This morning we headed off from Marseilles to head off to Marseilles but this would involve two trains with a change in Narbonne. We have looked at the different ways to travel between France and Spain by rail it discovered is not as easy as it seems. The rail tends to travel by the coast line, either the Mediterranean or the Altantic but in the interior is a mountain range. So the travel must involve one of the coasts. The distance is also an issue when you are taking a leisure holiday so it needs to be broken up. In the next few days we will be traveling each day to reach Madrid by Friday but this has meant stopping in a variety of places that normally may not be on the list. Today it is Perpignan, France.
Perpignan is a commune and the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. It was the capital of the former province and county of Roussillon and continental capital of the Kingdom of Majorca in the 13th and 14th centuries. (Did you even know of the Kingdom of Majorca?)
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 (first mentioned in a document as villa Perpiniarum in 927). French feudal rights were given up by Louis IX in the Treaty of Corbeil (1258). 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. It was attacked and occupied by Louis XI of France in 1463, 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 remained a French possession.
Man you learn a lot when you travel and take an interest in the areas you are visiting. This research really helped us decide on what we were going to explore after we settled into our hotel. We headed off to the old section of the city start to find a few of the historical buildings and monuments.
The first discovery was walking over an ancient bridge to face and enter the old city through the Castillet. Le Castillet, built as a gateway in the fourteenth century, is the home to the Casa Pairal. This is an interesting museum of Roussillon's Catalan folk culture, featuring religious art, agricultural and pastoral exposés, and all sorts of local crafts. We did not venture in to explore nor climb to the top for a look around, but with more time it would be worth doing.
We then headed through the old town with its narrow streets and typical row houses to find the Loge de Mer, Hotel de Ville and Palais de la Deputation. La Loge de Mer was constructed in the 14th century and rebuilt during the Renaissance. It has been home, at various times, to Perpignan's stock exchange and maritime tribunal, its ground floor is now occupied by the stylish café-restaurant Le France.
We continued our exploration by discovering the Cathedrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste. The cathedral was begun in 1324 by King Sancho of Majorca, and later finished in the 15th century. It replaced the Cathedral of Elna, and therefore the church was at first the seat of the Bishop of Elne, and then, from 1602, of the Bishop of Perpignan. The cathedral was built in the Catalan Gothic style, because of its association with the Kingdom of Majorca.
Right beside the Cathedral in the shadow of the church is the Camp Santo. The only cloistered cemetery in the whole of France. It is the biggest and oldest in France. It was the cemetery for the first Perpignan parish, Saint John. It was started around the 1300 and finished in 1334 during the reign of James II of Mollorco. At the beginning it consisted of 4 gallaries of 60 feet long with marble niches bordered by a row of graves. The sanctuary has modern and interesting stained glass designs.
We then wandered around until we discovered the Casa Xanxo. La Casa is a house of Xanxo Perpignan built in XV th century and has the distinction of having passed through the ages without any big changes. Now owned by the city of Perpignan, it can be visited free of charge. The building was built around 1507 for Xanxo Bernat, a wealthy merchant of the city.
Our final stop was try to tour the Palace of the Kings of Mallorca. In 1276, the king James II of Majorca made Perpignan the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca. He started to build a palace with gardens on the hill of Puig del rey on the south of the town. The Palace of the Kings of Majorca is a fortified Palace in the Gothic style. We were very disappointed to arrive too late to be able to tour the palace but it would be a great idea for our next trip to France. Fortunately our hotel room has a great view of the palace from the balcony so I did get a picture for the file.
We finished the day having walked around and explored this surprisingly beautiful city which we never considered. There is a river that flows through the city (actually 2) and the promenades are treed, grassed and provide a great place for individuals to stroll and enjoy the sights. We are scheduled to leave in the morning, but it was well worth the stop.
By the way, Wes has been really enjoying himself as he has been working hard at his French vocabulary and tutoring me on pronunciations. We both feel that continue to learn French once we get home would be well worth our while and a return trip to France is very likely. Of course tomorrow we head over to Spain and that will likely set my French lesson back a bit, but we will survive.
A note about Perpignan noted by Wes as we prepared to leave Perpignan was described in the railway station regarding Salavador Dali.
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 the waiting room. 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 Rene Thom. 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"). La Gare de Perpignan (Perpignan Train Station) is a 1965 oil on canvas painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí on display in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. It is considered one of the representative works of surrealism.
A note about Perpignan noted by Wes as we prepared to leave Perpignan was described in the railway station regarding Salavador Dali.
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 the waiting room. 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 Rene Thom. 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"). La Gare de Perpignan (Perpignan Train Station) is a 1965 oil on canvas painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí on display in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. It is considered one of the representative works of surrealism.
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