Lagoon of Salses

The lagoon of Salses lies behind a narrow coastal strip between Roussillon and Languedoc. Its shallow waters supported fishing communities, whose rights and practices were recorded in medieval charters. Between the lagoon and the hills, the fortress of Salses guarded the road from Perpignan to Narbonne. French and Spanish armies fought over it in the seventeenth century before the Treaty of the Pyrenees moved the frontier south in 1659.