Haute-Garonne is the capital department of Occitanie, home to Toulouse, the ‘Pink City’, a major city in the south-west whose pink-brick buildings dominate the skyline from the banks of the Garonne. A crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, between plains and mountains, between France and Spain, the department has always been a place of passage and exchange where influences intersect and enrich one another.
Colomiers, Martres-Tolosane, Venerque, Montmaurin—whose Gallo-Roman villa bears witness to the splendour of the Roman aristocracy in these fertile lands… Haute-Garonne boasts a diverse heritage of castles, ranging from medieval fortresses to 19th-century country estates. The Château de Laréole, the region’s largest Renaissance castle, the Château de Tournefeuille, and the Tour de Lannes in Réjaumont are just some of the department’s jewels.
The Pyrenean mountains, with their medieval fortress barns and high-altitude refuges, add an extra dimension to this heritage, whilst Toulouse shines with its Renaissance mansions and Baroque palaces, which bear witness to the wealth of the Capitouls, the magistrates of the ‘Pink City’.