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Villelongue-dels-Monts (Municipality, Pyrénées-Orientales, France)

Villalonga-dels-Monts

Last modified: 2005-03-05 by ivan sache
Keywords: pyrenees-orientales | villelongue-dels-monts | villalonga-dels-monts |
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[Flag of Villelongue]by Arnaud Leroy

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Presentation of Villelongue-dels-Monts

Villelongue-dels-Monts (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 havi