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Château d'Ultrère
The Château d'Ultrère stands on an arid rocky spur watching over the whole Roussillon plain and the Lavail gorges, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. It is part of a group of fortifications (including the Massane watchtower and the old castle of Montbram, above the hamlet of Lavail) built to defend and watch a natural pass between the Roussillon and Catalonia.
This highly strategic point was fortified by the Romans, probably at the time of the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, but the castle is not mentioned in any known Roman text. A Perpignan scholar, Alart, suggested that it dates from the wars of Sertorius, Pompey and Julius Caesar (82-47 BC), who repeatedly fought over the Roussillon.
