Prades (Catalan: Prada de Conflent) is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. It is the capital of the historical Conflent comarca. Its inhabitants are called Pradéens/Pradéennes in French, and Pradencs/Pradenques in Catalan.
Geography
It is located in the Pyrenees Mountains next to the Canigó and Têt River. Its nearby towns include Codalet, Eus, Vinça, Villefranche-de-Conflent
Notable people
- Pierre Nicolas Camille Jacquelin du Val (1828-1862), entomologist born in Prades.
- Thomas Merton (1915â€"1968), trappist monk born in Prades.
Prades was also the adopted home of cellist Pablo Casals and grammarian Pompeu Fabra during their exile from the Spanish Civil War. A small museum in Prades commemorates Casals.>
Events
The Prades Festival, which specialises in chamber music, was begun in 1950, when eminent musicians were invited to play with Casals to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. This followed a decade during which Casals had declined to play in public because of events in Spain. From the first festival, recordings of performances at Prades were released on the Columbia record label.
The festival moved to Perpignan in 1951, but returned to Prades to the following year. It was renamed the Pablo Casals Festival in 1982.
- Universitat Catalana d'Estiu
Every summer, since 1968, the Universitat Catalana d'Estiu (Catalan Summer University) is held at Prada de Conflent. It is an academic event which usually lasts ten days, open to everybody, where scholars, artists, and other personalities coming from all over the Catalan Countries lecture and discuss about a variety of topics of general interest.
Twin towns
Prades is twinned with:
- Ripoll, Catalonia, Spain
- Lousã, Portugal
- Kitzingen, Germany
See also
- Communes of the Pyrénées-Orientales department
References
- INSEE commune file