The town's access to the French Cerdagne makes it an important strategic location. It was already occupied by Celtic tribes, and then by Romans, Visigoths, Muslim Moors, and then the Spanish. Fortifications around the town were built by the counts of Conflent at the end of the 9th century;[1] in 1374, Villefranche resisted the siege of Jaume III the son of last king of Majorca.[citation needed] In the mid-1400s, when it was a Spanish possession, parts were adapted to allow for firearms.[1] In July 1654, the French captured the city after eight days, and the troops of Louis XIV took Puigcerda from the Spaniards.[citation needed] When the territory was ceded to the French after the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), the town became an important French defense against possible Spanish incursions. The town was part of the program of construction and improvement of outlying French defenses, which included building the Fort Libéria on a hill above the village by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the military engineer of Louis XIV,[1] and as such was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2008.[2]

The defensive walls of the town remain.

 

Villefranche-de-Conflent, viewed from the north