Canton of Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste
The Canton of Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste is a French former canton of the Pyrénées-Orientales department, in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It was disbanded following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, it consisted of 6 communes, which joined the new canton of Le Canigou in 2015. The canton of Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste comprises 6 communes: Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste Coustouges Lamanère Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans Serralongue Le Tech
Carnival
Carnival is a Western Christian and Greek Orthodox festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events occur during February or early March, during the period known as Shrovetide. Carnival involves public celebrations, including events such as parades, public street parties and other entertainments, combining some elements of a circus. Elaborate costumes and masks allow people to set aside their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity. Participants indulge in excessive consumption of alcohol and other foods that will be forgone during upcoming Lent. Traditionally, butter and other animal products were not consumed "excessively", their stock was consumed as to reduce waste. Pancakes and other desserts were prepared and eaten for a final time. During Lent, animal products are no longer eaten, individuals have the ability to give up a certain object or activity of desire. Other common features of carnival include mock battles such as food fights.
The term Carnival is traditionally used in areas with a large Catholic presence, as well as in Greece. In Evangelical Lutheran countries, the celebration is known as Fastelavn, in areas with a high concentration of Anglicans and other Protestants, pre-Lenten celebrations, along with penitential observances, occur on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. In Slavic Eastern Orthodox nations, Maslenitsa is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent. In German-speaking Europe and the Netherlands, the Carnival season traditionally opens on 11/11; this dates back to celebrations before the Advent season or with harvest celebrations of St. Martin's Day; the Latin-derived name of the holiday is sometimes spelled Carnaval in areas where Dutch, French and Portuguese are spoken, or Carnevale in Italian-speaking contexts. Alternative names are used for local celebrations; the word is said to come from the Late Latin expression carne levare, which means "remove meat". In either case, this signifies the approaching fast.
The word carne may be translated as flesh, producing "a farewell to the flesh", a phrase embraced by certain carnival celebrants to embolden the festival's carefree spirit. The etymology of the word Carnival thus points to a Christian origin of the celebratory period. Other scholars argue that the origin is the festival of the Navigium Isidis, where the image of Isis was carried to the seashore to bless the start of sailing season; the festival consisted of a parade of masks following an adorned wooden boat, called in Latin carrus navalis the source of both the name and the parade floats. The word Carnival is of Christian origin, in the Middle Ages, it referred to a period following Epiphany season that reached its climax before midnight on Shrove Tuesday; because Lent was a period of fasting, "Carnival therefore represented a last period of feasting and celebration before the spiritual rigors of Lent." Meat was plentiful during this part of the Christian calendar and it was consumed during Carnival as people abstained from meat consumption during the following liturgical season, Lent.
In the last few days of Carnival, known as Shrovetide, people confessed their sins in preparation for Lent as well. In 1605, a Shrovetide play spoke of Christians who painted their faces to celebrate the season: From an anthropological point of view, carnival is a reversal ritual, in which social roles are reversed and norms about desired behavior are suspended. Winter was thought of as the reign of the winter spirits. Carnival can thus be regarded as a rite of passage from darkness to light, from winter to summer: a fertility celebration, the first spring festival of the new year. Traditionally, a Carnival feast was the last opportunity for common people to eat well, as there was a food shortage at the end of the winter as stores ran out; until spring produce was available, people were limited to the minimum necessary meals during this period. On what nowadays is called vastenavond, all the remaining winter stores of lard and meat which were left would be eaten, for these would otherwise soon start to rot and decay.
