Perpignan’s most dominant monument, the Palace of the Kings of Mallorca, sprawls over a huge area to the south of the old town. Built in 1276, the castle was later refortified with massive red-brick walls by the medieval era’s foremost military architect, Vauban. These days the citadel is sparsely furnished, but its great battlements and strategic defences still give a sense of the Mallorcan kings’ might. You enter from rue des Archers.
Built in a mix of late Romanesque and Gothic style, the castle is arranged around three courtyards, with a system of ramps, pinch-points and ramparts providing a formidable defensive layout. The central courtyard, with its twin arcaded tiers, clearly shows the influence of Spanish architecture, and the complex would once have enclosed extensive fig and olive groves, lost once Vauban’s formidable citadel walls enclosed the palace.
Guided tours also take in the chapels and Great Hall, but the highlight is the view from the ramparts, which stretches over Perpignan’s terracotta rooftops all the way to the coast.
