Perpignan

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Perpignan
Perpinyà
Perpignan coat of arms
Perpignan (France)
Perpignan
region Occitania
Department Pyrénées-Orientales ( prefecture )
Arrondissement Perpignan
Canton Perpignan-1 , Perpignan-2 , Perpignan-3 , Perpignan-4 , Perpignan-5 , Perpignan-6
Community association Perpignan Méditerranée Métropole
Coordinates 42 ° 42 '  N , 2 ° 54'  E Coordinates: 42 ° 42 '  N , 2 ° 54'  E
height 8-95 m
surface 68.07 km 2
Residents 120,158 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 1,765 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 66000
INSEE code
Website http://www.mairie-perpignan.fr

Template: Infobox municipality in France / maintenance / different coat of arms in Wikidata

Perpignan [ pɛʀpiˈɲɑ̃ ] (in Catalan Perpinyà [ pərpiˈɲa ]) is the capital of the southern French department Pyrénées-Orientales in the Occitania region and has 120,158 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017). The city is located on the Golfe du Lion , part of the Mediterranean , on the Têt River on the A9 (E15) autoroute , about 70 km south of Narbonne and 30 km north of the state border with Spain . To the northeast of the city is Perpignan-Rivesaltes Airport , which handles 700,000 passengers a year. Tourists appreciate the city because of its Mediterranean climate and the beautiful old town with its south-east facing pub district.

The university town of Perpignan has numerous historical buildings, mostly in Gothic style . It is a trading center for wine and agricultural products.

history

The oppidum Ruscino already existed in Roman times east of today's Perpignan , which according to Titus Livius in 218 BC. It was the gathering place of the Gauls when Hannibal passed through, but Perpignan was first mentioned in documents in 927, so that the city was probably founded at the beginning of the 10th century. After the Counts of Roussillon died out, it came to the Crown of Aragón in 1172 . In 1197 it received city rights. From 1276 to 1344 Perpinyà / Perpignan was the capital of the Kingdom of Mallorca , which the Palace of the Kings of Mallorca , located within a huge fortress, still bears witness to today . The French King Philip III. died on October 5, 1285 in Perpignan, when he was part of his war against Peter III. of Aragón was in retreat from a failed attack on Catalonia . In 1344 Perpignan fell back to Aragón. The university , founded here by King Peter IV in 1349, ceased to exist at the time of the French Revolution in 1794 and was not reopened until 1971.

On November 1, 1408, the antipope Benedict XIII opened. in Perpignan a special council against the general council of Pisa . In Perpignan there was also a meeting between the Roman-German King Sigmund , King Ferdinand I of Aragón and Benedict XIII in September 1415 . instead of. In March 1475, after eight months of siege, the city had to surrender to the French King Louis XI because of a famine caused by it . but it was returned to Spain by Charles VIII in 1493 . Another, albeit unsuccessful, siege by King Franz I in 1542 induced Emperor Charles V to build a citadel on a hill dominating the city , which was completed under his son Philip II in 1577. In 1601 the diocese of Elne was moved to Perpignan. During the Thirty Years' War , the French re- conquered Perpignan under Richelieu in 1642 and in 1659 received it definitively as a result of the Treaty of the Pyrenees , after which it remained permanently with France. Louis XIV had the fortifications of the city increased and strengthened by Vauban . During the French Revolutionary War, the Spanish attacked it on July 17, 1793.

The region around Perpignan is also known as Roussillon (Catalan Rosselló ) or Northern Catalonia (Catalan Catalunya del Nord ). In this area more Catalan is spoken again today . Around 100,000 residents of Roussillon speak this language, which is taught in all schools.

politics

From 1944 to 1976 the socialists appointed the mayor of Perpignan, from 1978 to 2002 the bourgeois UDF , then until 2020 the conservative UMP or Les Républicains . Louis Aliot of the Rassemblement national (RN) has been mayor since 2020 . This makes Perpignan the first and so far only French city in which the right-wing extremist party provides the mayor. The list kept by Aliot has 42 of the 55 seats on the municipal council. The rest belong to the conservative Républicains. The green-left list and the liberal La République en marche had withdrawn in the second ballot to prevent Aliot, but this did not succeed.