The selected livestock had been slaughtered in November and the meat would be no longer preservable. All the food that had survived the winter had to be eaten to assure that everyone was fed enough to survive until the coming spring would provide new food sources. Several Germanic tribes celebrated the returning of the daylight; the winter would be driven out. A central figure of this ritual was the fertility goddess Nerthus. There are some indications that the effigy of Nerthus or Freyr was placed on a ship with wheels and accompanied by a procession of people in animal disguise and men in women's clothes. Aboard the ship a marriage would be consummated as a fertility ritual. Tacitus wrote in his Germania: Germania 9.6: Ceterum nec cohibere parietibus deos neque in ullam humani oris speciem adsimulare ex magnitudine caelestium arbitrator – "The Germans, however, do not consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to confin
Spain
Spain the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located in Europe. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula, its territory includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country. Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are part of Spanish territory; the country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar. With an area of 505,990 km2, Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, the fourth largest country in the European continent. By population, Spain is the fifth in the European Union. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Spn or Spania.
At the end of the Western Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the Iberian peninsula and established independent realms in its western provinces, including the Suebi and Vandals. The Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including Byzantine provinces, into the Kingdom of Toledo, which more or less unified politically and all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was documented as Hispania. In the early eighth century the Visigothic Kingdom fell to the Moors of the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate, who arrived to rule most of the peninsula in the year 726, leaving only a handful of small Christian realms in the north and lasting up to seven centuries in the Kingdom of Granada; this led to many wars during a long reconquering period across the Iberian Peninsula, which led to the creation of the Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Aragon and Kingdom of Navarre as the main Christian kingdoms to face the invasion.
Following the Moorish conquest, Europeans began a gradual process of retaking the region known as the Reconquista, which by the late 15th century culminated in the emergence of Spain as a unified country under the Catholic Monarchs. Until Aragon had been an independent kingdom, which had expanded toward the eastern Mediterranean, incorporating Sicily and Naples, had competed with Genoa and Venice. In the early modern period, Spain became the world's first global empire and the most powerful country in the world, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes more than 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were many advancements in the arts, with world-famous painters such as Diego Velázquez; the most famous Spanish literary work, Don Quixote, was published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a parliamentary monarchy, with King Felipe VI as head of state.
It is a major developed country and a high income country, with the world's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization and many other international organisations. While not an official member, Spain has a "Permanent Invitation" to the G20 summits, participating in every summit, which makes Spain a de facto member of the group; the origins of the Roman name Hispania, from which the modern name España was derived, are uncertain due to inadequate evidence, although it is documented that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians referred to the region as Spania, therefore the most accepted etymology is a Semitic-Phoenician one.
Down the centuries there have been a number of accounts and hypotheses: The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word Hispania evolved from the Iberian word Hispalis, meaning "city of the western world". Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term span is the Phoenician word spy, meaning "to forge metals". Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean "the land where metals are forged", it may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean. The word in question means "Hyrax" due to Phoenicians confusing the two animals. Hispania may derive from the poetic use of the term Hesperia, reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" (Hesperia
Canigou
The Canigou is a mountain located in the Pyrenees of southern France. The Canigou is located less than 50 kilometers from the sea. Due to its sharp flanks and its dramatic location near the coast, until the 18th century the Canigou was believed to be the highest mountain in the Pyrenees; the Canigou is located in Pyrénées-Orientales, south of Prades and north of Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste. Its summit is a quadripoint between the territories of Casteil, Taurinya and Vernet-les-Bains, its location makes it visible from the plains of Roussillon and from Conflent in France, as well from Empordà in Spain. Twice a year, in early February and at the end of October, with good weather, the Canigou can be seen at sunset from as far as Marseille, 250 km away, by refraction of light; this phenomenon was observed in 1808 by baron Franz Xaver von Zach from the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica in Marseille. All year long, it can be seen, with good weather, from Agde, Port-Camargue and the Montagne Noire. Jeep tracks on the north side of the massif lead to the Chalet des Cortalets, a popular outpost with walkers.
There are two ancient monasteries at the foot of the mountain, Martin-du-Canigou and Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. The mountain has symbolical significance for Catalan people. On its summit stands a cross, decorated with the Catalan flag; every year on 23 June, the night before St. John's day, there is a ceremony called Flama del Canigó, where a fire is lit at the mountaintop. People keep a vigil during the night and take torches lit on the fire in a spectacular torch relay to light bonfires elsewhere. Many bonfires are lit in this way all over the Pyrénées-Orientales, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, but in practice only goes through the Pyrénées-Orientales and Catalonia The Canigou inspired the epic poem "Canigó" by Catalan poet Jacint Verdaguer i Santaló. In these verses Verdaguer compares the snowy mountain to a Magnolia flower: Sir Humphry Davy's "The Canigou", dated 26 January, was inspired by a visit to the spot: MORNING. In the eastern sky the stars their lustre lose In more diffused light, as if their orbs Had melted into air, form'd the day: Above, the heavens receive a brighter tint Of purest azure.
I cast my eyes upon thy western coast, And lo! Thy giant form, O Canigou! As if a new creation of the day, Framed of the morning cloud for fix'd, And gilded by the expiring morning star. So bright thy glittering snows appear, they seem To form another dawn: thy base is dark, Rising through mists that mingle with the wave! NOON; the orb of light its flood of lustre pours From the mid-heavens upon the tranquil sea Without a tide, whose silver mirror spreads, Reflecting forms of mountain-majesty Along the Iberian coast. All the morning mists Have vanished, the mid-day sunbeams sleep Upon thy snows, or glitter where the streams They feed with crystal waters pour in foam Amidst thy dark deep glens and shaggy woods, Where the bright pine and darker cork trees blend: Their varied foliage forms a boundary Where winter seems to mingle with the spring, and lower still, the olive tree appears — The work of culture, the leafless vine, And the green meadows, where the torrents sleep, Or move obedient to the wants of man.
Nature in savage wildness — mountain strength, — Breathes in one picture with the forms of art, And all that stamp the social character. A city's walls majestically rise, The guardian of a realm. Along the sandy shore The path the Carthaginian trod appears, When from the Pyrenees his veterans pour'd, To try the strength of Rome, shed profuse Her patriot blood at Cannae. On the wave Triumphant ride the fleets of Ocean's Queen. My heart throbs quicker, a healthful glow Fills all my bosom. Albion, thee I hail! — Mother of heroes! Mighty in thy strength! Deliverer! from thee the fire proceeds Withering the tyrant. EVENING. A moment past the sky was bright and clear, its tints are changed, Its fleecy whiteness gone. And now the rain Descends in floods — the angry lightning gleams, The thunder roars. Prieuré de Serrabone St-Martin-du-Canigou monastery Vernet-les-Bains Canigó by Verdaguer.
Treaty of the Pyrenees
The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed on 7 November 1659 to end the 1635–1659 war between France and Spain, a war, a part of the wider Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries which has remained a French-Spanish condominium since the treaty; the kings Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain were represented by their chief ministers, Cardinal Mazarin and Don Luis Méndez de Haro, respectively. France entered the Thirty Years' War after the Spanish Habsburg victories in the Dutch Revolt in the 1620s and at the Battle of Nördlingen against Sweden in 1634. By 1640, France began to interfere in Spanish politics, aiding the revolt in Catalonia, while Spain responded by aiding the Fronde revolt in France in 1648. During the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, France gained the Sundgau and cut off Spanish access to the Netherlands from Austria, leading to open warfare between the French and Spanish. After 23 years of war, an Anglo-French alliance was victorious at the Battle of the Dunes in June 14, 1658, but the following year the war ground to a halt when the French campaign to take Milan was defeated.
Peace was settled by means of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in November 1659. France gained Roussillon and the northern half of Cerdanya, Montmédy and other parts of Luxembourg and other towns in Flanders, including Arras, Béthune and Thionville, a new border with Spain was fixed at the Pyrenees. However, the treaty stipulated only that all "villages" north of the Pyrenees should become part of France; because it was a villa, the historic town of Llívia, once the capital of Cerdanya, was thus unintentionally exempted from the treaty and became a Spanish exclave as part of the comarca of Baixa Cerdanya, in the Spanish province of Girona. This border was not properly settled until the Treaty of Bayonne was signed in 1856, with its final acts accepted 12 years later. On the western Pyrenees a definite borderline was drawn and decisions made as to the politico-administrative affiliation of bordering areas in the Basque region—Baztan, Valcarlos. Spain was forced to confirm all of the French gains at the Peace of Westphalia.
