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The relations between the city of Carcassonne and the Canal are the product of a long history, full of ups and downs.

Three periods characterise the development of these relations.

The town's refusal to participate in the works

According to the original drawing, the Canal's course was outside the town of CARCASSONNE for topographical reasons, as the initial plans of Paul RIQUET were to harness the Fresquel riverbed. This solution was abandoned because of the problems it was raising, and the "full-face" path digging method was selected. This course, however, was located outside the town. Negotiations got under way in 1670, between Riquet and Justice Mage of CARCASSONNE. However, the excavation work required to open the Canal through to the town implied having another 2 kilometres added to the course, which prompted Riquet to request a 100,000-pound participation from the Consuls of CARCASSONNE. It was the magnitude of this sum, compared with the governors' interest in the Canal, that partly caused the project to fall through. Following this refusal, the Canal, when it was completed in 1681 ran at a distance of 2 kilometres from CARCASSONNE

Assessment of the mistake and governors's motion to obtain a new course

The remoteness of the Canal was soon regarded as a mistake and a handicap for the Carcassonne trade and its impact on the town's economic development, in view of the advantage that the town of Castelnaudary was taking of the situation. Several projects were looked into in order to solve this problem.
Linking the town to the Canal through a secondary canal was proposed by Vauban in 1686. This proposal was modified between 1750 and 1754 by a town engineer named Louis Pellissier, and work began. But in fact, what actually gave birth to a new course were the problems experienced when crossing the Fresquel with the existing canal, and how difficult they were to solve.

Seizing this opportunity, the town of Carcassonne proposed to deviate the canal, bringing its course under the walls of the city.
On 9 February 1786, the Estates of Languedoc adopted this plan. The works began in 1787 and were very slow going due to all kinds of problems, including technical ones. The canal, and related works - harbour basin, pont Marengo, pont de la paix, pont d'Iéna - were completed in 1810 and inaugurated on 31 May of that year.

The harbour, a true representation of urban transformation

When the canal was first commissioned in 1810, the artificial ditches had been filled up and work was under way to create tree-lined boulevards aound the bastide.

From that time on, the canal exhibiting its present-day geometry shared a different relationship with the town depending on its various sections. The upstream, entranched portion had a major impact on the scenery, but in view of its difference in level (more than 7m) it created no significant changes on the space between the canal and the bastide.

However, the harbour area was subject to a number of interventions. Three key stages have been identified.

First stage: 1812 an urban project associated with the harbour

A major project of urban extension was conducted on the space between the harbour and the bastide limit, taking the canal as the generating principle.

This project aimed at organising the extension of the rue Albert Tomey and rue d'Armagnac surrounding a public square lined with two islands built between the basin pier and the boulevard.
This proposal followed, on the bastide side, with the building of islands between the limit of the old wall and the boulevard, and of a set of buildings related to operating the canal - shops and housing - on the other side of the basin.
This project both:
- complied with the traditional way of treating the canal by involving the basin and including a wide expanse of public space,
- reflected the attempts to find a close fit between the canal and the bastide by combining both entities into an urban reorganisation of the area.

Second stage : 1814-1855 implementation of the Harbour-Bastide seam

The 1812 drawing remained a plan. However, a number of the sketched principles led to partial creations.

A number of actions were conducted to give the area its shape:
- Creation of an urban front, aligned with the boulevard, through the setting up of islands extending the pattern of the Bastide. This organisation marked a break with the logic of a tree-lined walkway installed on the ancient ditches and developed on the other faces of the Bastide.
- Establishment of several successive projects designed to give status to the space between the boulevard and the Basin: in 1814, one project directly in line with that of 1812, proposed a central square adorned with a column surrounded by two constructed islands; between 1821 and 1828, a new version of the square project was implemented featuring a column with two fountains; finally after 1830 the projects to urbanise this space were abandoned to the benefit of building a garden-walk along the Canal, with access to the Basin via two series of steps.
- Implementation of a collection of buildings related to operation of the Canal. The exact times of construction of these buildings are somewhat difficult to assess, in view of the situation of the archives, the drawings being undated or having undergone changes over time. Some details are however available, which can be used to sketch the evolution of the site.

A housing construction project proposed an assembly consisting of a central one-storey building, with two symmetrical ground-floored buildings connected to the central building by a wall featuring grilles to mark the limit of two enclosures giving out onto the Canal and accessible via two pilaster-lined passageways.
A view from 1850 and a drawing dated 1854 indicate the achievement of two ground-floored buildings located on the edge of the Basin and connected through a grille.
Their architecture seems to comply with that of the ground-floored buildings mentioned in the previous project. However, their use was directly assigned to the Canal's economy: faster traffic and housing for the keeper.
In addition, a building located on the other side, in alignment with the current wall of the S.N.C.F., was assigned to Canal office purposes.

It is therefore during this period that the main components of the current configuration were positioned, by the superimposition of two different methods.

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