The Pablo Casals Festival

Chemins de Saint-Jacques en Conflent       Saint James Altarpiece of the Assomption by J. Sunyer

On the footpath of Saint-François d'Assise.

Saint François stayed twice in Roussillon , around 1210, on his way to and from Compostella. The legend says that he founded a Franciscan monastery on his way to…and was the initiator of the building of several convents, chapels and hermitages in the region.

In those times, all religious centers were used as stopover that defined a long journey leading to the extremity of the western continent, where Terra finishes : cape Finistierra , where the ocean begins and stars fall like rain : Compo Stella.

In Conflent: Bouleternčre, Serrabone, Vinça, Espira-de-Conflent, Prades, Ria, Saint-Michel de Cuixŕ abbey, Saint-Martin du Canigou abbey, Villefranche de Conflent...all these places marked out the pilgrims path ; some of them still bear the memory of the “Poverello of Assisi”...

An excerpt of the outstanding work of Jean Raynal  "Les Chemins catalans de Compostelle" (Catalan paths to Compostella) Photos by Michel Castillo, Publisher Copylux.