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It is separated into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. The folk etymology � involving a châtelaine named , a ruse ending a siege and the joyous ringing of bells (" sona") � though memorialized in a neo-Gothic sculpture of Mme. on a column near the , is of modern invention. The fortress, which was thoroughly restored in 1853 by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997. The name can be derived as a hyperbole of name Carcas. Similarly in Italian language, there are derived names like Castellino (little castle) - Castello - Castellone (big castle), or Ombrellino (small umbrella) - Ombrello - Ombrellone (large umbrella). A double 's' in the name appears for phonetic reasons, otherwise as a self standing 's' it would be pronounced as 'z'. |