In exchange for the Spanish territorial losses, the French king pledged to quit his support for Portugal and renounced to his claim to the county of Barcelona, which the French crown had claimed since the Catalan Revolt. The Portuguese revolt in 1640, led by the Duke of Braganza, was supported monetarily by Cardinal Richelieu of France. After the Catalan Revolt, France had controlled the Principality of Catalonia from January 1641, when a combined Catalan and French force defeated the Spanish army at Battle of Montjuïc, until it was defeated by a Spanish army at Barcelona in 1652. Though the Spanish army reconquered most of Catalonia, the French retained Catalan territory north of the Pyrenees; the treaty arranged for a marriage between Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain, the daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Maria Theresa was forced to renounce her claim to the Spanish throne, in return for a monetary settlement as part of her dowry; this settlement was never paid, a factor that led to the War of Devolution in 1668.
At the Meeting on the Isle of Pheasants in June 1660, the two monarchs and their ministers met, the princess entered France. In addition, the English received Dunkirk, although they elected to sell it to France in 1662; the Treaty of the Pyrenees was the last major diplomatic achievement by Cardinal Mazarin. Combined with the Peace of Westphalia, it allowed Louis XIV remarkable stability and diplomatic advantage by means of a weakened Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and a weakened Spanish Crown, along with the agreed dowry, an important element in the French king's strategy: All in all, by 1660, when the Swedish occupation of Poland was over, most of the European continent was at peace, the Bourbons had ended the dominance of the Habsburgs. In the Pyrenees, the treaty resulted in the establishment of border customs and restriction of the free cross-border flow of people and goods. In the context of the territorial changes involved in the Treaty, France gained some territory, on both its northern and southern borders.
In the north, France gained French Flanders. In the south:On the east: The northern part of the Principality of Catalonia, including Roussillon, Vallespir and French Cerdagne, was transferred to France, i.e. what came to be known as "Northern Catalonia". On the west: The parties agree to put together a field group to compromise a borderline on disputed lands along the Basque Pyrenees, involving Sareta—Zugarramurdi, etc.— Aldude, the Spanish wedge of Valcarlos. Language policy in France Parliament of Quillín "Full Text of Treaty". Archived from the original on 2005-09-18. France National Archives Transcription
Angelets
The Angelets, or “the Angelets of the Earth”, were peasants who rose up from 1667 to 1675 against the French authorities of the Roussillon province. The group of conflicts of the period is subsumed under the name of “the Revolt of the Angelets”; the cause was the instituting of the gabelle in 1661 — a measure contrary to traditional constitutions of the earldom. The revolt first concerned the county of Vallespir it won those of Conflent and Roussillon; the reason why the revolts are referred to as “angelets” is unknown. One of the explanations advanced is the popular belief according to which the angels know the mountains well; as for the word “miquelets,” it refers to Catalan mercenaries but sometimes to armed peasants. There is thus confusion among the ancient authors in relation to the war of Holland: They designate under the name “miquelets” all those who, in the province of Roussillon, oppose the king of France — though it be angelets or Catalan mercenaries in the service of the king of Spain.
Archangel Michael is the patron saint of the miquelets and the wool-workers of Prats-de-Mollo, he who gave a sacred tint to one revolt that reclaimed liberties with the patriotic cry of “Visca la terra!” On May 8, 1659, the Catalan Revolt came to an end, on November 7, the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed between the Spanish and the French monarchies. The agreement notably foresaw a sharing of the principality of Catalonia between the two sovereigns; the crown of France annexed five comarques: the comarque of Roussillon Vallespir Conflent Capcir the burghs and villages of French Cerdagne, the east of the count of CerdagneLouis XIV engaged himself with respecting the local customs. But, since June 1660, he replaced Catalan institutions and agencies with his own political and fiscal structures, he created a sovereign Council at Perpignan. He named a steward. Resistance to the new master began in March 1661. Having come to settle a disagreement between the inhabitants of Ayguatébia and those of Oreilla, the viguier Marsal was violently attacked.
