THE CANIGOU
The Canigou a supreme effort of the Pyrenees before dying down--
The Corbières--Ballad--_Goigs_--Catalonian dances--Prades--
Priory of Serrabonna--S. Michel de Cuxa--Villefranche--Castle--
Imprisonment there of two assistants of Mme. de Brinvilliars--
Conspiracy--Betrayed by Mez de Llar--Castle taken by Gilly--
Corneilla--Vernet--Ascent of the Canigou--Funicular railway--
S. Martin de Canigou--Founded--Restored--Le Boulon--Main highway
to Spain--Ceret--Legend of its bridge--Hazel-nuts--Gathering the
crop--Hermitage of S. Ferreolus--Pallada--Amelie les Bains--
Arles-sur-Tech--Church--Tomb of SS. Abdo and Senen--Miraculous
flow of water--Cloister--Prats de Mollo--Spadrillos.
The Pyrenees, before expiring in the cliffs of Cerbère, that drop
abruptly into the Mediterranean, make a supreme effort and rise in the
Canigou, which, though not one of the first-class heights, is certainly
one of the finest. A certain bashfulness prevails among the giants. The
Vignemale, the Mont Perdu, the Maladetta retreat behind screens of less
elevation and conceal their majesty. But the Canigou makes the most of
herself. The height is but 9135 feet, yet it is a stately mountain,
grey with eternal snows, as its name implies, and yielding to none in
dignity.
Comeliness in a woman is enhanced threefold when she is well set up.
Canigou is admirably set up. The fringe of subsidiary hills that
hitherto has intervened between the high ranges and the plain here
becomes detached and drifts away to the north-east, as the Corbières,
leaving the Canigou to reap the advantage of showing from head to foot.
It is not even the highest mountain of the Pyrénées Orientales; it is
surpassed by the Carlitte, which is 9780 feet, and the Puig Mal, which
is 9730 feet; but as these two summits are confounded among a number of
other heights rising out of the elevated plateau, it seems impossible,
at first sight, to suppose them to be as lofty as the Canigou. This
latter mountain is the termination of a chain that breaks away from the
main range in a north-easterly direction, built up of granite and mica
schist, and is composed of the junction of two ridges, which give to
the Canigou the appearance of having two heads. It dominates the whole
plain of Roussillon, and has inspired a song known to every peasant
there, who, if he does not sing all the words, warbles the air. This
song may be rendered into English thus:--
“Of mountains that are wondrous fair
Give me the Canigou!
Where, in the glowing summer air,
Bloom flowers red and blue.
Give me thy love, sweet maid, give me thy love!
“In autumn and in spring as well
The flowers here unfold,
Blush roses, many a purple bell,
Red pinks, and broom all gold.
Give me thy love, etc.
“Her chestnut-brown and laughing eye
Has ravishèd my heart,
So neat and trim is she, but I
Feel but my cruel smart.
Give me thy love, etc.
“White is she as the Canigou,
Her face as cotton grass,
That’s bathèd in the morning dew,
Her eyes are clear as glass.
Give me thy love, etc.
“Her teeth are pearls, her lips are red,
And archèd are her brows.
She wounds my heart, she turns my head;
Maid! hearken to my vows.
Give me thy love, etc.”
The _Goigs_ are the “Joys,” sacred songs or carols in honour of the
Virgin and the Saints. The best known is that in praise of Our Lady of
Font-Romeu. The “Goigs dels Ous” “Carol of the Eggs,” sung everywhere,
an Easter song, is trolled in the streets and throughout the night on
the eve of that great festival. One of the chanters carries a basket,
to receive eggs and any other contributions accorded to the carolers.
On the Place at Vernet, on Sundays and on the local fête, may be seen
Catalan dances about the great elm tree. Unfortunately these dances
have lost much of their primitive character since the _cornet-à-piston_
has displaced the old bagpipe. The ancient _bals_, _sardanas_, and
_seguedillas_ are danced less frequently every year. The _bal_ is a
musical pastoral representing the love-making of a youth and his lass;
but this is changing its features, and degenerating into a gallop. The
_sardana_ and the _seguedilla_ were ballads, the tunes of which were
taken by the _joglars_, or minstrels, for country dances, but to which
formerly the performers sang.
Notwithstanding the degeneration of the dances, the tourist will see in
them some traits of the light-hearted character of the people, will be
interested in the traditional music, and be pleased with the quaintness
of the scene, like a bit out of an opera.
[Illustration: VERNET LES BAINS]
The peaks of Canigou may be reached by train either on the north or
on the south. The northern line from Perpignan leads to Prades and
Villefranche de Conflent for Vernet, whence the visitor will be able to
ascend the Canigou by a funicular railway in course of construction.
The other way is by the Valespir to Amelie les Bains and Arles-sur-Tech.
We will begin with the first, and not halt till we reach Prades, though
there is much on the way of interest. The plain of Prades is two and
a half miles wide by two long, not very extensive, but enjoying so
sweet a climate, and having such a fertile soil, and so well watered,
that fruit and vegetables grow there in marvellous abundance. Prades
is a pleasant little town, but without much of interest in its public
buildings. The church was completed in 1686 in the unattractive style
affected at that period. But if Prades itself lacks antiquities, it is
not so with the neighbourhood.
If the visitor likes to run back to the third station on the line by
which he has arrived, i.e. to Boule-Ternère, and ascend the lateral
valley for five miles, or else take a carriage from Vinca, he can see
one of the most interesting monuments of medieval architecture in
Roussillon. This is an Augustinian priory of Serrabonna, founded in
1082; Artal II, Bishop of Elne, consecrated the church in 1151. The
church consists of a nave and two side aisles, which are cut off from
the nave; that on the south, standing on the edge of a precipice, was
formerly open to sun and air, supported on columns of white marble, the
capitals sculptured with all the richness and quaintness affected in
the early twelfth century. The sun has mellowed the marble to a rich
golden hue. This aisle is now converted into a stable. The north aisle
communicated with the galilee or pro-naos, and with the choir. Between
the doorway into the cemetery and that into the nave is the galilee,
opening outwards, through a large portal covered with magnificent
sculptures. The galilee is composed of a hall supported by round-headed
arches resting on pillars, single and double, with richly sculptured
capitals all in white marble.
The priory is situated in a wild and desolate region, thinly populated.
Nearer to Prades, within an easy walk, is another ruined religious
house, S. Michel de Cuxa, founded in the ninth century. The abbot wore
the mitre and exercised quasi-episcopal jurisdiction over fifteen
parishes. The abbey obtained a high repute on account of the sanctity
of several of its members, as S. Romuald and Peter Orseolo, the latter
of whom had been Doge of Venice.
The situation is delightful. The monastery is planted on the summit of
a hill above the waters of the Riberetta. About it is an amphitheatre
of mountains, opening out to the south to afford a full view of the
Canigou. Springs of pure cold water gush forth in many places. The
great abbey is now in such complete ruin that it is difficult to
distinguish the parts of the monastic building. The splendid cloister
has been destroyed, and portions have been transferred to adorn the
baths at Prades. The church is Romanesque, with a pointed choir. The
nave is now roofless, and is used for a storehouse. The church formerly
possessed two towers: one fell in 1839, the other leans. The story goes
that the architect who built it, finding that his erection was out of
the perpendicular, ran away, and was never heard of again. The fine
Renaissance doorway of the abbot’s house is intact. It is richly carved
in white marble, yellowed by the sun, and is surmounted by a sundial,
on which is represented a Benedictine monk looking up at the sun, and
bearing the inscription, _Sub uno solis radio omnem mundum collectum
conspexit_.
Five miles above Prades is Villefranche, the terminus of the railway.
It is a dreary little place built of grey marble that discolours and
stains black. Moreover, it consists of two streets only, usually empty;
and the houses are too many for the small population, numbering
less than five hundred. The town was built by William Raymond, Count
of Cerdagne, in 1095. He surrounded the town with a wall flanked by
towers. The castle was erected by Vauban, on a spur of the limestone
mountain of Belloch, 450 feet above the river Tet, and reached by a
subterranean staircase of 999 steps. In this castle were confined for
the rest of their lives two of the assistants of the infamous Marquise
de Brinvilliers. These were La Chappelain and Guesdon. A very brief
notice of the Marchioness and her crimes must suffice. She was a young
and beautiful woman, connected both by birth and marriage with some
of the noblest families of France, and was married to the Marquis de
Brinvilliers, a man of depraved conduct. She formed a guilty attachment
for Sainte Croix, a gay, handsome man, who had learned in Italy the
manufacture of slow poisons, especially the Succession Powder. The
Marquis and Marchioness separated, but were not divorced. Sainte Croix,
who had no fortune of his own, depended on what was given him by his
mistress, and as this did not suffice, he proposed to her to poison
her old father and brothers and sister, so as to gather into her own
hands all their succession. She agreed without hesitation, and herself
administered the fatal draught to her father. The brothers were next
got rid of, and the sister would have been similarly destroyed had
not her suspicions been roused, and she hastily quitted Paris. Others
who were inconvenient in one way or another were similarly got rid
of, but all was done with such caution that no charge could be made
against either. But the day of retribution was at hand, and a terrible
mischance brought the murders to light. The nature of the poisons was
so deadly that when Sainte Croix worked in his laboratory, he was
obliged to wear a mask, to preserve himself from suffocation. One
day the mask slipped off, and the miserable wretch perished in his
crimes. His corpse was found on the following morning in the obscure
lodging where he had fitted up his laboratory, and with it papers which
disclosed the whole series of murders perpetrated by the pair. The
Marchioness fled to England, where she remained for three years, but
went early in 1676 to Liège. There she was caught, brought to Paris,
executed, and her body burnt.
La Guesdon, along with her husband, had been in the service of Sainte
Croix, and before her marriage had been in that of the Marchioness. She
had been implicated in the poisonings. La Chappelain had acted in Paris
the part of a fortune-teller. By means of her supposed prevision of the
future she was able to presage the death of those marked down by Mme.
de Brinvilliers and Sainte Croix for destruction. La Guesdon died in
the prison at Villefranche in 1717, La Chappelain in 1724.
In the place itself is the opening into an extensive cavern. In 1674 a
conspiracy was raised to capture the citadel and deliver it over to the
Spaniards. It was widely ramified through the Cerdagne and Roussillon,
neither content at having been made over to France by the Treaty of the
Pyrenees. Some of the leading spirits in the plot were the men of the
family of Llar, in Villefranche, whose dilapidated and dingy _hôtel_
may be seen in the Rue des Juifs. The cavern mentioned served as a
place of meeting and a storehouse for arms. The conspiracy was betrayed
by Inez de Llar, daughter of the chief man in the plot, Charles de
Llar. He and her brother and relatives involved in it were executed.
The unfortunate Inez, broken-hearted at having brought ruin on her
family, ended her days in a convent.
In 1793 the Spanish general Crespo succeeded in making himself master
of Villefranche, on 4 August; but on 19 September, Gilly, at the head
of the second battalion of the Grenadiers of Gard, composed of 450
men, retook the place by an act of audacity. He disposed his men on
the heights as though the vanguard of an army, and then rode up to the
outposts with sixty grenadiers behind him, and haughtily summoned the
Spanish commandant to surrender to General Dagobert, whose army, he
said, was at hand, and who would give no quarter if the place were not
immediately given up.
The frightened Crespo consented, and an hour later Gilly entered
Villefranche at the head of the little army.
From Villefranche the distance is hardly five miles to Vernet, up the
valley of the Riu Major. The road passes Corneilla, where there is
a curious Romanesque church with a square tower and a fine marble,
sculptured doorway, as also, what is a rare feature, a retable of
carved marble of 1345, by an artist named Carcall de Berga. It
represents incidents in the life of our Lord. At the Revolution it
was pulled down, but was re-erected by an unintelligent mason, who
put it together badly, as may be seen by the disorder into which
the inscriptions have been thrown. The counts of Cerdagne were much
attached to Corneilla, and erected here a palace, which was abandoned
later and given up to the Augustinian canons.
Vernet is built in an amphitheatre of verdure, commanded by the
buttresses of the Canigou. It is composed of two distinct parts, of
very different aspect. The upper town is a tangle of little streets
between mean, black houses with broken windows and rickety doors, above
whose red tiled or slated roofs rise the church and the castle. New
Vernet lies along the road lower down, and there are found the baths,
the hotels, and the casino. The watering-places of Bagnères de Luchon,
Cauterez, S. Sauveur, etc., are frequented only in the months of June,
July, August, and rarely September; but at Vernet the season begins
in April, and bathers linger on to November. For the use of winter
residents a _jardin d’hiver_ has been formed. The cold here is never
great; and the salubrity of the spot has induced the erection of an
open-air cure sanatorium at the height of 2250 feet, in an isolated
position, for the use of consumptives.
From Vernet the ascent of the Canigou can be made on foot or by the
newly-constructed cog-railway. There is a station at S. Martin de
Canigou, an abbey founded at the edge of a precipice in 1007 by Count
Waifre of Cerdagne, and his wife Gisella. Tradition will have it that
he was engaged in warfare with the Moors, and had planned to surround
them. He committed one detachment of troops to his son, with strict
injunctions to delay attack till he himself should appear. But the
young man, in his impetuosity, fell on the unbelievers before the
arrival of the Count, and was defeated. Waifre in a rage killed him,
and then repenting of what he had done, went to Rome, where the Pope
required him to build and endow a monastery in expiation of his crime.
This is, however, mere fable. As a matter of fact, the foundation was
wholly voluntary, and Count Waifre, after having built it retired from
the world within its walls, and occupied his leisure in scooping out a
sarcophagus that was to contain himself eventually, which sarcophagus,
now empty, is still shown. He died in 1049. The abbey, having been
dismantled at the Revolution, fell into complete ruin, but has been
purchased, and the church restored by Bishop du Pont of Perpignan. He
has also revived the pilgrimage to it, which takes place on S. Martin’s
Day (11 November), when a procession winds up the mountain from Vernet.
Whether procession and pilgrims will henceforth go up in trucks by
the cog-railway remains to be seen. The church is a very interesting
example of earliest Romanesque, the aisles are separated from the
nave by granite columns very massive, with Byzantine ornament on the
capitals. Beneath the church is the crypt.
The second way to reach the roots of the Canigou, and, if it be
desired, to ascend it, is to take the branch line from Elne to
Arles-sur-Tech. At Le Boulou (lo Volo) the line crosses the Great
Eastern highway into Spain, the main pass from Narbonne to Barcelona
in Roman and medieval times, and used by Celts and Iberians before
ever Narbonne and Barcelona were thought of. Le Boulou did well as a
place through which travellers and merchandise streamed this way and
that. But then came the days of steam; the iron road was carried along
the coast from Perpignan to Barcelona, and Le Boulou’s occupation and
prosperity were gone never to return.
Beyond Le Boulou we reach Ceret, famous for its bridge, a daring
medieval structure, and for its nuts and cherry orchards. The architect
employed on the bridge, unable to throw the bold arch over the Tech,
put himself in communication with the Devil, who promised to complete
it for the usual consideration. As the fatal day approached the
architect became uneasy, and in the night went to the river with a
sack on his back, and waited till half-past eleven. Then he let loose
a cat with a kettle tied to its tail, and the Evil One, frightened at
the noise, let drop the last stone needed to complete the bridge and
fled. Thus the bridge never was finished; it lacks one stone to the
present day. The bridge spans the river with a single arch, and the
height from the key of the arch to the level of the water is 70 feet.
The opening of the arch between the piers is 128 feet. It remains the
boldest achievement in bridge-building accomplished in ancient France,
the only other approaching it was that of Brioude, which no longer
exists. This bridge was constructed in 1321. It marked the limit of the
Valespir, or upper basin of the Tech.
Ceret really flourishes on hazel-nuts. The plantations extend over
other communes, but Ceret is the centre of the industry. Three kinds of
nuts are grown; the best is thought to be indigenous; it has a russet
shell, pointed, and is contained in a cup divided into four lobes
delicately striated. The taste is superior to that of the other kinds,
and it is in greater request for the making of nougat. Inferior in
taste, but larger, is the second variety, usually sold to be served up
at dessert. The third kind is exotic, and is little cultivated.
The gathering of the nuts is done by women in the middle of August.
After that the nuts have been freed from their cases, they are dried,
and the sale begins in October. For the production of nougat the shells
are cracked and the kernel released, and this latter is alone sent to
the factories of that dainty. A hazel-nut tree will bear the third year
after it has been planted, but is not calculated to render a good crop
till the fifth. A hectare (2 acres, 1 r., 35 p.) is reckoned to render
a crop that will bring in 130 francs.
A little over two miles above the bridge of Ceret is the Hermitage
of S. Ferreolus, on the left bank of the Tech. Ferreolus was, so the
story goes, a robber chieftain who committed many murders. Seized
with compunction, he resolved on expiating his crimes by being rolled
downhill from where now stands the chapel, in a barrel, studded
internally with nails, a process the same as that which extinguished
Regulus. His festival is on 18 September, on which day the chapel is
visited, and there is much eating and drinking and dancing. On the
following Sunday is bull-baiting.
The line passes within sight of Pallada, most picturesquely situated,
at some distance from the iron road; but Pallada is best visited from
Amalie des Bains.
The baths were known to and used by the Romans, but were a dependency
of Arles-sur-Tech, and so remained till that needy little town in a
weak moment disposed of them in 1813, and has regretted the sale ever
since.
