The Landes is the department of vast pine forests and the Atlantic, a region of beaches, dunes and moorland that was long considered inhospitable until the 19th century radically transformed it through the drainage of the marshes and the large-scale planting of maritime pines, which today make it the largest man-made forest in Europe.
The Landes’ heritage of castles is modest compared to neighbouring departments, but it bears witness to a unique rural and seigneurial history linked to livestock farming, resin and the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Dax, a Gallo-Roman spa town whose hot springs have been flowing since ancient times, boasts a number of remarkable residences. Gaujacq Castle, Poyanne Manor and Onard Castle are examples of the seigneurial architecture of the Gascony region of the Landes.
Mont-de-Marsan, the prefecture of the Landes, and Saint-Sever, an ancient Roman and medieval town on the Way of St James, offer fine examples of medieval architecture in a department whose identity is more rural than castle-centred, but which is well worth exploring for the authenticity of its landscapes and the warmth of its people.