Last modified: 2005-12-24 by ivan sache
Keywords: pyrenees-orientales | villelongue-dels-monts | villalonga-dels-monts |
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![[Flag of Villelongue]](../images/f/fr-66-vm.gif)
Municipal flag of Villelongue-dels-Monts - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 7 December 2004
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Villelongue-dels-Monts (in Catalan, Villalonga-dels-Monts; 1,069 inhabitants) is a village located in French Catalonia, close to the border with Spain. Villelongue means "the long estate". The Catalan attribute dels-Monts refers to Mount Saint-Christophe, which dominates the village. Mount Saint-Christophe is part of the Pyrenean chain of Albères.
As early as 1095, a fortress called Castrum Sancti Christophori was built on Mount Saint-Christophe.
The parish church, dedicated to Saint Etienne, was built in the XIIth century in the Catalan Roman style, whose best pieces are the abbeys of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa and Saint-Martin-du-Canigou. The main characteristics of the Saint-Etienne's church are its semicircular apse decorated with anthropomorphic figures, its quadrangular bell-tower and its dog's head-shaped door fittings and latches.The priory Santa Maria del Vilar is located outside the village in a
natural cirque. The place was inhabited in the Neolithic age, later
abandoned and resettled by the Romans, who built there a watch tower in
the first century. The tower was 6 meters in diameter and its height is
unknown, only the first two meters having been preserved and placed
inside the parish church. The tower watched the Via Domitia and was
surrounded by a few more buildings. This estate is probably the origin
of the attribute Vilar (villa).
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area was conquered by the
Wisigoths and incorporated into the Septimania. The Wisigoths built
near the Roman tower a 10 x 5 m building, probably intended to house a
small garrison. They also built a pre-Roman church and left thirteen
sarcophagi, two of them being currently placed near the parish church.
The place was completely trashed by the Sarracens and resettled after
the Carolingian reconquest of the region in 811. Several abbeys and
churches were built in the Catalan Roman style, included the priory of
Santa Maria del Vilar, built by Augustinian monks in 1083. The monks
reused the remains of the previous ages to build a church, a cloister
surmonted by the Prior's apartment, and rooms for the monks in the
Wisigothic building.
The cloister, built on the same model as the priory of Serrabone, has
only one side. It has three archs and its ceiling is made of heavy wood
in order to support the Prior's apartment. The church is decorated with
frescos, which were wisely hidden under roughcast by the monks when
they left the priory in 1538; the frescos were rediscovered during a
later restoration but suffered from an unfortunate washing procedure.
The door of the church is asymetrical and its capitals are decorated
with human heads. The door includes several holes, which were used as
loopholes when the priory was threatened by bandits. The Augustinian
monks were willingly poor but were often confused with the rich
Benedictines. The priory was also protected by a square tower that
collapsed during earthquakes in the XVth century.
The church was consecrated on 16 July 1142, 60 years after the
beginning of the building site. In the next centuries, several guilds
settled near the priory, as it was the case in Marcevol and Serrabone.
Remains of a forge and stone-cutter and glass-maker's workshops have
been found.
The monks left the priory in 1538 but gave the key to a family in the
village of Laroque des Albères, in case monks would like to resettle
the priory. The key was kept in the same family for 450 years, until
1994, when the remains of the priory were excavated and the key reused.
The village around the priory disappeared and its inhabitants moved
down to the plains. The name of Vilar was forgotten near 1750. From
1802 to 1942, the priory church was used as a sheepfold. The ruins of
the village were covered by earth slipping down the mountain.
In 1994, Ms. Lucette Triadou decided to purchase the sheepfold and attempted to restore what was locally called the oven. She found that the oven was indeed a door buried beneath the soil. A local association, helped by the national agency for historical monuments, was able to restore the site and buildings from the different ages, which are now opened to the public.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 7 December 2004
The municipal flag of Villelongue-dels-Monts is white with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
The municipal coat of arms is made of six yellow and black horizontal stripes.
Arnaud Leroy, 7 December 2004