Maureillas-las-Illas

Maureillas-las-Illas
Commune
A general view of Maureillas-las-Illas
Maureillas-las-Illas
Location within Occitanie region  Maureillas-las-Illas
Coordinates: 42°29′29″N 2°48′39″E / 42.4914°N 2.8108°E / 42.4914; 2.8108Coordinates: 42°29′29″N 2°48′39″E / 42.4914°N 2.8108°E / 42.4914; 2.8108
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Pyrénées-Orientales
Arrondissement	Céret
Canton	Vallespir-Albères
Intercommunality	Vallespir
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	André Bordaneil
Area1	42.10 km2 (16.25 sq mi)
Population (2011)2	2,672
• Density	63/km2 (160/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	66106 /66480
Elevation	78–1,320 m (256–4,331 ft) (avg. 154 m or 505 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Maureillas-las-Illas (Catalan: Morellàs i les Illes) is a rural commune in the Vallespir, Pyrénées-Orientales in the south of France. The commune belongs to the Communauté de communes of Vallespir uniting Maureillas-las-Illas with nine other communes.

Maureillas-las-Illas is located in the canton of Vallespir-Albères and in the arrondissement of Céret. It lies east of Céret and north of the Spanish border.

The first mention of the village under the name Maurelianum was in 1011. The name is then written as Maurelanis in the 12th century, Maurellans and Maurellas in the 15th century and finally Maurallas or Maurellas since the 17th century.

Maurellas is the Catalan spelling, Maureillas is its French transcription.

Maureillas is probably issued from the name of a Roman landowner, Maurelius, followed by the -anos suffix (plural of -anum). It has nothing to do with the Moors.

Until recently, the dolmen of Siuréda was still hidden by a thick vegetation but its discovery shows that the prehistoric man of Chalcolithic, roughly 3500 to 1700 BC, lived in the hills above Maureillas.

The history of Maureillas as a settlement goes back to antiquity. Founded by the Romans as a small settlement, the village remained small until the Charlemagne conquest Saracens in 811.

In the Middle Ages the village grew around the church of Saint Etienne, built in the 10th century. In 1400, residents built a new chapel outside the walls of the village. It was dedicated to Saint John of Mauranells.