Vernet-les-Bains
|
Vernet-les-Bains Vernet |
||
|---|---|---|
.svg)
|
|
|
| region | Occitania | |
| Department | Pyrénées-Orientales | |
| Arrondissement | Prades | |
| Canton | Le Canigou | |
| Community association | Conflent-Canigó | |
| Coordinates | 42 ° 33 ' N , 2 ° 23' E | |
| height | 559-2,760 m | |
| surface | 16.76 km 2 | |
| Residents | 1,387 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 83 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 66820 | |
| INSEE code | 66222 | |
| Website | Vernet-les-Bains | |
 Vernet-les-Bains - town view |
||
Vernet-les-Bains ( Catalan Vernet ) is a place and a French commune ( commune ) with 1,387 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in the Occitanie region .
location
Vernet-les-Bains is at an altitude of about 600 to 700 m above sea level. d. M. on the Cady river about 8 km (as the crow flies) northwest of the Pic du Canigou . Perpignan , the capital of Roussillon, is about 57 km (driving distance) to the northeast; The next largest city is Prades, with a population of around 6,000 . About 4 km south of Vernet is the Saint-Martin du Canigou abbey .
Population development
| year | 1800 | 1851 | 1901 | 1954 | 1975 | 1999 | 2017 |
| Residents | 674 | 967 | 1267 | 1450 | 1310 | 1440 | 1387 |
The spa tourism that began in the second half of the 19th century compensated for the loss of jobs in agriculture and kept the population of the community more or less stable.
economy
For centuries, the residents of the village lived mainly on their own fields and their orchards and vegetable gardens. Today tourism (also in the form of renting holiday apartments ( gîtes )) plays a not inconsiderable role in the economic life of the municipality.
history
A church called Saint Saturnin is mentioned as early as 874 ; however, it was on the left bank of the Cady. The place originally belonged to the manor ( seigneurie ) of the Counts of Cerdagne ; from the year 1007 this was transferred to the Saint-Martin du Canigou abbey, founded ten years earlier. Nevertheless, the count's castle remained and most of the citizens settled at its feet. For the year 1710 a flood disaster has been handed down, which destroyed the old church and the still existing houses in the valley of the place. Beach tourism began around the middle of the 19th century, giving the place an economic boom that only came to a temporary end with the flood disaster in October 1940; the current spa buildings and the casino were only rebuilt in the 1960s.
Attractions
- The partly steeply rising cobbled streets of the village are worth seeing.
- All that remains of the medieval castle ( castell ) is the square keep ( donjon ), which, together with the small bell tower of the church, towers over the town.
- The castle chapel was redesigned after the flood disaster of 1710 and continued to be used as the parish church of Saint Saturnin with the patronage of the former valley church .
- The buildings in the spa district in the valley all date from the 1960s.
Surroundings
- Vernet-les-Bains is an excellent starting point for various hiking routes; one of the longest leads to the Pic du Canigou .
Personalities
- Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), English writer, stayed several times in Vernet between 1910 and 1926; here he wrote the short story Why snow falls at Vernet ('Why it is snowing in Vernet').
