Artists, Legends, Mysteries & Crime – Perpignan’s Stranger Side

The Feast of Fools – Medieval Mayhem

Every winter, Perpignan held the infamous Feast of Fools, a carnival where order was turned upside down. Clergymen played dice on the altar, mock bishops were crowned and grotesque wooden statues were paraded through the streets in raucous celebrations.

Children dressed as deformed cardinals, townspeople sang drinking songs inside the cathedral and chaos reigned for one day. Though the Church eventually tried to ban it, the people of Perpignan loved their annual rebellion and the memory of the madness still lingers. Perhaps it’s time to restart this tradition?

The Campo Santo – Ghosts and Grace

The Campo Santo, once a cloistered cemetery beside the cathedral, is said to be one of the most peaceful and haunted spots in the city. Monks once buried here are rumoured to walk the cloisters at night and some say strange lights can be seen drifting above the old tombstones. Today, the space is used for concerts and performances, but beneath the stage, centuries of history sleep quietly in limestone tombs.

Witch Trials of Vallespir

The mountain region just inland from Perpignan, Vallespir, had several witch hunts in the 1500s–1600s and the unlucky women were accused of bringing the Tramontane wind or “stealing men’s virility.” Perpignan, as the provincial centre, held the witch trials and some of the poor victims were incarcerated at the Castillet before execution.

The Catalan Werewolf – “El Llop”

In Pyrenean folklore, especially near Prats-de-Mollo, there’s a werewolf figure known as El Llop. Some tales say he walked the city walls of Perpignan on the winter solstice hunting “false Frenchmen.”

The Woman Who Owned the Wind – The Tramontane Myth

Perpignan is regularly battered by the Tramontane, a fierce north wind that roars down from the Pyrenees, and according to local folklore, a 19th-century herbalist named Bernadette Torroja once claimed she could predict and even tame the Tramontane using bundles of thyme and bits of iron.

She was said to “own the wind” and neighbours visited her whenever livestock became skittish or children fell ill. After her death, gusts reportedly slammed her shutters open at the moment she was buried and locals say her house still whistles louder than any other during storms.

The Vanishing Doorway of Rue de l’Incendie

A peculiar legend persists around a crumbling doorway in the Rue de l’Incendie (literally “Fire Street”) in the old Jewish quarter. It’s said that the doorway, now bricked up, once led to a rabbi’s home that caught fire during a pogrom in the 14th century.

According to the tale, the door appears only to the grieving or the lost. People who’ve suffered personal tragedy have reported seeing the door fully intact, glowing faintly, just before dawn. Some say if you knock three times and whisper the name “Isaac,” you’ll hear footsteps behind the wall.

The Two-Headed Saint of Saint-Jacques

In the Saint-Jacques district, home to Perpignan’s vibrant Gitano community, stands a little chapel rumoured to have once housed a relic of a two-headed saint. The story goes that the bones were found in a Crusader’s saddlebag and deposited in the church for safekeeping.

When the relic was later “lost” (or stolen), parishioners reported hearing voices arguing in the rafters, and candles would mysteriously relight themselves. Today, there’s no official mention of the relic, but locals still light candles for the “sant de dues veus”.

The Séance of the Red Salon – 1927

In 1927, the owner of a mansion near Place Arago claimed to be in contact with Napoleon Bonaparte who had appeared to her during a séance in her red salon. This medium, known as Madame Verdel, became a short-lived sensation in Perpignan high society.

City officials, including the deputy mayor, attended her séances. When a sceptical journalist wrote a scathing article in Le Petit Catalan, she reportedly placed a curse on his printing press, which suffered a mysterious fire two weeks later.

The Curious Case of the Spanish Smuggler’s Tunnel

In the early 1800s, a secret tunnel was allegedly dug between Perpignan and the nearby town of Le Boulou about 20 km away by a Spanish smuggler known as “L’Enganyós” (The Deceiver).

Used for tobacco, silk, and later guns, the tunnel supposedly emerged in a back room of a tavern near Place Rigaud. No full trace has been found, but unexplained hollows and bricked vaults have turned up in nearby buildings. A few residents still believe the tunnel exists and one pub owner refuses to renovate his cellar because of what “lives under the floor.”

Picasso at the Hôtel de Lazerme – 1950s

In the quiet postwar summers of the 1950s, Pablo Picasso would retreat to Perpignan and stay in the charming Hôtel de Lazerme near Place de la Loge. The house belonged to his friend Paule de Lazerme, a local aristocrat with an artistic heart, which Picasso turned into a temporary studio.

He painted ceramics in the garden, made sketches in the rose-coloured salons and even gifted Paule a gold necklace shaped like a bull’s head. One of his portraits shows her dressed in Catalan costume, staring calmly out from under a traditional headscarf. Many of these works were later scattered across private collections and a few still remain in the family.

Dalí Declares Perpignan the Centre of the Universe – 1963–1965

One day in 1963, surrealist icon Salvador Dalí was waiting at Perpignan train station when he experienced what he described as a full-body cosmic revelation. "At that moment," he said, "I understood everything."

Naturally, he declared Perpignan Station the centre of the universe. He returned in 1965, arriving by train in full admiral's dress with red pom-pom slippers, rhinoceros statues and a live ocelot on a leash.

Dalí later painted La Gare de Perpignan, a wild canvas of floating figures, crucified bodies and trains pulling into eternity. Today, the station still proudly bears a plaque marking Dalí’s “universal” vision.

The Skeleton in the Wall – 1946

In 1946, while repairing the Castillet, workers discovered a walled-up secret chamber. Inside, they found the skeletal remains of a child clothed in fragments of fine 17th-century fabric. There were no records, no missing nobles and no explanation. Some whispered of a royal scandal, others of Inquisition punishments and a few claimed it was an illegitimate heir hidden away forever.  To this day, the mystery remains.

A City Beneath the City

Many of Perpignan’s buildings, especially around Place de la Loge and the old quarter, sit atop a network of tunnels, cellars and secret passages, which date back to medieval times.

According to urban legend, there’s even a secret tunnel connecting the Palace of the Kings of Majorca to the Castillet and was used by fleeing royalty in times of crisis. Local historians argue about whether it ever existed but the idea of kings escaping through sewers and storm drains has stuck in local lore.