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Origin and history

The Castle of Ultrère, also called Ultrera or Oltrera in Catalan, is a castle in ruins located at 571 meters above sea level on a rocky spur of the Alber massif, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Although administratively attached to Argelès-sur-Mer, it is historically linked to the neighbouring town of Sorede. Its name, derived from the Latin Castrum Vulturarium ("Château du Vulture"), evokes its difficult access and its role as a strategic den. The chapel integrated into the castle, dedicated to the Virgin under the name of Mare de Déu Vella, was an ancient Marian sanctuary before being replaced by the Hermitage Notre-Dame du Château below.

The origins of the castle probably date back to a Roman fortification, although no text of that time explicitly mentions it. The scholar Alart, in the 19th century, hypothesized a construction linked to the wars between Sertorus, Pompey and Julius Caesar (82–47 B.C.), but the majority of the present remains date from the Wisigothic period (VI–VII centuries). The site was first cited in 673, when King wisigoth Wamba laid siege to Duke Paul, a self-proclaimed rebel lieutenant king of Septimania. This mention attests to its military importance in the early Middle Ages.

In the Middle Ages, the castle was attached to the seigneury of Sorède, whose lords were called "Lords of Sorède and Ultrera". They lived there until the construction of a seigneurial residence in the village. Around the year 1000, a Romanesque chapel dedicated to Sainte-Marie (13.75 m long) was built there, becoming a place of pilgrimage and then a hermitage. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the site seems abandoned by its garrison, leaving only a hermit as an occupant. An act of 1100 mentions Bernard, the major chaplain of the church of Ultrera, and in 1296 it was attached to the archdiacone of Vallespir.

The castle played an intermittent military role during the Franco-Spanish conflicts. In 1344, he was taken by the Aragonese during the loss of the strongholds of Jacques de Mallorca in Roussillon. The wars between Francis I and Charles Quint in the 16th century disrupted the region, but the peace of Vervins (1598) marked the decline of the secondary fortresses. In the 17th century, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) transferring the Roussillon to France, Jeanne de Vilaplana, wife of Gaston de Foix-Béarn and known as "La Dame de Béarn", ordered the destruction of the castle in 1675 to avoid any pro-Spanish resistance. The chapel was also demolished on his orders, and its elements (marble door, bells, Virgin) were reused to build the Hermitage Notre-Dame du Château.

Today, the ruins of the Castle of Ultrère are a popular site for climbing (about 100 equipped lanes) and outdoor activities (hiking, paragliding, mountain biking). Although part of the site is prohibited from access by a 2017 municipal decree, it remains an emblematic place of Alberian historical and natural heritage. Its history reflects the strategic and religious stakes that marked the Roussillon, from late antiquity to modern conflicts between France and Spain.

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