Var (French: [vaʁ] ⓘ, Occitan: [ˈbaɾ]) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France.

Other important towns in Var include Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël, Draguignan, Brignoles, Hyères and La Seyne-sur-Mer.

Var is known for the harbour of Toulon, the main port of the French Navy, for its seaside resorts, the most famous of which is Saint-Tropez, for some fine examples of Romanesque and other medieval architecture, such as Le Thoronet Abbey and the Fréjus Cathedral, for its wines, particularly the wines of Bandol, as well as for its motorsport race track Circuit Paul Ricard, located in Le Castellet.

The department of Var was created at the time of the French Revolution, on 4 March 1790, from a portion of the former royal province of Provence.

The leader of the fight against the epidemic was Georges Clemenceau, a doctor and a member of the National Assembly for the Seine department.

He was later elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Var department from 1888 to 1893 and Senator from 1902 to 1920, during which time he also served as Prime Minister of France.

In 1942 the German Army moved from Occupied France into the zone libre, which included the Var department.

Its geological formations are divided into two regions; one composed of limestone to the northwest of a line between Toulon and Draguignan and of crystalline rock (quartz) to the southeast.

In the south and west there are several plateaus, such as the plateau of Siou Blanc to the north of Toulon, which rise from 400 to 700 metres in altitude.

The department of Var has a Mediterranean climate, slightly warmer, drier and sunnier than Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes, but is also less sheltered from the wind.

[8] As of 2019, there are nine communes with more than 20,000 inhabitants:[3] In the 2017 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen of the National Front won a majority of the vote in Var in the first round, with François Fillon of The Republicans placing second.

The principal industry of Var is tourism, thanks largely to the big summer influx of tourists to the South of France and the Mediterranean coast in particular, but also inland to the Verdon River Canyon and hilltop villages and vineyards.

The 450 domaines or coopératives and the 4 AOCs (appellation d'origine contrôlée) produce 150 million litres of wine a year.