But the most truly attractive and remarkable part of the antiquities of Elne is the beautiful cloister (Fig. 108), which, fortunately, is still complete and in fine preservation. Each side of the enclosure has, besides the angle piers, three intermediate square piers, the spaces between them being each divided into a triple arcade, supported on coupled columns, the shafts of which are ornamented with all kinds of twists and foliated decoration. The whole is executed in white marble, and finished with great delicacy, forming the richest example remaining of this class of cloister, of which so many fine specimens occur in the South. The work is of various periods, from the twelfth to the fourteenth century. The oldest portions exhibit, in their ornament, a strong Byzantine feeling, which the artists of the later periods have endeavoured to imitate in the portions of the cloisters subsequently built. The shafts and caps of the later columns are as richly carved as the older ones, but they are covered with ornament of a much less conventional character, and more in the style of the natural foliage universally employed in the North in the fourteenth century. To a later period also belong the groined and ribbed vaults with which the cloister is roofed, and the corbels in the walls from which the ribs spring and which are formed as panels containing figure subjects finely executed. The doorway from the cloister into the church is pointed, and has voussoirs of white and red marble alternating--a style of decoration very usual in the South, and which may perhaps be the result of the proximity to the Moors in Spain. Several interesting bas-reliefs and other ancient fragments have been preserved by being built into the walls. CARCASSONNE.--An architectural description of the edifices of Provence and the Riviera would be incomplete without some account of the two most perfect examples of [Illustration: FIG. 108. CLOISTERS AT ELNE.] Mediæval castellated architecture which still exist in the towns of Carcassonne and Aigues Mortes. These are, from their excellent state of preservation, quite unique, and far surpass in extent and interest the remains of the fortifications of any of the other cities of Western Europe. The town of Carcassonne is situated on the river Aude, which is spanned by two bridges, one of them dating from 1184. The portion on the left or north bank was a “bastide,” or detached town, laid out in the time of St Louis; the streets being all drawn at right angles, as was usual in the towns then erected on new sites. Such were the numerous _villes-neuves_ constructed by Edward III. in the South-west of France, and which he endowed with certain privileges, in order to induce men to settle in them, and thus increase the population and strength of the country. [Illustration: FIG. 109. CARCASSONNE.]