Audio Guide Villefranche-de-Conflent

Villefranche-de-Conflent

Places researched in this city

A selection of the 7 places we've researched in this city. The full set is in the Parroo app.

• Medieval ramparts
• Romanesque church
• Mountain fort
• Scenic railway
• Karst caves

• 01

  Ramparts of Villefranche-de-Conflent

  Built from local pink and griotte marble starting in 1092, these walls stretch 362 metres and were overhauled by Vauban after the Treaty of the Pyrenees handed Roussillon to France in 1659. Walking the top gives a clear view of exactly why every army that ever passed through this valley wanted to control this town.

• 02

  Fort Libéria

  Vauban built this fort from 1681 specifically because the medieval ramparts below were no match for contemporary artillery. The quickest way up from town is an underground staircase of 754 steps cut straight through the rock.

• 03

  Saint James Church

  Built in the early 12th century from the same pink marble as the town walls, the church grew a second, larger nave mid-century simply because the population outgrew the first one. Vauban later modified its western end when he folded the building into the town's fortification scheme.

• 04

  The Yellow Train Station (Villefranche - Vernet-les-Bains)

  Opened in 1895 as the terminus of the line from Prades, this modest station became the launch point for the narrow-gauge Cerdagne line that crept upward to Latour-de-Carol by 1927. The Yellow Train that departs here runs through some of the highest railway viaducts in France.

• 05

  Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue Saint-Jean

  These two parallel streets are not just the commercial spine of the old town; they are the original urban plan laid out when the town was chartered around 1090, and the layout has barely shifted since. The name Villefranche itself records the municipal privileges, or franchises, granted to early settlers.

• 06

  Caves of the Grandes Canalettes

  Accidentally found in 1951, these karst caves formed in limestone roughly 400 million years old were opened to the public only in 1984. The showpiece chamber, nicknamed the Temple d'Angkor, sits inside a system so ornate that the caves earned the informal title of underground Versailles.

• 07

  Cova Bastera Cave

  Vauban converted this natural limestone cave into a fortified defensive position between 1669 and 1707, complete with zig-zag passages designed to slow any attacker, and he died the same year the work was finally completed. The cave now houses the Dinopedia Experience, an educational exhibit that sits rather incongruously inside the old military casements.

• 08

  More places to discover

  In the Parroo app