Villefranche is downstairs and Fort Liberia is up.
Villefranche is a fortified medieval city and Fort Liberia a Vauban construction.
Villefranche-de-Conflent is at the crossroads of three valleys, which was well worth the construction of the fort to watch over the whole after the Treaty of the Pyrenees.
The village and the fort are connected by a staircase known as the "1,000 steps", but in fact there are only 734 of them.
This is a world record!
Two hundred and fifty workers worked there from 1850 onwards and twenty-two lost their lives.
In the summer tens of thousands of visitors pass through this corner of French Catalonia and in the winter the town has only 239 inhabitants.
This small community is mainly run by the Mené family.
There is the father, Pierre, who was awarded the concession of the fort for 99 years and then there is Joël, the son, a volunteer fireman, coffee maker, guide and chief animator of Villefranche.
Jean Marais le Bossu...
In 1960 André Hunebelle came to the city to shoot many scenes from the film "The Hunchback" with Jean Marais and Bourvil, in particular the market scene and the one in Segovia.
The Hunchback
Film by André Hunebelle
With
Jean Marais: Henri de Lagardère, alias "le Bossu" (the Hunchback)
Bourvil : Piping
Sabine Sesselmann: Aurore de Nevers and Isabelle de Caylus
François Chaumette: Philippe de Gonzague
Jean Le Poulain: Mr. de Peyrolles
Hubert Noël: Duke Philippe de Nevers
Paulette Dubost: Lady Marthe
www.villefranchedeconflent.com/
www.villefranchedeconflent.fr/
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