Amelie, which takes its name from Queen Amelie, occupies a specially
favoured site. Mountains fold about it, it faces the sun, and is
screened from every wind. The terrible Tramontane, which has bowed the
olives and plane trees in Roussillon and Languedoc, is powerless to
reach this blessed valley. The north-east wind indeed can steal up the
ravine of the Tech, but not till it has been despoiled of its humidity,
which renders it so objectionable to the inhabitants of the plain.
Frost and snow rarely visit Amelie; the mean number of days when rain
falls in the winter is eleven, in spring thirty-two, sixteen in the
summer, and twelve in the autumn. There is a military establishment of
baths at Amelie, and the place is much frequented by officers during
the winter, so that it is never utterly deserted and dead, as is the
generality of watering-places.
Amelie has been formed as a commune out of scraps taken from others,
but mainly from Arles-sur-Tech, to which the springs originally
belonged. Arles is a very curious town, vastly ancient, and is the
terminus of the line. Its principal manufacture is chocolate. The
little town stands on a height, and is surrounded by mountains.
Arles owes its medieval revival to a Benedictine abbey of which a
considerable portion remains to this day. The abbot exercised almost
episcopal jurisdiction over several parishes, of which he was also
temporal lord. In the sixteenth century it was in full decay, and was
so poor that its finances had to be helped out by annexing to it the
funds of another abbey. The reason was that it was held _in commendam_,
the revenue eaten by a titular abbot who resided in Paris, and
discharged none of his duties.
The church of the monastery was finished in 1040, and is very archaic.
It underwent, however, additions in 1157, when the curious vaulting was
added. As a doubt was entertained whether the piers would sustain it,
they were strengthened, and smaller arches added beneath those first
erected. The church reminds one of the monolithic church of S. Emillon
on the Garonne. The same square, massive piers rising to a great
height, quite unadorned, support the round-headed unmoulded arches.
Above each arch is a small, round-headed clerestory window. The church
consists of five bays, and the nave has side aisles, out of which open
chapels of much later construction. There was in the church at one time
a richly carved altar-piece of the fifteenth century. But when the
present detestable roccoco retable was erected, this was destroyed.
Some of the panels were happily preserved and affixed to the pillars in
the nave.
Outside the church the western portal is early, with a triangular
lintel, on which is cut a shield with A.ω between A and A. The meaning
of these double A’s is not understood. In the diminutive yard without,
behind is a grating, of an early sarcophagus that contained the bodies
of saints Abdo and Senen. It possesses the curious property of filling
with water, which can be drawn off by a tap at the side to supply
bottles brought by pilgrims, who consider the water as efficacious in
many maladies. How it is that the sarcophagus thus fills with water is
not known; probably the clergy of the church do not themselves know, as
the heavy lid has not been removed for centuries, nor the stone coffin
shifted from the spot where it now stands.
But the greatest beauty of the church consists in the large cloister on
the north side, of the thirteenth century. The arches are pointed, and
rest on graceful pillars with dainty foliaged capitals, all of marble,
and coupled. The cloister is not vaulted. This cloister was begun
in 1261, but was not completed till the beginning of the fourteenth
century.
The patrons of the church are SS. Abdo and Senen, Persian saints who
suffered under Decius in 252. In the reign of Constantine the Great
their relics were enshrined in Rome, and the marble sarcophagus that
contained them still exists there, and their remains are in the church
of S. Mark, Rome; but also here. Their day, 30 July, is a high festival
at Arles, when the sleepy town is full of animation, and dances take
place in the public square; then can be seen the red _barretina_ and
the gaily-coloured kerchiefs of the women.
Farther up the valley is a watering-place, Prats de Mollo. The name
Prats, as Prades, which occurs in so many parts of the south, derives
from the Latin _prates_, and signifies pleasant meadows by the
water-side. The industry of Prats is the making of the red caps worn
by the Catalans, and the rope-woven soles of _spadrillos_. The place
enjoyed great privileges under the kings of Aragon, among these was
freedom from duty on salt. Louis XIV sought to introduce it, but the
people rose and slaughtered the tax-collectors. Louis sent troops to
subdue them, and erected a fortress to intimidate them. On a mountain
above Prats le Coral is a pilgrimage chapel containing a miraculous
image of the Virgin. Crowds visit it--pilgrims from the country round,
and bathers from Amelie--to see the combined devotion and jollification
on 8 September.