The Legacy of the Kings of Mallorca: a Perpignan Palace and a Collioure Castle
An entire quarter of the old town in Perpignan is taken up by the Palais des Rois de Majorque. The entrance today is as circuitous as when it was designed in the 13th century to keep out attacking armies.
Flights of steps zig zag within sheer redbrick ramparts until, eventually, the elegant gardens and substantial castle are reached. A superb palace, in the heart of the city.
From the impressive Tour de l’Hommage the commanding view over mountain, plain, city and sea is a great introduction to the city.
The surrounding convents, churches and the cathedral bear witness to the religious fervour of the Kings of Mallorca, the green parks and gardens cool and peaceful between the warm red bricks of the ancient buildings.
The palace combines the warm red of its brick and river-stone walls with local stone and the coloured marbles of the eastern Pyrenees. The effect is particularly beautiful in the great courtyard and around the royal apartments.
The vast two story arcaded courtyard, the frescoed and tiled royal chapel and the great Gothic Hall display a strong Spanish Moorish influence.
The chapel is particularly interesting. Built on two levels, it helped separate the royal apartments of the king and queen, while its decoration reflects the close artistic connections between the Kingdom of Mallorca and the Islamic world. Mudéjar influences sit alongside Catholic imagery, a reminder that this was a Mediterranean kingdom at the crossroads of several cultures.
A tour of the two chapels, the Royal apartments and grand halls that surround the central courtyard gives an insight into the palace life as it must have been lived in medieval times.
The Kings of Mallorca
Jaume II, born in 1243 and King of Mallorca from 1276 until his death in 1311, inherited the Kingdom of Mallorca from his father, Jaume I, who was known as James the Conqueror. He was King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona and Lord of Montpellier. His elder brother Pierre III inherited the Crown of Aragon. The division was to cause trouble almost immediately.
Jaume II was known, with good reason, as James the Builder. He built the Chateau Royal at Collioure as well as new towns in Mallorca and Minorca. He began the cathedral in Palma, renovated the Almudaina Palace and, on a neighbouring hill, built the palace of Bellver, where he was eventually to die.
In Perpignan, his new palace was designed as a suitable home for the Royal Family and a residence worthy of the ruler of the Kingdom of Mallorca. It was large enough to accommodate a court and impress visiting dignitaries. Jaume chose the Puig del Rey, a hill within the city walls with commanding views across the countryside. The palace was begun in 1274 and the royal family was already living there by 1283, although work continued for many years.
It was an unusual combination of palace and fortress: comfortable enough for a royal household, impressive enough for foreign visitors, but protected by massive walls and carefully planned defensive approaches. In many ways it was a forerunner of the great fortress-palaces that would appear elsewhere in the 14th century.
He supported the new religious orders and built convents and churches of the same traditional red brick and river stones as his palace. He made peace with the Andalusia Emirs and Magrebian rulers and with the Kings of Naples and Sicily. He blended Islamic inscriptions with Catholic decorations in his Royal Chapel.
The palace itself reflected that Mediterranean world. Islamic and Mudéjar artistic influences appeared alongside Catholic decoration, particularly in the Royal Chapel. It was a sophisticated mixture rather than the simple expression of a single European culture.
A spot of brotherly bother…
In 1285, his brother Pierre III of Aragon forced his way into Perpignan with 300 armed men and approached the still unfinished palace. He wanted his younger brother’s share of their father’s inheritance.
According to the medieval chroniclers, Jaume, pretending to be ill, summoned his architect, Ramon Pau, and asked how he might escape. There was no secret passage, but there was a rather more undignified alternative: a drain from the kitchens ran beneath the royal apartments towards the ramparts.
While Pierre slept, Jaume escaped through the drain and made his way out of the city. By the time Pierre reached the royal apartments, his brother had disappeared.
The King of Mallorca eventually found refuge at his castle at Laroque des Albères. Isolated in hostile territory, Pierre did not remain in Perpignan for long.
Despite the brotherly conflict it was a period of peace and prosperity for Perpignan. Politics, commerce, religion, art all flourished. Textiles and leather were particularly successful.
Jaume II was succeeded by his son Sanç, or Sancho, who reigned from 1311 to 1324. His was a comparatively harmonious reign and Perpignan continued to prosper.
Sanç authorised the consuls of Perpignan to establish the first Loge de Mer, a maritime merchants’ exchange reflecting the importance of the city’s merchants and maritime trade. He also laid the first stone of the new church of Saint-Jean in Perpignan on 27 April 1324. He died later that same year, aged about fifty.
The building he had begun was not yet a cathedral. Saint-Jean became the cathedral of Perpignan only in 1602. Nevertheless, Sanç’s foundation stone marked the beginning of the great Gothic church that still dominates the old city.
The fate of the Knights Templar in Roussillon is another of the stories associated with Sanç’s reign. Unlike the harsh treatment meted out to the Templars elsewhere, the surviving brothers in the region were not simply handed over to the executioners but treated with tolerance.
Jaume III
Sanç`s nephew Jaume III (1315 –1349) born in 1315, became the third and last King of Mallorca in 1324.
He was not the diplomat his uncle had been, and the relationship with the Crown of Aragon deteriorated badly. In 1349 he sold his rights to Montpellier to Philip VI of France. Later that same year he was killed at the Battle of Llucmajor in Mallorca. With his death, the independent Kingdom of Mallorca effectively came to an end.
During his reign however, musicians filled the palace and exotic animals roamed the moat. Wolves, bears and lions for example…
The royal menagerie seems to have been considerably more exotic than that of most medieval European courts. Peacocks and ostriches were also among the animals associated with the palace. In 1393, long after the independent kingdom had disappeared, King Pierre of Aragon was sufficiently concerned about the decline in the ostrich population to forbid the palace guardians from hunting them.
From Palace to Fortress
By the 15th century the Aragonese kings were finding the old palace increasingly outmoded as a royal residence. Its future was becoming military rather than royal. French troops occupied Perpignan from 1462 to 1493, and the city endured repeated sieges.
The last great royal visitors were Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabelle of Castile in 1493. By then the palace had become part of a much larger defensive complex
During the 16th century the Spanish monarchy strengthened the fortifications around the palace and developed it as a military citadel. The great walls that now surround the royal residence are therefore the result of several centuries of changing military requirements, rather than all being part of Jaume II’s original palace.
After the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, Vauban, Louis XIV’s great military architect, planned further fortifications. On the whole, however, Perpignan remained far from the major conflicts that had once threatened it.
The old military spaces gradually acquired new uses. Gardens grew on the ramparts and, in 1958, the Palais des Rois de Majorque became the property of the Department of the Pyrénées-Orientales. Today the gardens and courtyard are again places of music, performances and cultural events during the summer.
Meanwhile, in Collioure…
The story of the Kings of Mallorca can be followed from Perpignan down to the Mediterranean at Collioure.
The Château Royal stands on a site with a much longer history of settlement and defence, including Roman fortifications. Jaume II rebuilt and enlarged the royal stronghold here in the same period that he was developing his palace at Perpignan.
You cannot miss it. It is the very heart of Collioure, imposing and grand, its walls plunging into the sea.
It is sometimes inaccurately known as the Chateau des Templiers. Not really suprising as their influence in the region was great and Collioure was their port.
The castle served as a royal residence as well as a military stronghold. The medieval town grew tightly around it, and the royal family used Collioure as their maritime residence while Perpignan served as the political centre of their continental kingdom.
The contrast between the two places is what makes them so interesting together. Perpignan was the great inland palace of the kingdom; Collioure was its Mediterranean port and seaward fortress.
The medieval village remained clustered around the Château until the French took control. Under Louis XIV, Vauban transformed the defences. One of the most drastic changes was the destruction of a large part of the existing town to create the open space needed for the fortress. The inhabitants were obliged to rebuild further north, creating much of the Collioure that visitors see today.
The fortunes of the Château followed the fortunes of Collioure. It was occupied by the Spanish in 1793, only to be retaken by the French under Dugommier in 1794, since when it has remained French.
A Darker Chapter
The Château was classified as a historic monument in 1922. Its history took a much darker turn in 1939, when it was used as a prison and disciplinary internment camp for refugees from the Spanish Civil War. It was the first French disciplinary camp established specifically for Spanish refugees.
The Germans took up residence during the Occupation, and by the end of the war the Château was still a sad and heavily scarred place. Its long history had moved from royal residence to fortress, prison and internment camp.
Collioure today
Today the Château Royal belongs to the Department of the Pyrénées-Orientales. Its ancient walls provide a setting for exhibitions, concerts, performances and festivals, while its courtyards and terraces are once again filled with visitors rather than soldiers or prisoners.
Floodlights and fireworks light up the castle keep, and antique dealers have traditionally filled the castle with their wares during special events.
It can be visited daily, the views from the ramparts are splendid and exhibitions provide a living record of Collioure’s rich military and maritime history.
Standing on the ramparts and looking across the harbour, it is easy to understand why the Kings of Mallorca wanted Collioure. From Perpignan they could rule their continental kingdom; from Collioure they could look out towards the Mediterranean.
For a dynasty that lasted barely three generations, they left an extraordinary mark on the landscape of Roussillon: a palace above Perpignan, a castle above the sea at Collioure, and between them the remains of a small Mediterranean kingdom that once reached far beyond the borders of modern France.