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Origin and history

Ruscino, located on a hill overlooking the Tet River east of Perpignan, is a major archaeological site of the Eastern Pyrenees. Occupied as early as Neolithic, it became the probable capital of the Sordes, a Liguria or protohistoric people, between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC. The excavations revealed traces of dwellings of the Iron Age (7th–VIth century BC), as well as bones and household furniture. Mentioned by Polybe and Strabon, Ruscino plays a central role in the region before Romanization.

The city developed under Roman rule from the middle of the first century BC, benefiting from its position on Via Domitia and its status as a Latin city. Its peak, marked by the construction of a monumental forum under Augustus (late 1st century BC), is followed by a decline in the 2nd century, accelerated by an earthquake and the rise in power of Elne and Narbonne. The site is then occupied by the Wisigoths, then briefly by the Arabs (VIII century), as evidenced by kufic seals discovered on site.

In the Middle Ages, Château-Roussillon, the medieval name of the site, houses the Counts of Roussillon between the 8th and 10th centuries, before their transfer to Perpignan marginalised the place. A seigneury erects a castle on which remains a round tower (XIIIth–XIVth century), a chapel dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Peter, and remains of walls. The site, searched since the 19th century, revealed the forum, the thermal baths (not excavated), a theatre on earth, and a residential area with pebbles.

Ruscino's toponymy, attested in various forms (Roschinus, Ruscinos, Colonia Ruscino), reflects ligural, iberian and Latin influences. Its etymology remains uncertain, although a ligure origin — via the radical Ru/Rot — is privileged. The medieval legend of Guillem de Cabestany, a murdered troubadour whose heart would have been served to his lover, is attached to the tower of the castle, although historical evidence is lacking.

Ruscino, attached to Perpignan after a brief communal existence in 1790, is today a protected archaeological site (registered with the Historical Monuments in 1954). The current excavations aim to locate the monumental entrance to the forum and to clarify the extent of the ancient city, some of which remains buried under the adjacent vicinal path.

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