Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via

Commune in Occitania, France

Coat of arms

Location of Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via

(2020–2026) Alain Luneau^[1]Area

29.60 km² (11.43 sq mi)Population

(2021)^[2]

1,780 • Density60/km² (160/sq mi)Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)INSEE/Postal code

66124 /66120

Elevation1,312–2,212 m (4,304–7,257 ft)
(avg. 1,800 m or 5,900 ft)¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (French pronunciation: [fɔ̃ ʁɔmø ɔdɛjo vja] ^ⓘ; Catalan: Font-romeu, Odelló i Vià), or simply Odeillo, is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales and Cerdagne near the Spanish border in the south of France.^[3] It comprises the villages of Odeillo and Via, as well as Font-Romeu, one of the oldest ski resorts in France and the oldest in the Pyrenees.

Geography

Localization

Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via is located in the canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes and in the arrondissement of Prades. It is bordered by the communes of Angoustrine-Villeneuve-des-Escaldes, Targasonne, Égat, Estavar, Saillagouse, Eyne and Bolquère.

Transportation

Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via station is served by the Yellow Train line, a railway which runs from Villefranche-de-Conflent to Latour-de-Carol.

Toponymy

The names of Odeillo and Via appear in 839 as parrochia Hodellone et parrochia Avizano.^[4]

The name Font-Romeu means in Catalan "fountain of the pilgrim".^[4]

History

Odeillo and Via were both mentioned for the first time in 839 among the places paying a fee to La Seu d'Urgell church. Nevertheless, Odeillo was at the time part of the County of Cerdanya, while Via was a property of the Urg family.^[4]

On 15 July 1035, Wifred II, Count of Cerdanya, gave Odeillo to the Abbey of Saint-Martin-du-Canigou, where he retired himself a short time before his death. The Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa also owned a few allods in Odeillo, as recognized by a papal bull from Sergius IV in 1011.^[4]

Via remained a property of the Urg family until the 13th century. It was then bought by Peter of Fenouillet, viscount of Fenouillet and then viscount of Ille.^[4]

A chapel was mentioned for the first time in Font-Romeu in 1525, on the territory of Odeillo. It already hosted a statue of the Virgin Mary from the 13th century, and a hermitage was built from 1693 to receive the pilgrims.^[4]

Odeillo and Via both became communes in 1790. The commune of Via was abolished and included into Odeillo on 10 July 1822.^[5]

In 1881, a wildfire caused by arson spread throughout 267 hectares of the forest of La Calme in the north of the commune.^[6]

Demography

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	1,857	—
1975	2,098	+1.76%
1982	2,150	+0.35%
1990	1,857	−1.81%
1999	2,003	+0.84%
2007	1,992	−0.07%
2012	1,843	−1.54%
2017	1,928	+0.91%
Source: INSEE^[7]

Solar power

The world's largest solar furnace in Odeillo can reach temperatures of 3,500 °C (6,330 °F).
THEMIS Solar Power R&D center is 3 km (1.9 mi) away in the village of Targasonne

References

^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
^ "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
^ INSEE commune file
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f (in French) Jean Sagnes (dir.), Le pays catalan, t. 2, Pau, Société nouvelle d'éditions régionales, 1985
^ Jean-Pierre Pélissier, Paroisses et communes de France: dictionnaire d'histoire administrative et démographique, vol. 66 : Pyrénées-Orientales, Paris, CNRS, 1986
^ Fabricio Cardenas, Vieux papiers des Pyrénées-Orientales, Incendies de forêts en 1881, 13 February 2014
^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE