Prades is a
communeThe commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a small gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis, things held in common.French communes are roughly...
and a sub-prefecture of the
Pyrénées-OrientalesPyrénées-Orientales is a department of southern France adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It also surrounds the tiny Spanish enclave Llívia, and thus has two distinct borders with Spain.- History :...
department in southern
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. It is the capital of the historical
ConflentConflent is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, now part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. In the Middle Ages it comprised the County of Conflent....
comarcaA comarca is a traditional region or local administrative division found in parts of Spain, Portugal, Panama, Nicaragua, and Brazil....
.
Its inhabitants are called
Pradéens.
Geography
It is located in the Pyrenees Mountains next to the Canigó and
Têt RiverThe Têt is the largest river in Roussillon, southwestern France. It is 116 km long. The Têt has its source at the foot of the Pic Carlit in the Pyrenees...
. Its nearby towns include
CodaletCodalet is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It is very small with only a few streets but has a lot of character. There are no shops but there is a little park with a boules court and soccer goal as well as a river running through it. Codalet has an annual garage...
,
EusEus is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.-References:*...
,
VincaVinca, , from Latin vincire: "to bind, fetter", formerly known as pervinca, is a genus of five species in the family Apocynaceae, native to Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia...
,
VillefrancheVillefranche is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* Villefranche, Gers, in the Gers département* Villefranche, Yonne, in the Yonne département* Villefranche-d'Albigeois, in the Tarn département...
Notable people
Prades was the birthplace of
Thomas MertonThomas Merton was a 20th century American Catholic writer. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist and student of comparative religion. He wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Merton was a keen...
(1915–1968), a famous Trappist (or Cistercian) monk who spent most of his life at the
Abbey of GethsemaniThe Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani is a Trappist monastery near Bardstown, Kentucky in Nelson County—situated on more than 2,000 acres of farmland, and considered to be the "mother house" of all Trappist and Trappistine monasteries in the United States of America...
near Bardstown,
KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
It was also the adopted home of cellist
Pablo CasalsPau Casals i Defilló , best known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and later conductor...
and grammarian
Pompeu FabraPompeu Fabra i Poch, was a Catalan grammarian, the main author of the normative reform of contemporary Catalan language....
during their exile from the
Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
. A small museum in Prades commemorates Casals.
Events
Every summer, since 1968, the Universitat Catalana d'Estiu (
Catalan Summer University) is held at Prada de Conflent. It is an academic event which usually lasts ten days, open to everybody, where scholars, artists, and other personalities coming from all over the
Catalan CountriesThe Catalan term Països Catalans refers to the territories where Catalan language is spoken....
lecture and discuss about a variety of topics of general interest.
Twin towns
Prades is twinned with:
- Ripoll
Ripoll is the capital of the comarca of Ripollès, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It is located 691 metres above the sea, on the confluence of the Ter River and its tributary Freser, next to the Pyrenees near the French border...
, CataloniaCatalonia is an Autonomous Community in northeast Spain. The capital city is Barcelona.Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an official population of 7,364,078. It borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south, and the...
, SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
- Lousã
Lousã is a town in the district of Coimbra, Portugal . Its area is 139,16 km² and its population around 15,753 . Its neighbouring towns are Vila Nova de Poiares , Góis , Castanheira de Pêra , Figueiró dos Vinhos , and Miranda do Corvo .It is the chief town and urban center in the Pinhal...
, PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
- Kitzingen
Kitzingen is a town in the German state of Bavaria, capital of the district Kitzingen. It is part of Franconia geographical region and has around 21,000 inhabitants.Surrounded by vineyards, Kitzingen County is the largest wine producer in Bavaria...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
External links