Aigues-Mortes

Aerial View of Aiges-Mortes

   
     Aigues-Mortes is a small commune in the southwest region of France. Said to be founded by the Roman general and statesman,Garius Marius in 102 bc, but its exact establishment cannot be determined with any certainty. It is likely that since its earliest beginnings Aigues-Mortes has survived off of mining the surrounding salt marshes. 

It is likely the community survived mostly as an outpost and humble mining town until 1240 when Louis IX obtained the land and the surrounding region in an exchange with the monks of the region. The intent of the community was a strategic outpost and deployment center for the Crusades. Louis IX departed twice for the Crusades from Aigues-Mortes: the Seventh Crusade in 1248 and the Eighth in 1270, of which he died of dysentery. The Crusades of course did not subside there and the town remained a stronghold in the crusades. During this period the commune’s fortification grew significantly. Although the town was rarely directly attacked, it did not stop city planners from ramping up the fortifications with each passing year.

Illustration of the Massacre of the Italians

Carbonniere Tower

After the Crusades, the community survived mostly by its industries of salt-mining, fishing, viticulture, and the breeding of horses and bulls. Like, Spain bullfighting became a prominent sport where it remained as a major cultural tradition. The sleepy town remained until the 1800s when a massacre of Italians took place in the salt-marshes of Aigues-Mortes. Worker struggles and xenophobia abounded in the community and resulting in this devastating affair. Otherwise, the town does not lay much claim to fame, that and a few Hemingway novels where the plot was set. Architecturally the medieval city is historically significant because of its development in organized Roman planning strategies, utilizing a grid network, large fortifying walls, and references to classical themes such as Triumphal Arches. The design utilized these motifs and began to adapt them into a new distinctly French medieval language. The emphasis on fortifying structures and many of the developments made in Aigues-Mortes became architectural motifs that would be repeated in many other communities throughout the region for the next few hundred years. For example, the Carbonnière Tower, surrounded by salt marshes was the only entranceway into the community. It was heavily fortified and guarded. It also was designed to house four cannons of which their fodder would clearly dissuade any on-coming attackers. Aigues-Mortes quickly became its own typology and testimony to European military architecture in marshland regions.
Sournia, Bernard, and Hervé Champollion. Aigues-Mortes. Rennes: Ed. "Ouest-France, 1994. Print.