Forêt de la Massane

On the heights of the Albères massif, between 600 and 1,158 metres above sea level, the Massane valley shelters a forest that is rare in the Mediterranean: an old beech wood mixed with oaks, hollies, maples and yews. Its oldest beeches are up to 300 years old and reach around thirty metres in height.

This forest has not been exploited since the end of the 19th century. After centuries of felling to supply charcoal for the Catalan forges, the commune of Argelès suspended logging in the 1880s. Since then, the trees have lived, died and decomposed where they stand. The dead wood, standing or on the ground, feeds and shelters a multitude of insects, fungi, birds and small mammals.

Studied by researchers from the Arago laboratory in Banyuls since the end of the 19th century, the forest became a national nature reserve in 1973, covering 336 hectares. With some 10,000 species recorded, it presents itself as an “open-air laboratory” and one of the most thoroughly inventoried sites in the world. In 2021, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of Europe.

The reserve may be visited freely, on foot, along the waymarked paths; the GR 10 crosses it. To protect it, fires, bivouacking, picking and vehicles are prohibited, and dogs must be kept on a lead.