Photo : H. Zell / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Villefranche-de-Conflent
Villefranche-de-Conflent is a fortified town in the Conflent country, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, ranked among the Most Beautiful Villages of France. In the eleventh century, the count of Cerdanya, opposed to the count of Roussillon, found there a strategic site, deeply set at the confluence of two rivers. Fortified at once, the village played a defensive role that it kept for a long time.
In the seventeenth century, Vauban reinforced the medieval ramparts with his own system of fortifications, and made it a military capital. The ensemble is inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage as part of the Fortifications of Vauban. The commune, within the Pyrénées catalanes regional nature park, is also the starting point of the Yellow Train.
