Collioure (; , ) is a commune in the southern French department of

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 ...

Geography

The town of Collioure is on the

Côte Vermeille The Côte Vermeille (; , meaning "vermilion coast", or traditionally ) is a region in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales on the Mediterranean Coast near the border with Spain. The Côte Vermeille stretches from Argelès-sur-Mer to t ...

(Vermilion Coast), in the

canton of La Côte Vermeille The canton of La Côte Vermeille is a canton of France, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. Its chief town is Argelès-sur-Mer (before 2015: Port-Vendres). Composition At the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March ...

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 134,629 (2021), and its area is . Composition The commune ...

Toponymy

Collioure is named ''Cotlliure'' in Catalan.

History

There is a record of the castle at "Castrum Caucoliberi" having been mentioned as early as 673, indicating that the settlement here was of strategic and commercial importance during the

Visigoth The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

ascendancy. Collioure used to be divided into two villages separated by the river Douy, the old town to the south named ''Port d'Avall'' (in French known as ''Le Faubourg'') and the upstream port, ''Port d'Amunt'' (in French known as ''Le Mouré''). 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, the Château Royal de Collioure and the Fort Saint-Elme stronghold, were improved by the military engineer Vauban during the reign of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

. Nevertheless, Collioure was besieged and occupied by the Spanish troops in 1793, marking the last Spanish attempt to take the city. The city was retaken a year later by general Jacques François Dugommier. In 1823, the territory of

Port-Vendres Port-Vendres (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales Departments of France, department, southeastern France. A typical Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean fishing port, situated near the Spanish border on the Côte Vermei ...

became a commune, taking parts from the communes of Collioure and

Banyuls-sur-Mer Banyuls-sur-Mer (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales Departments of France, department in southern France. Geography Location Banyuls-sur-Mer is located in the canton of La Côte Vermeille and in the arrondissemen ...

. On 21 January 1870, an exceptional climatic phenomenon occurred in Collioure, as observed by Charles Naudin at the time; more than of snow fell in one day on the town. Many orchards as well as

cork oak ''Quercus suber'', commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris''. It is the primary source of cork (material), cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, ...

woodlands were damaged.

Government and politics

Mayors

Twin city

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populatio ...

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Population

Economy

Collioure is an

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée In France, the ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (, ; abbr. AOC ) is a label that identifies an agricultural product whose stages of production and processing are carried out in a defined geographical area – the ''terroir'' – and using ...

(AOC) situated around the town, ( Collioure AOC), producing red,

rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the wine color, color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the Macerati ...

and a few white wines. The ancient terraced vines in the hills behind the town also provide grapes for the apéritif and dessert wines of the ( Banyuls) appellation, which shares its boundaries with the Collioure appellation. Collioure is also famous for its

anchovies An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

, and its once-thriving fisheries are referenced in

Mark Kurlansky Mark Kurlansky (December 7, 1948) is an American journalist and author who has written a number of books of fiction and nonfiction. His 1997 book, ''Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World'' (1997), was an international bestseller a ...

's book ''Salt''.

Culture

As the town has a strong Catalan culture, its own motto has been adopted by one of the local Catalan rugby teams (

USA Perpignan Union Sportive Arlequins Perpignanais, also referred to as USA Perpignan or Perpignan, is a French professional rugby union club founded in 1933 and based in Perpignan, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. They compete in the Top 14, France' ...

, France): ''Sempre endavant, mai morirem'' (''Always forward, We'll never die''). Under 's leadership, the town has an alternative motto, ''Collioure sera toujours Collioure'' (''Collioure shall always be Collioure'') quoting French singer

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor, and entertainer. He is best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", " Louise", " Mimi", and " Thank Heaven f ...

's famous song titled ''Paris sera toujours Paris''. The annual Saint Vincent festival is held around August 15, attracting twice the town's population in visitors for several days of celebration with music and fireworks. In the early 20th century Collioure became a center of artistic activity, with several Fauve artists making it their meeting place.

