An excursion into Llançà’s history

From the Middle Ages until the modern times

The port of Llançà was not always a port with quay walls for large fishing boats and places for hundreds of leisure boats, with a shopping street and residential buildings for locals and tourists. For several centuries the port was only populated by small fishing boats that were moved by sails or with oars and pulled onto the beach after use. Some huts served as storehouses for fishing tools, but the Llançanese themselves lived in the village.  In the Middle Ages the village was not really fortified, but sufficiently safeguarded to ward off attacks. (There are similar structures in the neighbouring villages such as Port de la Selva and Selva del mar). Attacks from outside, particularly by pirates, were a fact always to be reckoned with. There were vehement battles from time to time, and so it does should not surprise us that Llançà is based on the arm, the lance.  In some old manuscripts Llançà is often designated as the valley of the lances.  While there may be doubts about the military fitness of the town, they should be eliminated by the coat of arms of Llançà, which, throughout all its modifications over time never was used without its three lances.

Pirates in Llançà and at the Cap de Creus

Wherever there was successful trading along the Mediterranean Sea, there were also pirates seeking a share.  Pirates usually settled near the major trade routes.  Catalonia was highly rated by the pirates because of its relative prosperity.  From the Middle Ages to the XVII Century Catalonia was visited and revisited.  And, Llançà was not spared. King Felipe II reported to the 1581 town council of Barcelona, that the notorious pirate Otxali, was coming from Italy to Catalan waters with sixty galleys. The Barcelonese sent out messengers to warn the coast villages. Gaspar de Vallgornera, abbot of the cloister of San Pere de Roda and by his office responsible for the surrounding small towns, forbad the fishermen from Llançà and Port de la Selva to go fishing until Otxali had withdrawn.   Llançà’s defence strategy was simple but effective. Its inhabitants briefly warded off the first attack of the pirates scantily and thence fled then to the near mountains. The Llançanese forces were strengthened with men from the nearby inland villages. The governor of Girona had obliged these small towns to send men to reinforce the local forces protecting the coast. The normal service was to be posted for up two weeks in the mountains around a coastal village and to return to their native villages as soon as the danger was past.  During the XVI and XVII Century the Catalans structured their defensive positions well, nevertheless in the year 1652 thirty armed men from Llançà had to beat off an attack of three pirate ships. Only the introduction of the steamship ended the piracy danger. The last official mention dated the fourth of June 1726 from Llançà: a messenger was sent to Cadaqués, to warn the inhabitants of a suspected freebooting ship.

Was Llançà French?

The quarrel around the state boundary Beginning in the year 1646 a vehement quarrel about the French/Spanish state boundary broke out between Catalunya and the Roussillon (France).  From the 13th of August until the 7th of November 1659 the prime ministers of both states, cardinal Mazarin and Luis de Haro met during twenty-four sessions in Bidasoa, to settle the impasse. The meeting place, a tent, had been equipped with all imaginable luxury by Velazquez. Nevertheless the result of the negotiations was rather meagre; they only agreed that the boundary must be set, and left the details to a Spanish/French consignment. This sat in the Pyrenees town of Céret.  France sent the bishops Pere de Marca (Languedoc) and Jacint Seroni from Orange.  Spain’s representatives were the Catalans Miquel Salva i Vallgornera and Josep Romeu de Ferrer. In the course of the negotiations the French argued stubbornly that the villages of Llançà and Port de la Selva, the cloister Sant Pere de Rodes and a part of the Cap de Creus was French soil. They referred to a former division by the king Jaume I according to which the area south to the Cap de Creus belonged to the Roussillon.  After much debate the group’s horse-trading resulted in a decision to not decide on the triangle in dispute and to place the border between Banyuls and the Cap de Cervera (Cerbère).  Thus was decided the current state boundary.  Controversies around the location of this border continued up until the twentieth century. Wine and oil: the fortune of Llançà

A time of prosperity and peace

Between 1718 and 1720 when wheat prices were very low, wine was a scare commodity. This motivated the inhabitants of the Empordà, to plant fallow plots with vines.  Line by line new terrain was cultivated around Llançà, up into the mountains.  In addition, the Llançanese farmed other ground too, on land that was unsuitable for viticulture they planted olive trees.  The quality of the fruit of Llançà’s olive trees produced excellent olive oil.  An important historical circumstance favoured this economical evolution in an exceptional way:  Catalonia had introduced the inheriting-lease as a regional right.  Poor people who could not dream until then of possessing their own property could now cultivate their own land through annual payments. The foundation was set for a modern Catalunya. The viticulturists cultivated vines for white wine, red wine, Garnatxa and Moscatel. During harvest-time buyers from many nations rendezvoused in Llançà: Spaniards, Italian, later also from French and even from Germany.  An anonymous witness of this happy time recorded the following:  “The Genovese (Italian), who try the kindness, alcohol degree and sweetness of the wine from Llançà became immediately the most enthusiastic customers. Their launches were anchored in the Port of Llançà, loaded the sweet fruit and took it over the sea.”  Also French or Germans came later and bought cartloads and cartloads of all offered sorts. And more than a few Spaniards found their way to Llançà, enlarging the number of buyers to purchase the marvellous bunches of grapes, which made Llançà famous.

