Perpignan

Administrative centre of Pyrénées-Orientales département, southern France, situated just off the Mediterranean coast on the River Tet, near the Spanish border; population (1999) 105,100. Overlooking Perpignan is a vast citadel enclosing the castle in which the kings of Majorca and later the counts of Roussillon lived. It is a holiday resort and market town trading in olives, fruit, and wine, and textiles and paper are manufactured. There is a university here.

Built on the site of the Roman Ruscino, where the eastern route to Spain crosses the Tet, it was the capital of the old province of Roussillon. The Gothic cathedral was founded in 1324 by Sancho II, king of Mallorca.