After my utter incompetence when we visited Beaucaire I somewhat redeemed myself by managing to visit Aigues-Mortes walls on a festival day. The town was built as a base for Louis IX to launch his crusades as the rest of the coastline was not controlled by French royalty at the time.
The map shows the location and also helps understand why the town fell out of use – the marshes and silt surrounding it slowly expanded which meant it was too much work to clear the channels to the sea.
Visiting Aigues-Mortes walls
Firstly, to give you an idea of what we came to see, here’s a view of the walls, copied from this excellent site.
The walls are completely intact and the famous red marshes almost lap against them, hence the Morte name, from dead water due to the salt ….
We were able to park in one of the well marked car parks right outside the walls. As you enter the town through the main gate there is a tourist office in the north west corner (Place Anatole France) and you buy tickets for the walls there.
My Experience
This was one of the most memorable places I have ever been to. The walls of Aigues-Mortes were impressive and it was a lovely town (although the interior is largely 19th century) but the visit was really made by the festival. From the walls we got an excellent view of the bull running which was fascinating to watch.
As you walk around the walls each tower has a display or some information and the Tower of Constance, the largest tower that was originally built by Charlemagne as a watchtower, has an incredible interior. The vaulted ceiling is impressive and you can take the lift to the viewing area to look across the salt marshes. These were not red when we visited and I wish we had taken the time to do a boat trip so we could see the salt processing and also view the walls from that aspect.
Aigues-Mortes walls Photo Gallery
Tower of Constance 
Tower of Constance 
History
As far back as we can go following the historic tracks of Aigues-Mortes, the town would have been founded by Marius Caius 102 BC. But it’s not until 791 when, under the impetus of Charlemagne, the first tower, the Matafére Tower, was built in this little hamlet surrounded by marshes and where fishermen and salt miners lived hand to mouth. This building, with its eye to the Mid-east and its war aims, was soon handed over to the Benedictine Abbey.
In the 13th century, the king Louis IX, who was looking for a port on the Mediterranean Sea from which to send off his Crusaders, set his sights on Aigues-Mortes. From then on, the town was built up around this project. A dyked up road croosed the insalubrious marshes and the population grew. Towers sprang up like mushrooms after the rain to protect the city.
In 1272 the king Saint-Louis began the construction of the city walls, an enclosure with a 1640m perimeter, which still encircles Aigues-Mortes today.
At the end of the 16th century, the Wars of Religion began to rage in France, affecting this city, as well. Between the introduction of Calvinism which engendered, in this region, many conflicts over two centuries and the constant defense of the saltworks, the city battled against the tumults of history. The Constance Tower became a prison dreaded by the “preachers” and the “inspired” at the time of the abolition of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and up until 1767.
The French Revolution, mostly welcomed by Aigues-Mortes, is not long in plunging the inhabitants into passionate political conflicts, bringing with it a regime governing through terror and denunciations and refuting the freedom of religion. At the same time, marshes’ exhalations provoked serious epidemics.
These were dark periods, which the 19th century worked to appease, to finally, at the start of the 20th century, recognize Aigues-Mortes as a renowned tourist station. Ennobled by the mastery of its saltworks and its heritage – classed as a historic monument – it inspires today a charming and sweet life in this little corner of the Camargue, on the shores of the Mediterranean.
References
This site is an excellent guide to visiting the town.
There is some excellent information on visiting the walls here including a map.
This site has an excellent history, copied above, and also information about the outlying defences of the town that we didn’t visit.