Village
La Jonquera is a town in the Alto Ampurdán comarca, in the province of Gerona, on the border with France and situated at the foot of the Sierra de l'Albera, a historic Pyrenean pass already crossed by the Roman road of the Via Augusta. It has 3,420 inhabitants. From the 13th century until the mid-19th century it was held by the Rocabertí family, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659 fixed the new border between the Spanish and French monarchies on the Sierra de l'Albera. The town is known today for the Museum of Exile (MUME), which commemorates the Republican Retirada of 1939 through the passes of l'Albera, and for the Le Perthus customs post, which has made trade and transport the basis of its economy, previously centred on dry farming and cork.
Monument
The Museu Memorial de l'Exili (MUME) is an interpretation centre located at the very border crossing through which most Republican exiles fled, dedicated to the memory, history and critical reflection on the exiles caused by the Spanish Civil War of 1939. It is managed by a public consortium and is part of the Xarxa d'Espais de Memòria de Catalunya (Network of Memory Sites of Catalonia). It opened its doors on 16 February 2008, being the first museum facility dedicated to preserving the memory of the Republican exile and its legacy. It combines a permanent exhibition, which traces the history of the exile from the start of the Civil War to the transition (1975-1981), with a temporary exhibition hall and a classroom for educational workshops.
Nature
The eastern end of the Pyrenees separating the Alt Empordà from the Roussillon, with cork oak and holm oak forests and great faunal diversity, including the Mediterranean tortoise. The range stretches from the Coll del Pertús to the Mediterranean Sea, between the towns of Argelès-sur-Mer and Cerbère, and its ridge has formed the border between Spain and France since the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659. Despite its modest altitude compared with the central axis of the mountain chain, it culminates at Puig Neulós, at 1256 metres, followed by other peaks such as puig dels Pastors or pic de Sallafort. Its name comes from the Latin Alberia ('white'), and it is first documented in the year 844.
Nature
At 1,256 m it is the highest peak of the sierra de l'Albera, an exceptional viewpoint from which the whole of the Empordà, the Gulf of Roses and Canigou can be seen. Its summit, known in French as pic du Néoulous, is shared by the municipalities of la Jonquera, in the Alt Empordà, and of La Roque-des-Albères and Sorède, already in the French Roussillon, whose ridge was the border between the old counties of Empúries and Roussillon and, since the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659, between Spain and France. It is included in the list of the 100 cims of the Catalan Federation of Hiking Clubs (Federació d'Entitats Excursionistes de Catalunya) and is one of the usual destinations of hiking routes in the western sector of the range, of which it is the highest peak.
Nature
A 1,167 m peak in the Albera range, a waypoint on long-distance trails through beech woods and high-mountain pastures.
Nature
Puig dels Quatre Termes, at 1,156 metres, lies on the boundary between la Jonquera (Alt Empordà) and the Roussillon commune of Sorède, already in French Northern Catalonia, and also borders the municipality of Espolla; its name refers precisely to the meeting point of four municipal boundaries at this spot. From the summit there are views over the Muga valley and the Empordà plain.
Nature
The Llobregat d'Empordà rises at the pic del Llobregat, passes through la Jonquera and gathers the waters of the southern slope of the sierra de l'Albera before flowing into the Muga, of which it is a left-bank tributary. It is a rain-fed river, fed only by autumn and spring rains, with minimum flow in August. Its banks, lined with alders and poplars, host remarkable biological diversity: barbel and trout, eels, grass snakes, salamanders, toads and frogs, as well as river crayfish, today dominated by the American crayfish in the face of the almost vanished native crayfish. The river's course also serves as a resting area on the migratory route of numerous birds, especially birds of prey, which use it as a biological corridor between the mountains and the sea.
Activity
This commemorative route follows the path taken by thousands of Republicans into exile in 1939, from the Museu Memorial de l'Exili (MUME) in la Jonquera to la Vajol. During the Catalonia Offensive, between January and February 1939, more than half a million people fled to France in barely three weeks through the passes of this area: the coll del Portús in la Jonquera, the coll de Manrella in Agullana and the coll de Lli in la Vajol, the last used by the highest Republican authorities. In Agullana, the Mas Perxés was the last seat of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and in la Vajol the Mina d'en Negrín safeguarded works of art during the war; by March 1939 France had taken in some 440,000 Republican refugees.
Activity
A signposted route among the fortifications of the Line P, built during the Civil War, a distinctive piece of military heritage in the Alt Empordà.
Activity
A section of the GR2 long-distance trail crossing the Alt Empordà's interior through cork-oak woods and small rural hamlets.
Activity
The opening section of the Pirinexus, a 353 km circular cycling route, which enters Catalonia via the Panissars pass and crosses the Empordà plain to Castelló d'Empúries on flat, paved track.
Activity
A gravel-bike route combining forest tracks and quiet roads between La Jonquera and the slopes of the Albera massif.
Activity
A Sunday market in this border town, traditionally very popular with shoppers from both sides of the frontier.
Curiosity
A Monumental Tree of Catalonia: a large, centuries-old cork oak with a trunk over 4.5 m in girth, standing in the Salines massif near Sant Julià dels Tords and listed as a natural monument in 1991.
Curiosity
The almost intact wreckage of a Douglas DC-6 water bomber that crashed on 16 July 1986 while fighting a forest fire near Le Perthus, killing all four crew members; reached via a 7.5 km hiking trail from Recasens.
Curiosity
A set of concrete bunkers built by the Franco regime from the 1940s onward against a hypothetical Allied invasion after the Second World War, blended and camouflaged into the border landscape.