Le Boulou

Commune in Occitania, France

Le Boulou El Voló
Commune
A general view of Le Boulou
Coat of arms
Location of Le Boulou
(2020–2026)		François Comes^[1]
Area ¹	14.42 km² (5.57 sq mi)
Population (2021)^[2]	5,321
• Density	370/km² (960/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	66024 /66160
Elevation	55–363 m (180–1,191 ft)
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Le Boulou (French pronunciation: [lə bulu] ^ⓘ; Catalan: El Voló [əl βuˈlo]) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.

It is situated 12 km from the Spanish border.

Geography

Localisation

The town of Le Boulou is located in the canton of Vallespir-Albères and in the arrondissement of Céret, in the south of Pyrénées-Orientales.

Toponymy

The name of the town in catalan is El Voló.^[3]

History

In the 10th century, the territory of Le Boulou appears to be shared between the lord of Saint-Jean-Pla-de-Corts, lady Minimilla, and the church of Elne. Le Boulou is then ruled by the lords of Montesquieu from the 11th to the 14th centuries. It finally becomes part of the crown lands.^[4]

At the end of the 17th century, Bernard de Kennedy, following the court of James II of England in France, decides to settle in Le Boulou and receives French citizenship from Louis XIV of France. His grandson, Côme de Kennedy, is granted a title of lord of Le Boulou in 1755. Côme's son, Joseph de Kennedy is the running lord during the French Revolution. But his house is used as a headquarter by the Spanish general Antonio Ricardos during the first battle of Boulou in 1793. Accused of betrayal, Joseph de Kennedy is sent to the guillotine on 2 May 1794, on the next day after the second battle of Boulou.^[5]

In the 20th century Le Boulou was the site of a camp housing female Republican escapees from Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War.^[6] It was opened as a clearing centre, but there was no shelter and most of the women and children were removed to other parts of France, along with some wounded soldiers.^[7] During the German occupation the spa at Le Boulou was a Gestapo headquarters.^[8]

Old town Hall (1912)
Church Sainte-Marie

Government and politics

Mayors

Mayor	Term start	Term end
Marie-Rose Careras	1987	1995
Jean-Pierre Salgas	1995	2008
Christian Olive	2008	2014
Nicole Villard-Schlatter	2014	2020
François Comes	2020

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	2,921	—
1975	3,709	+3.47%
1982	4,292	+2.11%
1990	4,436	+0.41%
1999	4,428	−0.02%
2007	5,175	+1.97%
2012	5,520	+1.30%
2017	5,514	−0.02%
Source: INSEE^[9]

Culture

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.
^ Nomenclàtor toponímic de la Catalunya del Nord
^ (in French) Jean Sagnes (dir.), Le pays catalan, t. 2, Pau, Société nouvelle d'éditions régionales, 1985
^ Cárdenas, Fabricio (2014). 66 petites histoires du Pays Catalan [66 Little Stories of Catalan Country] (in French). Perpignan: Ultima Necat. ISBN 978-2-36771-006-8. OCLC 893847466.
^ Beevor, Antony (2001). The Spanish Civil War. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. p. 394. ISBN 0-304-35840-1.
^ Thomas, Hugh (2012). The Spanish Civil War (50th Anniversary ed.). London: Penguin Books. p. 855. ISBN 978-0-141-01161-5.
^ "With Death Snapping at Their Heels: Tales from Europe's "wild West"".
^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE