montmorency at the battle of Castelnaudary. He was taken to Toulouse and executed on the orders of Cardinal Richelieu.

50 years later with the opening of the Canal du Midi the basis of modern Castelnaudary was formed. Authorised by Colbert, the 1st minister of Louis XIV  and the brainchild of P P Riquet,it was opened in1681. The canal was the means of transport for the woad industry, which centred on the Lauragais, with Castelnaudary the centre of that. The town’s elders paid to have the canal port built at Castelnaudary. The Grand Bassin was built as a reservoir for the series of locks at la Roche, which has a 9.5metre drop, the biggest on the Canal du Midi. 

The death of the woad industry, with the invention of indigo and chemical blue dies, meant that wheat became the main industry of the area and the Halle au Grain in Castelnaudary the main wheat market and the canal the means of transport.

Wheat is still the biggest export from this area. The coming of the railways in the 19th Century killed the commercial traffic on the canal. It languished until the 1970s.

At this time the tourist boats started to ply their trade. Old barges were converted to pleasure craft and newboats were designed for tourism. In the Grand bassin opposite our house is the mooring for a company hiring these cruisers. The big building on the right of the photo is a dry dock and used to be part of a workshop building and maintaining barges on the canal.