Geography

Located in France on the commune of Salses at 17 km at the north of Perpignan, in the department of the the Eastern Pyrenees, it belongs to the sites managed by the Center of the national monuments.

The fortress is ideally located, along old a Roman Voie, only road between the massive of Corbières and the pond of Leucate.

History

In 1496, following the destruction of the village and the castle of Salses by the French Army, the king Ferdinand II of Aragon decides the construction of the fortress. Built very quickly between 1497 and 1504 by the Spanish , the Forteresse kept old the Frontière between the Catalogne and the France.

The fortress undergoes and resists a first seat in 1503 whereas it is not completed. It is again assiégiée during the Guerre Thirty Year old, and this with three recoveries in three years. It is conquered by French in 1642.

In 1659, the fortress loses its strategic interest with the signature of the Traité of the Pyrenees. Partially restored by Vauban with the XVIIe century, it is used in turn as Prison of state, then of explosives magazine.

Salses is classified Historic building in 1886.

Structure

Its plan and its Architecture, revolutionist at the time, present a rare example of transition between the strong Château Médiéval and the fortifications Bastion born from the modern time.

The innovation comes from the need for adapting to the development of artillery with metal ball. The walls are half-sunken so that the balls rebound. They have from 6 to 10 meters thickness.

The fortress has a Donjon sheltering the office of the governor, of the turns of angles, a labyrinthian network of corridors of communication, and an interior court square, in the center of which a puit is.

The defense system is particularly impressive: Ditches, very many Fatal S external, narrow corridors defended by interior, heavy doors, small meutrières justifiable interior courses by cross shootings…

Salses was to be able to shelter approximately 1500 men and hundreds of horses.

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