Pyrénées-Orientales department

Pyrénées-Orientales
region	Occitania
prefecture	Perpignan
Sub-prefecture (s)	Ceret Prades
Residents	474,452 (Jan. 1, 2017)
Population density	115 inhabitants per km²
surface	4,116.02 km²
Arrondissements	3
Community associations	12
Cantons	17th
Communities	226
President of the Department Council	Ermine Malherbe
ISO-3166-2 code	FR-66
Location of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in the Occitanie region

The Département Pyrénées-Orientales [ piʀene (z) ɔʀjɑ̃ˈtal ] ( Catalan Pirineus Orientals ; German  Eastern Pyrenees ) is the French department with the order number 66. It is located in the south of the country in the Occitania region on the Spanish border and was named after its location on Named the eastern edge of the Pyrenees .

geography

The Pyrénées-Orientales department borders on the Mediterranean Sea to the east, Spain to the south, the Aude department to the north and Andorra and the Ariège department to the west .

The department includes the historical province of Roussillon and, in the north, a small part of the historical province of Languedoc , the Fenouillèdes .

The valleys of the Têt and the Tech widen at the eastern foot of the Canigoukette to a very fertile plain with a Mediterranean climate and lush vegetation, which is preceded by a flat coastal strip made up of debris, which forms the Côte Vermeille with the lagoon coast to the north and is developed for tourism shall be.

The population cultivates wine and olives, as well as timber and grazing.

history

After the region had belonged to the Principality of Catalonia for a long time as part of the Crown of Aragon , it fell to the French crown with the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) . The department was formed on March 4, 1790 mainly from the county of Roussillon , part of the department in the northwest belonged to the Languedoc . It belonged to the Languedoc-Roussillon region from 1960 to 2015 , which was incorporated into the Occitania region in 2016.

As a transit area from or to the Iberian Peninsula , it already played an important role in prehistory ( Mensch von Tautavel ) and in ancient times (including Hannibal ). There are also isolated testimonies from the time of the Great Migration , the advancing Islam and the Visigothic-influenced architecture of the early Middle Ages . The Carolingians left hardly any traces, but the Romanesque monastery churches of the 11th and 12th centuries (including Cuxa , Elne , Canigou , Serabonne , Marcevol ) began a cultural heyday that ended in the late Middle Ages; apart from the cathedral and the palace of the kings of Mallorca in Perpignan , the Gothic and then the Renaissance and the Baroque hardly played a role in the intellectual and cultural development of the area.

Prehistoric evidence

The megaliths of the eastern Pyrenees consist of around 150 dolmens and only a few menhirs. The department in the extreme south of France consists of the easternmost part of the Pyrenees, and the vast plains of Roussillon. The dolmens are made of gneiss , granite and limestone and are - compared to their Spanish neighbors - rather small. The largest is Na Cristiana . The majority have a rectangular plan consisting of the end panel and two side panels on which the ceiling panel rests. The fourth side of the rectangle served as an entrance and was possibly closed with a system of wood and / or smaller stone. A few dolmens are larger and have a corridor , the sides of which are lengthened by further panels that give the dolmen an elongated shape as a whole. However, the original plans have changed many times over time. No dolmen was found intact, all of them emptied, looted, reused, sometimes in prehistory or ancient times. Often times the plates were moved or destroyed. Many dolmens have bowls often connected with engraved grooves, sometimes accompanied by engravings in the shape of a cross. If the dolmens themselves are not engraved, they may be accompanied by engraved rocks nearby. The megaliths are unevenly distributed across the department - the coastal plain is practically free of them. The most important are in Bas Conflent , Fenouillèdes , Alberes and on the Côte Vermeille ( Dolmen Na Cristiana and another eight dolmens) and to a lesser extent in Cerdanya . In Capcir and Haut Conflent there are few megaliths.

coat of arms

Description : Four red posts in gold , based on the coat of arms of Catalonia .

Cities

• Ceret
• Perpignan
• Prades

Administrative division

Communes and arrondissements in the Pyrénées-Orientales department

Arrondissement	Cantons	Communities	Residents January 1, 2017	Area km²	Density of population / km²	Code INSEE
Ceret	5	64	129,885	1,214.12	107	661
Perpignan	14th	39	284,722	720.48	395	662
Prades	4th	123	59,845	2,181.42	27	663
Pyrénées-Orientales department	17th	226	474.452	4,116.02	115	66

See also:

• List of communes in the Pyrénées-Orientales department
• List of cantons in the Pyrénées-Orientales department
• List of associations of municipalities in the Pyrénées-Orientales department

View of the Pyrenees from Saint Cyprien from

Culture

The department largely corresponds to the historical landscape of Northern Catalonia . The Catalan , the original language of the region, is now to a large extent by the French been displaced. French is the only official language, while Catalan is only taught as an optional subject in schools and the University of Perpignan and is cultivated through private initiative. Nevertheless, around 43% of the inhabitants of the Pyrénées-Orientales still speak or understand the Catalan language today. On December 10, 2007, the Conseil Général adopted a charter to promote the Catalan language ( French : Charte en faveur du Catalan ).

Attractions

Roussillon is a cradle of Romanesque architecture in France. Some monasteries in the Pyrenees are of outstanding importance :

• Saint-Martin-du-Canigou
• Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa
• Serrabone

The cave of Arago , 20 km northwest of Perpignan, is internationally known as the site of fossils of Homo erectus .

Some old towns are also worth seeing:

• Collioure
• Elne
• Perpignan
• Villefranche-de-Conflent

climate

Measurement station: Cap Béar between Banyuls and Port-Vendres at an altitude of 81 meters

maritime climate data	J	F.	M.	A.	M.	J	J	A.	S.	O	N	D.
mean maximum temperature	12	12	14th	16	19th	23	26th	25th	23	19th	15th	13
mean low temperature	6th	6th	8th	10	13	17th	19th	19th	17th	13	9	7th
Number of very sunny days	6th	5	6th	5	6th	7th	14th	11	9	8th	6th	5
Number of days with an overcast sky	10	10	10	7th	6th	4th	1	2	5	8th	9	9
Number of rainy days	4th	4th	5	5	5	4th	3	4th	4th	6th	4th	5
Rainfall in mm	40	35	48	43	50	30th	20th	40	58	105	57	60
Water temperature near the coast	13	12	12	13	15th	17th	22nd	23	23	21st	17th	15th

Days per year with

• Frost: 4 (mid-January)
• Thunderstorm: 15
• Hail: 1
• Rainfalls over 1 mm: 53
• Snow: 1

(As of 1991)

literature

• Ralf Nestmeyer : Languedoc-Roussillon. Michael-Müller-Verlag, Erlangen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89953-696-6 .

Web links

Commons : Département Pyrénées-Orientales  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales Department (French)
• Prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cg66.fr accessed on August 29, 2012.
2. ^ Pyrénées-Orientales - History
3. ↑ Climate data from: Jean-Noël Darde, Plages et côtes de France, Éditions Balland, Paris 1991

Coordinates: 42 ° 35 '  N , 2 ° 37'  E