Along the Pyrenees (III) : Llivia, a Spanish enclave in France.

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Llivia (Pronounce it Liibia) is the only enclave belonging to a foreign country in France, and it is interesting to tell how it happened. I told in part I a few words about the Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed in 1659 at Pheasant Island between France and Spain. France had won a war and annexed Roussillon. It was decided that Cerdanya would be divided in two parts between France and Spain. As there were villages belonging to France in the Spanish part and to Spain in the French part, the treaty said that all villages belonging to France at the south of a line in the Pyrenees would be Spanish, and all villages at the north of this line would be French. Sounds correct, isn't it ? But treaties are like executive orders, they have to be written carefully. Soon after the treaty, the Spanish withdrew from the Northern part of Cerdanya, except from Llivia, arguing that Llivia was not a village, but a city ! Llivia had in the past a fortified castle who became the residence of the count of Cerdanya in 815 and the capital of Cerdanya, although it was nothing else than a castle with a few houses at the top of the hill. In 1177 the king Alfonso II of Aragon decided to build a real capital not far, at Puygcerda. In 1257 another king of Aragon authorized people to build houses at the feet of the castle of LLivia. A century later there were 21 "feux" (families were counted by the number of "fireplaces") counted in all Llivia. In 1463 France annexes Roussillon and a part of Cerdanya including Llivia. French are chased by a revolt in 1473. A few months later king Louis XI of France sends the troop, takes again the castle of Llivia, buy it to his owner and destroys it. In 1493 Cerdanya becomes Spanish again. With no more castle, Llivia is put directly under the protection of the king of Aragon, and in 1582 the emperor of Spain Carlos V who probably never went there gives to Llivia the title of "City". So Llivia has a mayor and a city council in 1659. Even if an inhabitant of Llivia looks like any ploughman from any surrounding village, it is a privileged bourgeois, and Llivia is not a village but a city. You understand it, France ? "Damn it, they got us !" said cardinal Mazarin, and he negotiated with Spain to have another treaty for Llivia. The treaty of Llivia, signed between France and Spain in 1660, decided that Llivia would belong to Spain, but that Spain would never fortify the "city" and would never send military to Llivia without the consent of France. In 1866 another treaty created a neutral road (a road without customs control) between Llivia and Puygcerda in Spain. A neutral road is something very interesting for smugglers, and the population of Llivia increased a bit. After the borders between France and Spain have disappeared the population doubled by the creation of a lot of shops to sell cheap alcohol and tobacco to French people. Shops in Llivia like in the rest of Spain are opened on Sundays, when they are closed in France. People from Llivia are speaking Catalan and the road and street signs are in Catalan, not in Castilian/Spanish. Today Llivia has about 1500 inhabitants, a small but interesting museum of pharmacy installed in the oldest pharmacy in Europe (from the 15th C), and some paintings from a disciple of Salvador Dali in its church. Last year a large Roman temple has been found. It reminds me that Julius Caesar called the place Iulia Lybica ; and to be sure that he was giving his name to a place that would become a large city he gave the Latin right to the inhabitants. It has been a failure, and the city was destroyed in 116. Then Hadrian sent a colony there to restore and populate it again... but some places are probably not destined to become big cities... Llivia is nice like it is, a big Spanish village in France. The picture shows the "Main Square" of Llivia, like it was in 1994. Photo by Jean-Pierre Bazard, Wikimedia Commons.