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Perpignan Perpinyà  (Catalan)
Prefecture and commune
Perpignan seen from the Palace of the Kings of Majorca
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Perpignan
Perpignan Show map of France Perpignan Show map of Occitanie
Coordinates: 42°41′55″N 2°53′44″E / 42.6986°N 2.8956°E / 42.6986; 2.8956Coordinates: 42°41′55″N 2°53′44″E / 42.6986°N 2.8956°E / 42.6986; 2.8956
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Pyrénées-Orientales
Arrondissement	Perpignan
Canton	Perpignan-1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Intercommunality	Perpignan Méditerranée Métropole
Government
• Mayor .mw-parser-output .nobold{font-weight:normal} (2009–2014)	Jean-Marc Pujol (UMP) (Radical-UMP)
Area 1	68.07 km2 (26.28 sq mi)
Population (2016)2	121,875
• Density	1,800/km2 (4,600/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Perpignanais
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	66136 /66000
Elevation	8–95 m (26–312 ft) (avg. 30 m or 98 ft)
Website	www.mairie-perpignan.fr (in French) www.ajuntament-perpinya.cat (in Catalan)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Perpignan (French: [pɛʁpiɲɑ̃]; Catalan: Perpinyà [pəɾpiˈɲa]) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in Southwest France. Perpignan was the capital of the former province and County of Roussillon (Rosselló in Catalan) and continental capital of the Kingdom of Majorca in the 13th and 14th centuries.

In 2013 Perpignan had 118,238 inhabitants (Perpignanais(e) in French, Perpinyanés(a) in Catalan) in the commune proper. The metropolitan area had a total population of 305,837 in 2010.

Geography

Location

Perpignan is located in the center of the Roussillon plain, 13 km west of the Mediterranean coast. It is the southernmost of the cities of metropolitan France.

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  Map of Perpignan and its surrounding communes
  

  
  

  
  


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  Location within the Pyrénées-Orientales département.
  

  
  

  
  

Hydrography

Perpignan is crossed by the largest river in Roussillon, the Têt, and by one of its tributaries, the Basse. Floods often occur, as in 1892 when the rising of the Têt in Perpignan destroyed 39 houses, leaving more than 60 families homeless.^[1]

Climate

Perpignan experiences a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) similar to much of the Mediterranean coastline of France.

Transport

Roads

The motorway A9 connects Perpignan with Barcelona and Montpellier.

Trains

Perpignan is served by the Gare de Perpignan railway station, which offers connections to Paris, Barcelona, Toulouse, and several regional destinations. Salvador Dalí proclaimed it to be the "Center of the Universe" after experiencing a vision of cosmogonic ecstasy there in 1963.^[5]

Airport

The nearest airport is Perpignan–Rivesaltes Airport.

Toponymy

Attested forms

The name of Perpignan appears in 927 as Perpinianum, followed in 959 by Villa Perpiniano, Pirpinianum in the 11th century, Perpiniani in 1176. Perpenyà, which appears in the 13th century, is the most common form until the 15th century, and was still used in the 17th century.

History

Perpignan circa 1780

Though settlement in the area goes back to Roman times, the medieval town of Perpignan seems to have been founded around the beginning of the 10th century. Soon Perpignan became the capital of the counts of Roussillon. Historically, it was part of the region known as Septimania. In 1172 Count Girard II bequeathed his lands to the Counts of Barcelona. Perpignan acquired the institutions of a partly self-governing commune in 1197. French feudal rights over Roussillon were given up by Louis IX in the Treaty of Corbeil.

When James I the Conqueror, king of Aragon and count of Barcelona, founded the Kingdom of Majorca in 1276, Perpignan became the capital of the mainland territories of the new state. The succeeding decades are considered the golden age in the history of the city. It prospered as a centre of cloth manufacture, leather work, goldsmiths' work, and other luxury crafts. King Philippe III of France died there in 1285, as he was returning from his unsuccessful crusade against the Aragonese Crown.

Perpignan circa 1905

In 1344 Peter IV of Aragon annexed the Kingdom of Majorca and Perpignan once more became part of the County of Barcelona. A few years later it lost approximately half of its population to the Black Death. It was attacked and occupied by Louis XI of France in 1463; a violent uprising against French rule in 1473 was harshly put down after a long siege, but in 1493 Charles VIII of France, wishing to conciliate Castile in order to free himself to invade Italy, restored it to Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Again besieged and captured by the French during the Thirty Years' War in September 1642, Perpignan was formally ceded by Spain 17 years later in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, and from then on remained a French possession.

Government and politics

Mayors

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Perpignan is twinned with:

Partner towns

Population and society

Perpignan street name sign in French and Catalan.

Demography

Events

The famous "Sanch Procession" folklore, once forbidden by the Church, is still celebrated in Perpignan, Arles-sur-Tech, and Collioure.

Since 2004, the free three-day Guitares au Palais is held each year in the last weekend of August in the Palace of the Kings of Majorca. The festival has a broad mainstream focus with pop-related music as well as traditional acoustic guitar music and alternative music. The festival has attracted international guests like Caetano Veloso (2007), Rumberos Catalans, Pedro Soler, Bernardo Sandoval, Peter Finger, and Aaron and Bryce Dessner (2008).

Each September, Perpignan hosts the internationally-renowned Visa pour l'Image festival of photojournalism. Free exhibitions are mounted in the Couvent des Minimes, Chapelle des Dominicaines and other buildings in the old town.^[9]

In 2008, Perpignan became Capital of Catalan Culture.^[10] In Perpignan many street name signs are in both French and Catalan.

Sport

Rugby side Catalans Dragons' Stade Gilbert Brutus.

