The Catalan espadrille

In Catalan, the espadrille is called espardenya, a name already attested in texts of the 14th century. It is flat and straight, with no left or right foot; its sole of plaited rope, at first made from local hemp and later from jute, carries a canvas upper. The variant with long ribbons tied around the ankle is called the vigatana, after Vic, in Southern Catalonia: it is still the one worn by sardana dancers.

The Haut-Vallespir, and Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans above all, turned this shoe into an industry. When the village forges died out in the 19th century, the espadrille factories, which had appeared in the 1840s, took over; by 1863 they employed nearly two hundred people. In the 1870s, Joseph Sans, who had trained in Barcelona, set up a mechanical weaving mill that supplied canvas and braid to the workshops of the valley. At the beginning of the 20th century, more than a thousand adults in the commune made their living from canvas and espadrilles, which shod winegrowers, farm labourers and miners. After the First World War, the so-called “petit point” machine stitched the sole to the upper and sped up production.

In 1948, the Haut-Vallespir still accounted for 22% of French production. Then winegrowers and miners turned to other work shoes, imports arrived, and the workshops closed one by one. One manufacturer remains, Création catalane, based in a former factory in the village, along with a weaving mill, which became Les Toiles du Soleil in the mid-1990s and whose looms still weave cotton.

In February 2026, an association from Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans filed an application with the INPI for a geographical indication, “Espadrille catalane”, covering fourteen communes of the Haut-Vallespir; the specification requires petit point stitching. In the village, the Maison du patrimoine et de la mémoire André Abet occupies the former workers’ cooperative of the Union sandalière: it presents a reconstructed espadrille and weaving factory.