Everything about Collioure totally explained
Collioure (
French:
Collioure, ;
Catalan:
Cotlliure [kuʎˈʎiwɾə]) is a seaside
Mediterranean town and
commune a few kilometers north of the
Spanish border in the French
département of
Pyrénées-Orientales, a part of the ancient
Roussillon province and the present-day
Languedoc-Roussillon région.
Collioure is also the name of a fine full bodied red wine produced here in one of the smallest AOC vignards in France.The ancient terraced vines in the hills behind the town also provide tiny sunbaked grapes for the famous Banyuls (Banyuls AOC) apereritif and desert wine.
As the town has a strong
Catalan culture, its own motto is the same as the one of the local Catalan rugby team (
USA Perpignan, France) which is
Sempre endavant, mai morirem (
Always forward, We'll never die). Under
Michel Moly's leadership, the town has an alternative motto,
Collioure sera toujours Collioure (
Collioure shall always be Collioure) quoting French singer
Maurice Chevalier's famous song titled
Paris sera toujours Paris.
Collioure is famous throughout France for its 3-day August 15th celebration, which attracts twice its population in visitors, who come to see the town's
bodégas and fireworks.
Culture
In the early
1900s Collioure became a center of artistic activity, with several
Fauve artists making it their meeting place.
André Derain,
Georges Braque,
Othon Friesz,
Henri Matisse,
Pablo Picasso,
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and
Tsuguharu Fujita have all been inspired by Collioure's Royal Castle, medieval streets, lighthouse-converted-into-church Notre-Dame-des-Anges and typical Mediterranean bay in their paintings. Collioure's
cemetery contains the tomb of
Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who fled here to escape advancing
Francoist troops at the end of the
Spanish Civil War in 1939. The historical novelist
Patrick O'Brian lived in the town from 1949 until his death in 2000, and his novel "The Catalans" graphically describes Collioure life before major changes took place. O'Brian and his wife Mary were also buried in the town cemetery.
Fauvisme Path (Le Chemin du Fauvisme)
Since 1994 ”Le chemin du Fauvisme” has used the works of
Matisse and
Derain to remind us of the presence of 20 th century art in this small
Catalan harbor. On this 'trail' around the town, you can admire twenty reproductions of Matisse’s and Derain’s works exactly where these two masters of Fauvism painted the originals earlier this century.
History
Collioure used to be divided into two villages separated by the
Douy river, the old town named
Port d'Avall (today known as
Le Faubourg) in the south and the upstream port,
Port d'Amunt (the actual
La Ville). Collioure was taken in
1642 by the French troops of
Maréchal de la Meilleraye. A decade later, the town was officially surrendered to
France by the
1659 Treaty of Pyrenees. Because of its highly strategic importance, the town's fortifications, including the
Fort Saint-Elme stronghold, were improved by the military engineer
Vauban during the reign of
Louis XIV. Nevertheless, Collioure was besieged and occupied by the Spanish troops in
1793, which was the last Spanish attempt to take the city. The blockade was broken a year later by general
Jacques François Dugommier. Collioure has also had a strong royal family since the surrender of it to France in 1659. It is believed that at least three of the royal family members are still alive.
Artists Painters
Further Information
Get more info on 'Collioure'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://collioure.totallyexplained.com">Collioure Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