Like the rest of the south of France, Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USAP Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the global elite Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the French Top 14 (most recently in 2009). A Perpignan-based rugby league club plays in Northern Hemisphere's Super League under the name Catalans Dragons. The Dragons' games in Perpignan against the Northern English-based sides are usually very popular with British rugby fans, with thousands of them descending on the city on the day of the game, including lots of vacationing rugby fans travelling up from the Spanish Costa Brava joining the ones who came directly from home.

Economy

Traditional commerce was in wine, olive oil, corks (the cork oak Quercus suber grows in Perpignan's mild climate), wool, leather, and iron. In May 1907 it was a seat of agitation by southern producers for government enforcement of wine quality following a collapse in prices. JOB rolling papers are currently manufactured in Perpignan.

Sites of interest

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was begun in 1324 and finished in 1509.^[11]

The 13th century Palace of the Kings of Majorca sits on the high citadel, surrounded by ramparts, reinforced for Louis XI and Charles V, which were updated in the 17th century by Louis XIV's military engineer Vauban.

The walls surrounding the town, which had been designed by Vauban, were razed in 1904 to accommodate urban development. The main city door, the Castillet is a small fortress built in the 14th century, which has been preserved. It had also been used as a prison until the end of the 19th century.^[12]

The Hôtel Pams is a lavishly-decorated mansion designed for Jules Pams that illustrates the artistic taste of the wealthy bourgeois at the turn of the 20th century.^[13]

Les Halles de Vauban are a new addition to the banks of the city's canal. Opened in November 2017 the indoor markets are privately owned and cost €1.5 million. Split over 2 locations, vendors offer fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, flowers, cheese etc. There is a bar and central eating court with a range of tapas, burgers, omelettes and food from around the world.^[14]

Place de la République and theatre

Sadi Carnot and Vauban walkways and the river Bassa

Notable people linked to Perpignan

Natives

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  Anna Maria Antigó (1602-1676), abbess


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  Menachem Meiri (1249–c. 1310), Catalan rabbi, Talmudist, and Maimonidean.


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  Louise Labé (1524–1566), Lyons poet of the Renaissance who, at the siege of Perpignan, or in a tournament there, is said to have dressed in male clothing and fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.


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  Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743), painted the definitive portraits of Louis XIV.


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  François de Fossa (1775–1849), classical guitarist and composer.


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  François Arago (1786–1853), physicist, astronomer, and liberal politician who secured the abolition of slavery in the French colonies in 1853, was born in the nearby village of Estagel and is memorialized in the eponymous Place Arago that bears his statue in the centre of the town.


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  Amédée Artus (1815–1892), composer and conductor.


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  Alexandre Artus (1821–1911), brother of Amédée, also a composer and conductor.


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  Eugène Collache (1847–1883), French Navy officer who fought in Japan for the shōgun during the Boshin War
  


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  Aristide Maillol (1861–1944), French Catalan sculptor and painter. Bronzes in the Garden of Tuileries, Paris and at the Metropolitan Museum, NYC.


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  André Marty (1886–1956), communist leader.


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  Mary Elmes (1908-2002), Irish aid worker that was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations for saving the lives of more than 200 Jewish children during the Second World War.


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  Robert Brasillach (1909–1945), fascist author and journalist, executed for advocating collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II.


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  Philippe Georget (born 1962), novelist


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  Isabelle Pasco (born 1966), actress


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  Frédérick Bousquet (born 1981), French freestyle and butterfly swimmer who competed at three consecutive Summer Olympics (2000, 2004, and 2008).


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  Sandrine Erdely-Sayo (born 1968) pianist – youngest recipient of the French Minister of Culture Prize at 13 years old. She lives in Philadelphia where she became National Interest for the United States.

Others

Perpignan has a close connection with the sculptor Aristide Maillol, who attended school there.

Following a visit in 1963, the Catalan surrealist artist Salvador Dalí declared the city's railway station the centre of the Universe, saying that he always got his best ideas sitting in its waiting room. Dalí's painting La Gare de Perpignan commemorates his vision of "cosmogonic ecstasy" there on September 19, 1963.^[15] He followed that up some years later by declaring that the Iberian Peninsula rotated precisely at Perpignan station 132 million years ago – an event the artist invoked in his 1983 painting Topological Abduction of Europe – Homage to René Thom.^[16] Above the station is a monument in Dali's honour, and across the surface of one of the main platforms is painted, in big letters, «perpignan centre du monde» (French for "perpignan centre of the world").^[17]

Perpignan train station

Gallery

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  Le Castillet
  

  
  

  
  


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  Bridge over river Basse
  

  
  

  
  


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  Mermaids fountain
  

  
  

  
  


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  City centre
  

  
  

  
  


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  Cinéma Le Castillet
  

  
  

  
  


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  Château Roussillon: tower of the old castle (13th and 14th centuries)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Château Roussillon: Sainte-Marie and Saint-Pierre chapel (11th and 12th centuries)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Cathédrale Saint-Jean
  

  
  

  
  


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  Perpignan Cathedral
  

  
  

  
  


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  François Arago Lyceum
  

  
  

  
  


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  Panoramic view of the Perpignan Cathedral
  

  
  

  
  


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  Palace of the King of Mallorca
  

  
  

  
  


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  The bridge
  

  
  

  
  


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  The altar of the church
  

  
  

  
  

See also

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Orientales department

References

Bibliography

• Alícia Marcet, Histoire de Perpignan, la fidelíssima (1995), Perpinyà [Perpignan] : Llibres del Trabucaire,
  ISBN 9782905828613
  

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Perpignan.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Perpignan.

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  City council website (in Catalan) (in French)
  


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  History of Perpignan (in French)
  


• Perpignan Tourist Office


• Museum guide


• Unofficial guide to Perpignan Airport


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  Companie Transports – Public Bus System (in French)
  


• INSEE commune file