He succeeded in escaping. The comarque of Conflent was subjected to a tax intended to pay the sometent français; the gabelle, a tax on salt, had been abolished by the Catalan courts since the time of King James II of Majorca, in 1283. In 1661, the French reestablished it, its revenue was intended to finance the maintenance and construction of fortresses, as well as the payment of French functionaries. The measure was unpopular; the king of France’s misuse of this tax’s revenue — to the detriment of Perpignan, only cashing an insignificant part of it — was considered an abjuration of the royal oath to respect the capital privileges of the comarque of Roussillon. The consuls of Perpignan protested, but the sovereign Council’s decision rejected the municipal complaint and imposed the will of the Louvre. In Vallespir, a country of pastures, salt was necessary for preserving meat; the inhabitants sent for it from the other side of the wholly new border. The tax made its price rise inordinately. In 1667, the peasants of Vallespir refused to pay it.
Smuggling was organized. The inspectors tracked down the traffickers in order to try to put an end to this activity; the peasants reacted, transforming themselves into veritable guerrilla fighters, harassing the French soldiers and the functionaries of the salt tax. An armed resistance was organized under the leadership of Joseph of Trinxeria, a merchant of Prats-de-Mollo; the insurgents spread themselves in the county of Vallespir. In 1667, they hid in the villages of Montferrer; the following year, they attacked the hotel of Amélie-les-Bains, where the tax collectors are housed. They besieged the deputy provost Maniel in the church of Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans; the repression did not rest: eight inhabitants were condemned to death and 51 put into slavery. This did nothing to discourage the smugglers; the president of the sovereign Council, the collaborator Francesc de Segarra, offered a reward of 100 gold doubles tournois to whoever would give information against the leaders of the resistance. On September 14, 1668, he left with 300 soldiers to make base at Arles in order to begin a harsh suppression.
The punitive expedition had to retreat to Arles. For several years, the rebels, knowing the terrain well, inflicted substantial losses on the French troops. From August 3, 1667 to June 30, 1668, they pursued and eliminated a good number of salt tax inspectors; the authorities of the salt tax resolved to negotiate: The armed struggle ceased and, in exchange, the townships of Vallespir could obtain smuggled salt. Through the “Compromise of Céret,” the salt tax inspectors began to put an end to the controls and to coordinate with the council of each village, as to who would be charged from on with the distribution of salt to the inhabitants. In 1669, in Conflent, Joan Miquel Mestre, called “the Righteous Heir,” demanded a similar arrangement for Baillestavy. From September to November, he kept track of the customs officers, it was at that moment that the revolts were referred to under the name of “angelets.” Mestre was stopped by chance on the road from Camprodon on January 22, 1670 by the governor of Prats-de-Mollo.
This set off a revolt on the part of the inhabitants, led by Josep de la Trinxeria and his lieutenant Damià Nohell, son of the may
Pyrénées-Orientales
Pyrénées-Orientales known as Northern Catalonia, is a department of Occitanie adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It surrounds the tiny Spanish exclave of Llívia, thus has two distinct borders with Spain. Prior to the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, most of the present department was part of the former Principality of Catalonia, within the Crown of Aragon, therefore part of the Kingdom of Spain, so the majority of it has been Catalan-speaking, it is still referred to as Northern Catalonia; the modern department was created early during the French Revolution on 9 February 1790 under the name of Roussillon the name of the pre-Revolutionary province of Roussillon to which it exactly corresponds, although the department includes Fenouillèdes, a small piece of territory, on the southern edge of Languedoc. The name therefore changed on February 1790 to Pyrénées-Orientales. Invaded by Spain in April 1793, the area was recaptured thirteen months during the War of the Roussillon.
