Argelès-sur-Mer ( ; ; lit. 'Argelès on Sea'), commonly known as Argelès, is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in the administrative region of Occitania, France. It is about 25 km from Perpignan.

Geography

Argelès-sur-Mer is located in the canton of La Côte Vermeille and in the arrondissement of Céret. Argelès-sur-Mer is on the Côte Vermeille at the foot of the Albères mountain range, close to the Spanish border. It has the longest beach in the Pyrenées Orientales. It is part of the Northern Catalan comarca of Rosselló.

History

In 1939, the Argelés concentration camp was created on the beaches near the town. At its peak in March 1939, the camp contained about 100,000 Spaniards, mostly soldiers of the defeated Spanish Republican Army. During World War II, Argelès-sur-Mer was the location of a concentration camp, where up to 100,000 defeated Spanish Republicans were interned next to a windy beach in abysmal sanitary conditions by the French government after the defeat of the Spanish Republic. The refugees streamed to the camp from the winter of 1938/39 after the collapse of the Catalan front following the rebel offensive.

Government and politics

Mayors

Population and society

Demography

Education

Sports

Étoile sportive catalane is the rugby union club of Argelès-sur-Mer.

Culture

Sites of interest

Notable people