Port Vendres
Port Vendres is a small village in southern France, situated near the Spanish border on the rocky Vermilion coast of the Mediterranean. Port-Vendres is the principle deep water commercial port for the region, supporting shipping freighters and yachts, but also the largest active Catalan fishing village in French Catalonia. Surrounded by vineyards, Port Vendres shares a strong viticulture of winemaking with other villages in this region.
The Phoenicians and Greeks valued the natural coves along the Mediterranean, but the rocky shallows of Port Vendres paled in comparison with the sandy-bottomed harbor of neighboring Collioure. The Romans called it Portus Veneris after the goddess Venus who watched over vineyards.
During the Medieval period the rulers of the Kingdom of Majorca developed its first naval fleet and expanded Port Vendres as a primary port between the mainland and the Balearic Islands. In 1659, France gained the entire Roussillon region through the Treaty of the Pyrenees and the Louis XIV sent Vauban to fortify the port between 1673 and 1700. Vauban's additional defenses included three redoubts and two forts. The Redoubt Béar is now the Sidi Ferruch museum dedicated to French/Algerian history in the 19th and 20th century.
Port Vendres grew more important from 1838 as the closest port and most sheltered waters in France to North Africa markets. During the 20th century, French troops going to serve in Algeria regularly embarked through the commercial port.
In WWII, the Nazis built concrete barriers on the sand of every cove near Port Vendres and coastal artillery batteries at Cap Béar just south of the town, but the Germans abandoned the area in August 1944 a few days after the Allied landings on the Côte d'Azur during Operation Dragoon. Today, the French Army maintains an active military prescence with a Commando training operation at Fort Béar which overlooks the port town and rocky coast.
Researched and written by Virginia Vanneman, Graduate Student in the Department of History, University of West Florida.
