Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes (, ; ) is a commune in the

Pyrénées-Orientales Pyrénées-Orientales (; ; ; ), also known as Northern Catalonia, is a departments of France, department of the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France, adjacent to the northern Spain, Spanish ...

department in southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Geography

Localisation

Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes is located in the canton of La Vallée de l'Agly and in the

arrondissement of Perpignan The arrondissement of Perpignan is an arrondissement of France in the Pyrénées-Orientales department (Northern Catalonia) in the Occitanie region. It has 39 communes. Its population is 292,142 (2021), and its area is . Composition The commun ...

Toponymy

The name of the town in

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

is ''Caudiers de Fenolledès'' (historical form), ''de Fenolhedés'' (normalized form) or ''de Fenolhet'' (by similarity with other nearby communes).Lluís Basseda, Toponymie historique de Catalunya Nord, t. 1, Prades, Revista Terra Nostra, 1990, 796 p. The name first appears in 1011 as ''Caldarios''. It is then written as ''Cauders'' in the 14th century, and then ''Caudies'' from the 15th to the 17th centuries, and then as ''Caudiers'' or ''Caudiès'' in modern Occitan. In French, the official name is ''Caudiès'' in 1790, when the village becomes a commune, even though the names of ''Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes'' or ''Caudiès-de-Saint-Paul'' were already in use.Jean-Pierre Pélissier, Paroisses et communes de France : dictionnaire d'histoire administrative et démographique, vol. 66 : Pyrénées-Orientales, Paris, CNRS, 1986 ''Caudiès-de-Saint-Paul'' is used until the end of the 19th century, but the town officially changes its name on 31 January 1898 to ''Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes'', still in use nowadays. The name comes from the Latin ''caldarius'', meaning ''cauldron'', as can be seen on the local

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

, and may refer to nearby pit caves around the river Boulzane.

Population

Sites of interest

* The church of Our Lady of Laval. * The ruins of the castle of Castel Fizel (). * The curious bridge of the Saint-Louis pass.

References