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Monument
This fortress was built between 1497 and 1504 on the order of Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Aragon, to keep France out of the Roussillon region. It was intended to replace the square castle with 27 metre sides located on a nearby peak. This small fortification was ill adapted to the art of warfare as it had developed at the end of the 15th century when metal ball artillery came into use.
Designed by Francisco Ramiro Lopez, the king’s first artilleryman, the fortress of Salses is a masterpiece of military architecture, a notable example of the transition from medieval château (the fortress has a keep and round towers framing long curtains) to modern fortress (it is strictly geometrical with deep foundations).
With walls almost ten metres thick, the construction has three to seven levels connected by a labyrinth with a multitude of zigzag internal defences. The plan of defence involved dividing the fort into three independent parts running from east to west:
– the common part, organised around a four sided courtyard with archways on three sides providing access to the chapel, barracks and stables;
– the keep, which was separated from the central courtyard by an interior trench and a wall with redans, and housed important supply and services areas (gunpowder stores, wine cellar, water cisterns, kitchens, ovens, prison, guardroom);
– a 20-metre-high dungeon which served as the command post and the final refuge, and was separated from the keep by small courts which provided light and facilitated defence.
The whole structure was protected by a wide dry moat preceded by a glacis, and on the east, south and northwest, by three independent pointed towers which constituted so many advance defence positions. The location of the fortress, which was dictated by the presence of a spring, a necessity in the event of a siege, is a strategic position along the main role between France and Spain, in the centre of a narrow piece of land between two natural obstacles: the Corbières rock formations and the swamps along the small lakes. As soon as it was built (the first fighting in which it was involved took place in 1503 when it was not even finished), the fortress was coveted by both the French and the Spanish. Under siege, captured and recaptured in 1503, 1639 and 1640, it was finally taken by the French in 1642 after a fourth siege. The Treaty of the Pyrénées signed on November 16, 1659, ratified French ownership. From then on, it lost its strategic importance, since it was located far from the border and several attempts were made to raze it because of the high maintenance costs. However, it survived and was restored and transformed beginning in 1691 by Vauban.
The property of the French State since 1930, the fortress of Salses is managed by the Centre des monuments nationaux, which opens the monument to the public. Some 100,000 people visit the fortress every year.
Lodging
See the listing of the Hotels inPerpignan
Practical information
Forteresse de Salses
66600 Salses-le-Château
Going there
From Béziers: motorway A 9 towards Perpignan, exit n° 40, then secondary road D 627 and main road N 9 towards Perpignan
From Perpignan: main road N 9 towards Narbonne
On the Perpignan/Montpellier road
15 km north of Perpignan
66 km south of Enserune
Opening / Closing
Open
from June 1 to September 30 : 9:30- 7
from October 1 to May 31: 10:00 -12:15 and 2:00 – 5:00
Last guided tour 1 hr before closing
Closed
on January 1, May 1, November 1, November 11 and December 25