The village of Marsa

Little history

It was one of the most populated villages in the Rebenty Valley. Its municipal territory is also one of the largest with 20 km2. This is almost an anomaly in the middle mountains, but that is explained by the merger of many small peripheral finishings. In the Middle Ages, the settlement of the Marsa Basin was broken up into a large number of small villages and hamlets, a structure inherited from Carolingian times. Most of these small settlements lasted until the 15th century, some having parish ranks like Boulude. They disappeared in the storm of the Middle Ages: Coudersi, Touzeil, Castelpor

Others resurfaced as Chalabrettes, sometimes with a new name: Taffin instead of Castelpor or Les Massols in the probable place of Bac or Labau also named by the old "Mataly" instead of Bordes.

At the beginning of the XXth century, the surroundings of Marsa still reflected well the last glimmers of this world impressed of the medieval times. Land hunger had pushed men to reach the extreme limits of arable land, relegating the forest to the least accessible areas. Today, the forest, coppices have replaced the meadows and fields that were cultivated to the top of the mountains.

From spring to autumn, this setting offers a special flora and fauna palette with, in October, the deer slab

  The village of Marsa is located halfway between the high mountains (Font Romeu, Mont Louis) and the Mediterranean Sea (60/70 Km)
To learn more about the history of the village, click here