Anse de Paulilles

Between Cap Béar and Cap Oullestrell, on the Côte Vermeille, the anse de Paulilles opens onto a sheltered bay on the Mediterranean, lined with shingle and sand beaches, pinewoods and terraced vineyards. This peaceful landscape conceals a singular industrial history.

In 1870, in the wake of the defeat by Prussia, the industrialist Paul Barbe, a partner of Alfred Nobel, chose this isolated spot, far from the German border, to manufacture dynamite. Production began in December 1870. For more than a century, the factory employed up to 300 to 400 people, some of them housed on site, with their own school and festivities. Its dynamite was used on great construction projects, from the Panama Canal to the port of Fos-sur-Mer. The work was dangerous: more than thirty fatal accidents mark its history.

Dynamite production ceased in 1984. In 1998, the Conservatoire du littoral bought the 32 hectares of the site; the Département des Pyrénées-Orientales has managed it since 2004. After decontamination, nine buildings were restored and almost seventy demolished, before the site opened to the public in 2008.

Today visitors will find a listed site, gardens planted with species from the countries where the dynamite travelled, the former director’s house now serving as the Maison du site, and a workshop where shipwrights restore Catalan boats before the visitors’ eyes.