Villefranche-de-Conflent

Villefranche-de-Conflent Vilafranca de Conflent
A view of Villefranche from Fort Liberia
Coat of arms
Villefranche-de-Conflent
Location within Languedoc-Roussillon region Villefranche-de-Conflent
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées
Department	Pyrénées-Orientales
Arrondissement	Prades
Canton	Prades
Government
• Mayor (2001–2008)	François Galte
Area1	4.46 km2 (1.72 sq mi)
Population (2006)2	244
• Density	55/km2 (140/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	66223 / 66500
Elevation	390–1,395 m (1,280–4,577 ft) (avg. 432 m or 1,417 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Villefranche-de-Conflent (Catalan: Vilafranca de Conflent) is historically a town in the Conflent region of Catalonia, and now a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.

Geography

Localisation

Villefranche-de-Conflent is located in the canton of Prades and in the arrondissement of Prades.

Map of Villefranche-de-Conflent and its surrounding communes

The town's confined site, at about 440 m above sea level, is relatively level ground surrounded by

• the northeast-flowing river Têt (on the town's west and north),
• the Cady, which flows north to empty into the Têt (on the east), and
• a peak (at nearly 800 m), less than 800 m away (on the south).

Transports

Roads

The N116 from Perpignan on the Mediterranean passes, as a two-lane highway, between the southern town wall and an embankment cut into the high ground to the south; this route continues west into the adjacent Cerdagne region.

Train

The town's train station starts and ends the route of the scenic Yellow train.

History

The original town dates from 1098, and was fortified because of its strategic position in lands that changed hands between French and Spanish occupation.

• In 1374, Villefranche resisted the siege of Jaume III the son of last king of Majorca.
• In July 1654, the French captured the city after eight days, and the troops of Louis XIV took Puigcerda from the Spaniards.
• The town was part of the program of construction and improvement of outlying French defenses led by through 1707 by Marshal Vauban, and as such is listed as a World Heritage Site.

The defensive walls of the town remain.

Villefranche-de-Conflent, viewed from the north

See also

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Orientales department
• Les Plus Beaux Villages de France

References

• Ayats, Alain, "Les fortifications de Vauban", Trabucaire, 2005, ISBN 2-84974-026-8
• INSEE commune file

External links

• Webpage about the fortifications
• Webpage about Fort Liberia near Villefranche