The origin of Port de Llançà

When piracy did not threaten the inhabitants of the Empordà any more, the fishing villages along the coast arose.  This was at the end of the XVII century.  Until then the fishermen of Llançà lived in the village and maintained only some huts in the “Port” in order to stow fishing equipment.  At this time fishing was an important source of income and the first people built houses for themselves and their families near the sea. The Port de Llançà’s growth was mostly during the following century.   In addition to the fishing industry the economy was bolstered by the exporting of olive oil to France and Italy.  The fishermen built their homes close at each other as if to protect their houses against the last pirates that may emerge at any time.  Between the XVIII and the beginning of the XX Century the place probably changed very little.  During this time only about 200 people lived here.  The population only increased when tourism expanded.  Probably a great number of fellow French citizens emigrated to take part in the foundation of Port de Llançà.  Records show that during the years 1620 to 1640 twenty-six “French” men were buried on the cemetery of Llançà; the women were not counted. One can suppose that at this date about 20 percent of the local inhabitants were emigrants from France. Many French family names are evident here today: Garriga or Gros for example. The port of Llançà has, as most of the fishing villages of the coast, its own chapel. It was consecrated as the “Mare de Deu”, the mother of God. The church’s history or legend is based upon a ship getting caught in a violent storm in the gulf of Leon. The sailors feared never reaching a secure port again.  In their hour of need the crew and the captain swore to the mother of God that they’d construct a chapel to her honour on the next firm ground under the feet. The firm ground onto which they put their feet was the port of Llançà.  The inscription on the portal of the chapel shows the (probable) year of its construction: 1691.

The Vine Louse ends the happy times

Viticulture was the most important sector of Llançà’s economy during the XIX Century. The wines of the Empordà garnered top prices and were exported to numerous countries of Europe.  It brought an era of extraordinary prosperity from 1830 to 1855 to Llançà as well as to the surrounding small towns of Vilajuiga, Garriguella, Rabos and Vilamaniscle.  But the vine louse (cat. filloxera) abruptly ended the beautiful time. Detected for the first time in America in 1854, it was imported from there to Europe and rapidly reached Spain via France. It is a pitiful insect from the family of the plant louse. Its most dangerous pitiful form makes bile-like motes at the roots. To destroy a vine requires a complete evolutionary cycle of the pest, and this occurs best in warmer climates. In this respect the southern wine areas suffered far more than vineyards in the northern European countries.  When the vine stock is infected, it dies rapidly.  Llançà mentioned the vine louse for the first time in the year 1856 in the chronicles of the municipality. The mayor offered to free the local viticulturists from all taxes because the failure of the grape harvest.  First, the government required the municipality to measure the actual damage.  But, soon it was recognized that every vineyard was equally damaged and destroyed. In October 1857 the municipality applied again for the liberation of all taxes retroactively for six years. The wine harvest has been cancelled since six years actually, and the wine is finally the main source of revenue of the place… In the following years no more mention of the infestation is to be found in the chronicles. It seems that good harvests returned after treating the vine stocks with sulphur.  However, in 1879 a viticulturist again detected filloxera in his vineyard in Rabos. The vine stocks of the entire Empordà were again affected. Up to the middle of the nineties of the XIX century the municipalities of the area directed again and again petitions concerning tax reductions to the central government. By the year 1904 there are references that the wine harvests were again more or less normal.  But the wine economy of Llançà has never completely recovered from this disaster. So it was presumably ok to many viticulturists when tourism later reclaimed their vineyard for bungalows and blocks of apartments.

The first train comes to Llançà in 1878

An unknown author from Llançà described the initiation of the train route between Barcelona and Portbou:  “The solemn opening occurred on 20th January 1878. The special train was equipped with five marvellous first class wagons from Germany. The engine was adorned with the Spanish coat of arms, between the national and the French flag, adorned with flowers, laurel and olive wreaths. The railway started around half past six o’clock in the morning from Barcelona, stopped five minutes in Granollers and reached Girona at nine o’clock. The bishop blessed the wagons and the engine. At the altar, built up at the railway station, the holy mass was read. The temperature was a degree under zero, therefore the mentioned ecclesiastical authority allowed all present that could not resist the rigorous temperature to keep the hats on.  When the religious ceremonies ended, the authorities and other visitors were boarded in the station restaurant. Then the convoy moved on.  In Figueres Captain Sr. Blanco joined, along with the military governor of the city, Sr. Dolsa, as well as other authorities and visitors.  When the train arrived in Llançà, the railway station was filled with people that greeted and applauded the train enthusiastically.  In Colera the train was welcomed by a company of the infantry regiment “Asia no. 49” accompanied by an orchestra.  At the 23rd of the same month the line was placed in continuous in operation. Two trains regularly travelled to and from Barcelona and Portbou, around 5h35 and 11h30 and 5h55 and 12h40.  Since this historical event in the annals of Llançà its inhabitants enjoyed the great advantages of this manner of transport, in popular as also in economical respect.” The mayor did not seem to share completely this opinion.  On 12th May 1888 he addressed an application to the governor with the request of tax reductions for the village. The population of the village had been reduced drastically since the completion of the railway track. On the one hand, the foreigners who had helped to build the railway have left, and on the other hand many inhabitants had emigrated because of the filloxera. The custom, to plant trees at public places as a symbol of freedom dates from the times of the French Revolution. After the civil wars and military rumours of the XIX Century’s the Llançanese also planted their tree of freedom at the Plaça Major. The tree still exists today and is considered a major landmark of the village. Probably it was planted in 1870. The mayor (1897-89) Pere Purcallas Pau mentions this date in the following poem: “The history of this village comes from far away, further than the horizon, with alternation cases and failures, allied to the monastic sovereignty of the cloister Sant Pere de Rodes. I know you suffered tireless when one changed your name in Llansa; your own bastards of sons dared to castellanisate it. The tree that grows at the Plaça whose bough expand was planted in the year 1870, and anno 1872 it was supported, and still today his leaves flutter as those of a blooming tree in the garden and if you do not joggle it, he will become increasingly powerful, today a new branch, tomorrow a new branch; if one cares of it with reason and love, it will live so long as the best servants, the eternal spring opens one morning his strong arms in order to place a dream that was also the mine once into the cradle of this place : a dream, brimful with headway, citizen freedom and modern age.”