During the nineteenth century, Pyrénées-Orientales proved one of the most republican departments in France. The intellectual and republican politician François Arago, during the early months of the short-lived Second Republic in 1848, was de facto Head of state, came from Estagel in the east of the department; the département is managed by the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales in Perpignan. The Pyrénées-Orientales is part of the region of Occitanie; the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales is more and more involved with the European Union to create with the Generalitat of Catalonia, Andorra, a Eurodistrict. Pyrénées-Orientales has an area of 4,115 km². and a population of 422,000, of whom just over a quarter live in the capital, Perpignan. Other towns above 10,000 inhabitants include Canet-en-Roussillon, Saint-Estève, Saint-Cyprien and Argelès-sur-Mer, they are followed in decreasing order by Cabestany, Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque, Rivesaltes, Céret, Pia, Bompas, Le Soler and Toulouges, each of 6-10,000 inhabitants.
Pyrénées-Orientales consists of three river valleys in the Pyrenees mountain range –from north to south, those of the Agly, Têt and Tech – and the eastern Plain of Roussillon into which they converge. Most of the population and agricultural production are concentrated in the plain, with only 30% of the area. There is one water reservoir at Lac de Matemale. There is a lake, Casteilla; the upper Têt valley comprises the departments westernmost third, with just over a tenth of the total population. To the south-east, the Tech valley and the Côte Vermeille contain nearly 100,000 inhabitants; the Agly basin in the north-east has much in common with neighboring areas of Aude. Llívia is a town of Cerdanya, province of Girona, Spain, that forms a Spanish exclave surrounded by French territory. Pyrénées-Orientales is a tourist destination. French is spoken by all the population. Minority languages in the region are Catalan and Occitan, which between them are estimated to be spoken by 34% of the population and understood by an additional 21%.
On 10 December 2007, the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales recognized Catalan as a regional language of the department, though French is still the only official language in France, according to the Constitution. The area is traditionally divided into comarques, of which five are Catalan-speaking and one is Occitan-speaking; the five Catalan-speaking comarques were part of the Kingdom of Majorca. The cuisine of Pyrénées-Orientales draws from the historical Catalan presence in the area, so dishes like paella, cargols à la llauna and calcots are prevalent in the restaurants at important dates such as the various saints' feast days and cultural festivals; the area is famous for its wine with the predominantly red grape varieties grown all over the department, regional specialities such as muscat de Rivesaltes and Banyuls are sold everywhere in the department. The geography of the area leads to a distinct divide in the cuisine of P-O; the mountainous area to the south has dishes using ingredients that grow there, products such as olives and goat's cheese.
Fish are very popular in the region with Collioure being famous for its anchovies, although fishing has declined due to the overall reduction of the fish stock in the Mediterranean sea. Places of interest include: Banyuls-sur-Mer, famous for its Grenache-based Banyuls wine, birthplace of Aristide Maillol. Céret, considered to be one of the birthplaces of cubism, hosts several museums among which the Musée d'Art Moderne. Collioure, considered to be one of the famous places of fauvism. Força Réal, ruined mountaintop fortress. Prades, site of the Catalan Summer University. Prats de Mollo, important defensive castle of the 17th century facing south to the Pyrenees. Salses, important defensive castle of the 16th century, on the ancient frontier with Spain. Pyrénées-Orientales has two notable sports teams: Catalans Dragons. Intercommunalities of the Pyrénées-Orientales department Mann, Jane. Almost all you need to know about the Pyrénées-Orientales. Saint-Estève: Presses littéraires. ISBN 978-2-35073-368-5.
OCLC 667612113. Cárdenas, Fabricio. 66 petites histoires du Pays Catalan. Perpignan: Ultima Necat. ISBN 978-2-36771-006-8. OCL
