Fort Salses

For all its deceptive elegance there can be no doubt as to the original military purpose of Fort Salses. Crouching there like some wild beast, at the foot of the Corbières mountains, where the Roussillon coastal plain narrows, this formidable stronghold controlled the corridor between the lagoons of Leucate and Salses, the only possible route systematically taken by conquerors and invaders marching towards Hispania. There, standing like a faithful sentry on the borders of the Spanish kingdoms, the fort had to constantly bar the route to the northern enemy, France - a function it performed perfectly from its baptism of fire in 1503 until the mid-17th century.

Having outlived its military usefulness following Roussillon's attachment to France in 1659, the stronghold that was, in its day, one of the largest modern forts in Europe owed its survival to the very mass of its construction, the identity of whose author remained a secret until it was brought to light recently by painstaking research.

The « Itinéraires » séries, designed as a guide for cultural tourism, invites the visitor to discover the highroads and byways of France's national heritage.