Château Royal de Collioure

The Château Royal de Collioure sits directly on the harbour, its feet practically in the sea, a massive fortification whose scale feels slightly absurd in such a small town. The castle complex includes the original medieval core, the Aragonese expansion with its round towers, and Vauban's 17th-century modifications that gave the walls their current profile. The views from the battlements take in the harbour, the church, the beaches on either side, and the mountains behind.

The interior is open to visitors and contains a museum covering the castle's history and the town's past as a major trading port of the Crown of Aragon. The Aragonese connection explains why Collioure feels so different from the rest of southern France: for three centuries it was culturally and politically Catalan, and that heritage still shows in the architecture, the food, and the language of many residents.

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A story
The château has stood on this spot, in one form or another, since the time of the Knights Templar in the 12th century. It was dramatically expanded by the Aragonese kings in the 13th and 14th centuries, when Collioure was the principal Mediterranean port of the Crown of Aragon. Vauban substantially modified it in the 1670s after the Treaty of the Pyrenees gave Roussillon to France, strengthening the fortifications against Spanish attack. For most of the 20th century the château was used as a prison, including for Spanish Republican refugees during and after the Spanish Civil War — some of whom died here.