Attractions

  • medieval city fortifications; of her only the tower El Castellet (Le Castillet ) remained
  • Palace of the Kings of Mallorca ( Palau dels Reis de Mallorca ; Palais des Rois de Majorque ) from the 13th century
  • Town hall / Casa Consolar from the 14th and 17th centuries
  • Cathedral of Sant Joan Baptista / Catedral Sant Joan Baptista (Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste) , built 1324–1509, and the associated cloister with cemetery
    • historical carillon (Amédée Bollée); there is a historic carillon in the bell tower
  • Church of Sant Jaume / Església de Sant Jaume (Eglise Saint-Jacques) , 13th and 18th centuries
  • Central station in the city center, designed by the painter Salvador Dalí
  • Monument in honor of François Arago on the Place Arago
  • Quai Sébastien Vauban, known for its old houses and nice restaurants on the banks of the Basse
  • "Dames de France", department store steeped in history on the Place de Catalogne
  • Campo Santo ; the cloister-like and worldwide unique cemetery is located right next to the cathedral
  • La Citadelle, gigantic walls from the 18th century in the La Réal district
  • The Loge de Mer, a former court and customs house in typical Gothic style
  • Arago cave ; internationally known site of fossils of Homo erectus , about 20 km northwest of the city
  • Hôtel Pams , town house
Place de la République in Perpignan

Cultural institutions

  • Film Institute Jean Vigo : The Film Institute Vigo in Perpignan has made a name for itself in the field of national and international film research beyond France's borders. The founding of the film institute in 1980, which was named after the French avant-garde film maker Jean Vigo , goes back to the ciné-club traditionnel de Perpignan founded by Marcel Oms in 1962 . With the support of the former Minister of Culture Jack Lang , who, in addition to the quota for French and European film productions, also advocated a general decentralization of cultural institutions in France, the L'institut Jean Vigo became the second most important institution for film culture alongside the Center National du Cinema (CNC) in Paris of the country.

Town twinning

Perpignan has nine twin cities :

city country since
Barcelona SpainSpain Spain 1994
Hanover GermanyGermany Lower Saxony, Germany 1960
Lake Charles United StatesUnited States Louisiana, United States 1991
Lancaster United KingdomUnited Kingdom England, UK 1962
Mostaganem AlgeriaAlgeria Algeria 2011
Maʿalot Tarshiha IsraelIsrael Israel 1998
Sarasota United StatesUnited States Florida, United States 1995
Tavira PortugalPortugal Portugal 2001
Tire LebanonLebanon Lebanon 1997

Personalities

Trivia

The painter Salvador Dalí jokingly explained that when the Pyrenees came into being, the Perpignan train station was the fulcrum, the “center of the world”, around which the Iberian Peninsula revolved, so the words “Center du monde” can be seen there .

literature

Web links

Commons : Perpignan  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Perpignan  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. Livy, Ab urbe condita 21, 24.
  2. Louis Aliot installé maire de Perpignan, plus large pinch of RN municipales. In: La Croix , July 3, 2020.
  3. ^ Résultats Municipales à Perpignan: Louis Aliot (Rassemblement national) élu. France 3 Occitanie, June 29, 2020.
  4. Good Friday procession
  5. ^ Villes jumelles avec Perpignan . Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  6. ^ Perpignan ǀ City partnerships of the state capital Hanover . Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  7. ^ Jumelage Perpignan-Mostaganem . Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  8. Perpignan, Languedoc-Roussillion, France ǀ Sister Cities Association of Sarasota . Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  9. www.anmp.pt , accessed on August 19, 2013
  10. ^ France Diplomatie - Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Développement international . Retrieved September 6, 2016.