PERPIGNAN, DIOCESE OF. — A city and diocese, seat of the prefecture of the department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, situated in the plain of Roussillon on the right bank of the river Tét. The boundaries of the diocese are the same as those of the department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, i.e., approximately 4,143 sq. km. with a population of 228,776 inhabitants, of whom 200,000 are Catholic. It is divided into 4 archpriestships and 22 deaneries. It has 223 parishes served by 176 diocesan priests and 25 regular clergy; it has a major and minor seminary, 5 male religious communities and 19 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 315).
Where the Via Domitia met the Tét there had once been a small Gallic settlement; the Romans built a small town there called Ruscino, later Roussellio (today Castel Roussillon), which was destroyed during the great invasions. The first mention of the "Villa Perpiniani" or "Papiniani" does not appear before the 10th century, when the counts of Roussillon settled there; the last of these, in 1172, left his county to the king of Aragon, whence it passed to the kingdom of Majorca in 1278. It was retaken by Peter IV of Aragon and endowed with a university in 1340 (suppressed in 1793) and a consulate of the sea in 1388. It was conquered by Louis XI in 1475, but Charles VIII returned it to Aragon in 1498. In 1507 it was retaken by Louis XII, which was recognized in the Treaty of the Pyrenees.
In 1602 Pope Clement VIII transferred the episcopal see of Elne (see Elne) to Perpignan, though it retained its original name and remained a suffragan of Tarragona until 1678, when it became a suffragan of Narbonne. With the bull Qui Christi Domine of 3 December 1801, Pope Pius VII suppressed the ancient diocese of Elne; but then, with the bull Commissa divinitus of 6 August 1817, he reestablished it, fixing its see at Perpignan and preserving the ancient title of the diocese to designate it in Latin. The bishops, from 1817 onward, have resided both at Elne and at Perpignan. The patrons of the diocese are St. John the Baptist, St. Eulalia, and St. Julia.
The cathedral of St. John the Baptist offers one of the finest examples of southern Gothic with a single wide nave from the 14th–15th centuries. The façade is composed of layers of cut stone and brick with large relieving arches; it is preceded by a 17th-century portico with a tower surmounted by an iron belfry from 1742. To the right of the façade remains a remnant of the ancient attic with an epitaph from 1316. The building was begun on 27 April 1324 by Sancho, King of Majorca, and by Berengarius, Bishop of Elne, as recorded in the two inscriptions inside. The building was continued in 1475 by Louis XI, completed in 1507, and consecrated in 1509. Communicating with the cathedral is the oldest and most venerated sanctuary of Perpignan, the "chapelle de Notre-Dame" du Correch, which is nothing other than the apse of the primitive church of Perpignan, St-Jean-le-Vieux, consecrated in 1025; the statue of the Virgin venerated there is of Romanesque date but restored. Near the cathedral is the "chapelle du Christ," erected between 1535 and 1543 but recently rebuilt. The church of St. James is partly still Gothic (14th century) and partly classical (18th century); that of St. Matthew (1640) constitutes an example of southern Gothic style still surviving in the 18th century. The museum occupies the building of the ancient university; it contains architectural remains of ancient Ruscino and a collection of sculptures and paintings, as well as a library rich in more than 35,000 volumes, incunabula, and manuscripts, including an 12th-century gospel book from the abbey of Arles-sur-Tech (see ELNE).