Roussillon

Roussillon [ ʀusijɔ ] ( katalan. Rosselló ) is a landscape and historical province in southern France.

It includes about today's department Pyrénées - Orientales Perpignan as its capital. The valleys of the Tet and Tech widen at the eastern foot of the Canigoukette to a very fertile plain with a Mediterranean climate and lush vegetation, which is preceded by a constructed of rubble, flat coastal strip, which forms the Vermilion with the northward subsequent lagoon coast.

It was named after the medieval County of Rosselló on the northern edge of the Pyrenees on the Mediterranean. She was one of the historical Catalan counties, which was created under the Great Karl to protect as part of the " Spanish Mark " the Frankish Empire against the Moors in the Iberian peninsula.

As a result of the Pyrenees Treaty of 1659, the county Rosselló was separated together with the other counties in Northern Catalonia from the rest of Catalonia and awarded France. The " Ancien Régime " of France summed up the whole area together to form a new province, and named them after the county of Roussillon.

The territory of the former county corresponds today about the Comarca Rosselló. However, their boundaries do not coincide with today's administrative boundaries and, in contrast to the Catalan comarques no administrative function.

After the Revolution, the French territory was divided into départements. In 1790 the historical province of Roussillon was dissolved and replaced by the department of Pyrénées- Orientales, which also includes, in addition to the previously Roussillon to the province of Languedoc belonging Fenouillèdes. Hence the name " Roussillon " is often used as a synonym for the department.

Catalan ( català ), the original language of the area, has been now replaced in large part by French. French is the sole official language, while Catalan is only taught as an optional subject in schools and the University of Perpignan and maintained by private initiative.

The name Roussillon is now, again officially used as part of the name of the region Languedoc- Roussillon, to which the department Pyrénées -Orientales heard.