Le Boulou

Le Boulou
Le Boulou ; El Voló
	Commune
	A general view of Le Boulou
	Coat of arms
	Location of Le Boulou
	Le Boulou Le Boulou
	Coordinates: 42°31′29″N 2°49′51″E
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Pyrénées-Orientales
Arrondissement	Céret
Canton	Vallespir-Albères
Intercommunality	Vallespir
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	François Comes
Area 1	14.42 km2 (5.57 sq mi)
Population (2017-01-01)[1]	5,514
• Density	380/km2 (990/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: [lə bu.lu]; 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.

Map of Le Boulou and its surrounding towns

Neighbouring communes

Toponymy

The name of the town in catalan is El Voló.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5] 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.[6]

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.	±%
1962	2,512	—
1968	2,921	+16.3%
1975	3,709	+27.0%
1982	4,292	+15.7%
1990	4,436	+3.4%
1999	4,428	−0.2%
2006	5,066	+14.4%
2009	5,410	+6.8%

References

"Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
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.

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[1] "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.

[2] Nomenclàtor toponímic de la Catalunya del Nord

[3] (in French) Jean Sagnes (dir.), Le pays catalan, t. 2, Pau, Société nouvelle d'éditions régionales, 1985

[4] 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.

[5] Beevor, Antony (2001). The Spanish Civil War. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. p. 394. ISBN 0-304-35840-1.

[6] Thomas, Hugh (2012). The Spanish Civil War (50th Anniversary ed.). London: Penguin Books. p. 855. ISBN 978-0-141-01161-5.