Collioure

Matisse came to Collioure in the summer of 1905 and Derain joined him; working from the same views in unmixed colour straight from the tube, they produced the canvases that were shown that autumn in Paris and got the group named the wild beasts. The village has set about twenty empty frames along the shore at the points where specific paintings were made, with a reproduction beside each, so you can hold the picture against the view. The setting is a bay under the Alberes hills with a royal castle on the water, a church whose bell tower was the old lighthouse, and terraced vineyards making Banyuls and Collioure wine.

History

The castle of "Castrum Caucoliberi" is recorded as early as 673, a sign of the place's importance under the Visigoths, and the town long consisted of two villages divided by the river Douy, Port d'Avall to the south and Port d'Amunt upstream. French troops under Marshal de la Meilleraye took Collioure in 1642, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees confirmed it as French in 1659; Vauban strengthened the Château Royal and Fort Saint-Elme under Louis XIV, and the Spanish occupied the town one last time in 1793 before General Dugommier retook it a year later. In 1823 Port-Vendres became a separate commune, and on 21 January 1870 more than a metre of snow fell on the town in a single day, damaging orchards and cork oak woods (Wikipedia, Collioure).

Highlights

• The Fauvism frames - about twenty on-site frames matching famous canvases.
• The bell tower lighthouse - a church tower built from the old harbour light.
• The royal castle - a fortress on the shore between the two bays.
• The terraced vineyards - schist slopes behind the village.

When to go

April to June and September to October; August is extremely crowded and hot. The tramontane wind blows hard in winter and spring. Anchovy curing is a local trade worth seeking out.

Practical notes

The village is small and packed in summer, with parking well outside. The beaches are shingle rather than sand. None of the original Fauvist paintings are here.

Nearby

Banyuls lies south; Perpignan is northwest.

Key facts