Perpignan does not look like the capital of an island kingdom. This quiet city in French Catalonia, tucked between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean, shows few signs of the brief, strange era when it was the most important city in a realm that stretched from Roussillon to the Balearic Islands. But climb the hill of Puig del Rey on the city's southern edge, and the evidence is unmistakable: the Palace of the Kings of Majorca, a Gothic fortress of ochre stone, red marble, and pink-veined columns, built to project the power of a dynasty that lasted barely seven decades.
In 1276, James II of Majorca made Perpignan the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca, a state carved from the territories of the Crown of Aragon that included the Balearic Islands, Roussillon, Cerdagne, and the lordship of Montpellier. He immediately began building a palace befitting a capital, commissioning architects Ramon Pau, Pons Descoll, and Bernat Quer to raise a fortified residence on the commanding hilltop south of town. The work took over three decades, reaching completion in 1309. Organized around three courtyards, each roughly 60 meters square, the palace combined military strength with courtly refinement in the Gothic style that was then sweeping Mediterranean Europe.
The architecture speaks in the language of Catalan Gothic: uncut stone and brick walls sealed with mortar, originally coated with lime and painted. But the finer elements draw from quarries across the region -- ochre stone from Les Fonts, blue stone from Baixas, sandstone, red marble from Villefranche-de-Conflent, and white and blue marble from Ceret. Two chapels sit stacked one above the other: the lower Queen's Chapel and the upper Chapel of the Holy Cross, the latter entered through a door of pink marble. The chapel's position at the heart of the royal apartments, directly opposite the throne room in the Great Hall, made a deliberate statement about the primacy of the spiritual over the temporal. The plan drew inspiration from the palaces of Majorca itself, and the chapel echoed the design of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.
The palace's most dramatic moment came in 1415, long after the Kingdom of Majorca had been reabsorbed into Aragon. Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, chose Perpignan for a European summit aimed at ending the Western Schism -- the crisis of rival popes that had split Christendom for decades. On September 20, the emperor met Antipope Benedict XIII at the palace, surrounded by Ferdinand I of Aragon and delegations from the Counts of Foix, Provence, Savoy, and Lorraine, plus embassies from the kings of France, England, Hungary, Castile, and Navarre. It was arguably the most important diplomatic gathering in the palace's history. Benedict refused to resign. He refused to recognize the pope chosen by the Council of Constance. The emperor left Perpignan on November 5, the schism unresolved.
The palace absorbed the blows of centuries. Part of its northern wing was destroyed in a siege in 1502 during the Franco-Spanish wars. After the Treaty of the Pyrenees transferred Roussillon to France in 1659, Vauban's engineers strengthened the fortifications with the massive bastions that still encircle the medieval core. The French military held the site until 1958, when the General Council of the Pyrenees-Orientales purchased the palace and gardens from the Ministry of Defence. Today the restored courtyards host the Guitares au Palais, a free three-day guitar festival each August that fills the medieval walls with flamenco, jazz, classical, and gypsy music -- a fitting soundtrack for a palace that has always existed at the crossroads of French, Catalan, and Mediterranean cultures.
Located at 42.694N, 2.896E on the Puig del Rey hilltop in southern Perpignan. The fortified palace with Vauban bastions is visible against the urban landscape. Perpignan-Rivesaltes Airport (LFMP) lies 5 km north. The Pyrenees are visible to the south, the Mediterranean coast 12 km east. Best viewed from 2,000-3,000 ft AGL.