Arles-sur-Tech (, literally ''Arles on Tech''; ca, Arles de Tec) is a commune in the

Pyrénées-Orientales Pyrénées-Orientales (; ca, Pirineus Orientals ; oc, Pirenèus Orientals ; ), also known as Northern Catalonia, is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France, adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in southern France.INSEE commune file
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Geography

Location

Arles-sur-Tech is located in the

canton of Le Canigou The canton of Le Canigou is an administrative division of the Pyrénées-Orientales department, in southern France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda. ...

and in the

arrondissement of Céret The arrondissement of Céret is an arrondissement of France in the Pyrénées-Orientales department (Northern Catalonia) in the Occitanie region. It has 64 communes. Its population is 129,464 (2016), and its area is . Composition The communes of ...

. Arles-sur-Tech is situated in the southernmost valley in mainland France before Spain, the

Vallespir Vallespir (; ) is a historical Catalan comarca in Northern Catalonia, part of the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales. The capital of the comarca is Ceret, and it borders Conflent, Rosselló, Alt Empordà, Garrotxa and Ripollès. It l ...

, through which the long river "Tech" flows. This small town is surrounded by the eastern Pyrenees which dominate the skyline around Arles-sur-Tech. The town sits on the only main road which passes through the valley, the D 115, making it accessible from Spain in the west and the plane of

Roussillon Roussillon ( , , ; ca, Rosselló ; oc, Rosselhon ) is a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of the reg ...

and

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

in the east. It is located close to the larger and more well-known spa town of Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda. Map commune FR insee code 66009

History

At the end of the Spanish Civil War Arles-sur-Tech was the site of a camp housing Republican escapees from Spain. It was used as an initial sorting camp.

Government and politics

Mayors

International relations

Arles-sur-Tech is twinned with: * Cubelles, Spain

Population

Sites of interest

* Abbey of Saint Mary : Arles-sur-Tech is best known for its abbey, which allegedly holds the relics of Saints

Abdon and Sennen Saints Abdon and Sennen, variously written in early calendars and martyrologies Abdo, Abdus, and Sennes, Sennis, Zennen, are recognized by the Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest ...

in a sarcophagus called ''Sainte Tombe'', traditionally believed to have been brought from Rome by Abbot Arnulf in the middle of the tenth century. Its waters are traditionally believed to hold miraculous healing properties.Milburg Francisco Mansfield, ''Castles and chateaux of old Navarre and the Basque provinces: including also Foix, Roussillon and Béarn'' (I. Pitman, 1908). * The

Caixa de Rotllan The (meaning "Roland's Tomb" in Catalan) is a dolmen in Arles-sur-Tech, Pyrénées-Orientales, southern France, dating back to the Neolithic period, during the second half of 3rd millennium BC. A legend holds that Roland lived in Vallespir and t ...

, a dolmen. * Saint-Stephen church * Saint-Saviour church * Saint-Peter church * Holy Cross church * The Fou canyon, said to be the world's narrowest.

Bibliography

*Abbé Adolphe Crastre, ''Histoire du martyre des saints Abdon et Sennen, de leurs reliques, de leurs miracles, de leur culte et de l'eau miraculeuse du sarcophage'' (Amélie-les-Bains, 1932). Facsimile reprint, Nîmes: Les Éditions Lacour-Ollé, 2005.

References

External links

Official site
Communes of Pyrénées-Orientales {{PyrénéesOrientales-geo-stub