Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (; ), or simply Odeillo, 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 ...

and

Cerdagne Cerdanya (; , ; , ) or often La Cerdanya is a natural comarca and historical region of the eastern Pyrenees divided between France and Spain. Historically it was one of the counties of Catalonia. Cerdanya has a land area of , divided almost ev ...

near the Spanish border in the south of

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 ...

. It comprises the villages of Odeillo and Via, as well as Font-Romeu, one of the oldest ski resorts in

and the oldest in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

Geography

Localization

Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via is located in the

canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes The canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes 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 Prades. ...

and in the

arrondissement of Prades The arrondissement of Prades is an arrondissement of France in the Pyrénées-Orientales department (Northern Catalonia) in the Occitanie region. It has 123 communes. Its population is 60,536 (2021), and its area is . Composition The communes ...

. It is bordered by the communes of

Angoustrine-Villeneuve-des-Escaldes Angoustrine-Villeneuve-des-Escaldes (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. Geography Localisation Angoustrine-Villeneuve-des-Escaldes is located in the canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes and in the arr ...

, Targasonne, Égat, Estavar, Saillagouse, Eyne and Bolquère. Map commune FR insee code 66124

Transportation

Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via station is served by the

Yellow Train The ''Ligne de Cerdagne'' (), usually referred to as ''Le Petit Train Jaune'' (, ), is a track gauge, gauge Narrow gauge railway, railway that runs from Villefranche-de-Conflent to Latour-de-Carol-Enveitg in the France, French Pyrenees. Histor ...

line, a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

which runs from Villefranche-de-Conflent to

Latour-de-Carol Latour-de-Carol (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. Geography Localization Latour-de-Carol is located in the canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes and in the arrondissement of Prades. Transport Th ...

Toponymy

The names of Odeillo and Via appear in 839 as ''parrochia Hodellone et parrochia Avizano''. Jean Sagnes (dir.), Le pays catalan, t. 2, Pau, Société nouvelle d'éditions régionales, 1985 The name ''Font-Romeu'' means in Catalan "fountain of the

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

History

Odeillo and Via were both mentioned for the first time in 839 among the places paying a fee to La Seu d'Urgell church. Nevertheless, Odeillo was at the time part of the

County of Cerdanya The County of Cerdanya (, ; ; , ) was one of the Catalan counties formed in the last decades of the 8th century by the Franks in the '' Marca Hispanica''. The original Cerdanya consisted of the valley of the upper Segre. Today Cerdanya is a Cata ...

, while Via was a property of the Urg family. On 15 July 1035,

Wifred II, Count of Cerdanya Wifred or Wilfred (, or ) ( 970 – 1050) was the Count of Cerdanya (988–1035; as Wifred II) and Count of Berga (1003–1035; as Wifred I). He was the eldest son of Oliba Cabreta and Ermengard of Empúries. Life When his father abdicated in 9 ...

, gave Odeillo to the Abbey of Saint-Martin-du-Canigou, where he retired himself a short time before his death. The Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa also owned a few

allod Allod, deriving from Frankish language, Frankish ''alōd'' meaning "full ownership" (from ''al'' "full, whole" and ''ōd'' "property, possession"; Medieval Latin ''allod'' or ''allodium''), also known as allodial land or proprietary property, was ...

s in Odeillo, as recognized by a

papal bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...

from Sergius IV in 1011. Via remained a property of the Urg family until the 13th century. It was then bought by Peter of Fenouillet, viscount of Fenouillet and then viscount of Ille. A chapel was mentioned for the first time in Font-Romeu in 1525, on the territory of Odeillo. It already hosted a statue of the Virgin Mary from the 13th century, and a hermitage was built from 1693 to receive the pilgrims. Odeillo and Via both became

communes A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in 1790. The commune of Via was abolished and included into Odeillo on 10 July 1822. In 1881, a wildfire caused by arson spread throughout 267 hectares of the forest of La Calme in the north of the commune.Fabricio Cardenas
Vieux papiers des Pyrénées-Orientales, ''Incendies de forêts en 1881''
13 February 2014

Demography

Solar power

* The world's largest solar furnace in Odeillo can reach temperatures of . * THEMIS Solar Power R&D center is away in the village of Targasonne.

References

External links

L'invention d'une destination touristique
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fontromeuodeillovia Communes of Pyrénées-Orientales