Napoleonic Perpignan – Troops, Tobacco & a Town on the Edge
A Military City – Again
Under Napoleon, Perpignan became what it had always threatened to become: a full-blown military town. The city’s strategic location near the Spanish border made it a natural garrison and troops arrived in waves, filling the barracks cathedral cloisters and even private homes.
The citadel and the Castillet were reinforced and used to store munitions whilst the streets echoed with marching boots and local shops made a fortune selling wine, bread and tobacco to French conscripts.
Local Boys in Imperial Uniforms
Hundreds of young men from Roussillon were conscripted into Napoleon’s armies, often against their will, and sent to fight in Italy, Austria and Russia.
The War Next Door – 1808
In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain beginning the brutal Peninsular War. Perpignan became a supply base and hospital centre for French troops moving south. Wounded soldiers filled makeshift clinics in monasteries and chapels whilst the taverns overflowed with officers.
Tobacco, Silk & Smugglers
With Spain under French occupation and the British navy blockading ports, smuggling exploded. The hills and valleys around Perpignan were full of shadowy figures ferrying tobacco, silk, brandy and salt across the Pyrenees.
Perpignan officials took a cut of the smuggling profits and the city’s underground vaults and wine cellars became passageways and safehouses. The legend of the smuggler L’Enganyós (“The Trickster”) tells of a local man who dug a hidden passage from his cellar all the way to Le Boulou and evaded customs officers for years.
Napoleon’s Visit – Almost
There’s no firm record of Napoleon himself visiting Perpignan though his army and administrators passed through constantly. Locals prepared for a possible visit in 1809 and the Place Arago was cleaned, flags raised and bakeries stocked with imperial loaves, but he never came.
Having said that, a mysterious officer who arrived under heavy guard, stayed one night at a villa on Rue Mailly and left before dawn and some historians believe it was Napoleon himself.
Collapse and Return – 1814
By 1814, the Napoleonic dream was crumbling and Spanish guerrillas were harassing French supply lines, the British were pushing north and Napoleon’s army was spread thin. Perpignan’s troops were recalled, the hospitals emptied and the streets grew quiet again.
When Napoleon abdicated in 1814, there were no riots in Perpignan. The Bourbons returned, and with them, priests, nobles and old ceremonies.