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States. Life and career Early ...

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

Othon Friesz Achille-Émile Othon Friesz (6 February 1879 – 10 January 1949), who later called himself Othon Friesz, a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement. Biography Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre, the son of a long line of ...

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...

, James Dickson Innes,

Léopold Survage Léopold Frédéric Léopoldowitsch Survage (; 31 July 1879 – 31 October 1968) was a Russian-French painter of Finnish origin. Trained in Moscow, he identified with the Russian avant-garde before moving to Paris, where he shared a studio with A ...

and Tsuguharu Fujita have all been inspired by Collioure's royal castle, medieval streets, its lighthouse converted into the church of Notre-Dame-des-Anges and its typical Mediterranean bay. Collioure's cemetery contains the tomb of Spanish poet

Antonio Machado Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (26 July 1875 – 22 February 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation ...

, who fled here to escape advancing Francoist troops at the end of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

in 1939. The British novelist

Patrick O'Brian Patrick O'Brian (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series. These sea novels are set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and ...

lived in the town from 1949 until his death in 2000, and his novel ''The Catalans'' describes Collioure life as it was in the past. He also wrote a biography of Picasso, who was an acquaintance. O'Brian and his wife Mary are also buried in the town cemetery. The start of

Rose Macaulay Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, (1 August 1881 – 30 October 1958) was an English writer, most noted for her award-winning novel ''The Towers of Trebizond'', about a small Anglo-Catholic group crossing Turkey by camel. The story is seen as a spiri ...

’s 1950 novel, ''The World My Wilderness'', is set in Collioure. Part of the action in Stephen Clarke's fourth comic novel featuring Paul West, ''Dial M for Merde'', takes place in Collioure. Ninety-eight reproductions of

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

’s and Derain’s works are displayed exactly where these two masters of Fauvism painted the originals in the early 20th century. Plan de Collioure au 18e siècle.jpg, Map of Collioure (18th century) Collioure church.jpg, Collioure's church, Notre-Dame-des-Anges Chateau Royal de Collioure, France.jpg, Château Royal de Collioure 150607-Collioure-01.jpg, Fort Carré Collioure - La Tour de l' Etoile.jpg, Tour de l' Étoile Collioure from south-east.jpg, Collioure, seen from the south-east

Notable people

2015-08-09-12h15 jmt-myc collioure-tumba-machado-con-libro-marc-y-carmen 842x1122px-300ppi-PRINT-h95mm-1

* Nur Ali Sheikh (1928–), Kenyan-born neo-cubist painter who lived in the house depicted by Matisse in his ''View of Collioure'' * Marie Barrère-Affre (1885–1963) writer, lived and died in Collioure. * René Llense (1913–2014), football player born in Collioure. *

(1875–1939), Spanish poet died in Collioure. *

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (5 November 1864 – 7 January 1933) was a British artist who worked in Scotland, and whose design work became one of the defining features of the Glasgow Style during the 1890s to 1900s. Biography Born Margaret M ...

(1864 – 1933), Scottish artist and designer, lived in Collioure in 1924 and stayed in the area until 1927. *

(1868 – 1928), Scottish architect, artist and designer, and husband of Margaret also lived there. *

(1914–2000), English novelist and translator, lived and was buried in Collioure. *

Jacques Parizeau Jacques Parizeau (; August 9, 1930June 1, 2015) was a Canadian politician and economist who served as the 26th premier of Quebec from September 26, 1994, to January 29, 1996. Early life and career Parizeau was born in Montreal, Quebec, the s ...

(1930–2015), former premier of Quebec Canada, owned a vineyard in Collioure.

References

External links

Tourist office website

Photos of Collioure
*

Cotlliure
' History and information in Catalan Encyclopaedia.'' {{Authority control Linguistic rights Communes of Pyrénées-Orientales Northern Catalonia Seaside resorts in France