VILLAGE OF
SAINTE-COLOMBE-DE-LA-COMMANDERIE
www.les-pyrenees-orientales.com/Villages/SteColombeDeLaCommanderie
Mas Peu del Causse is located in the center of the Catalan village of Sainte-Colombe-de-la-
Commanderie, known as the "balcony of the Aspres" and located in the department of Pyrénées
Orientales in the Occitanie region.
This Catalan village was formed around a few agricultural estates that have mostly turned into wine cellars.
The original name of the locality was "Conjucta," probably indicating that it was a grouping of habitats; the
city then took the name of Santa Coloma, to which its church was dedicated.
Santa Coloma de Tuïr, also called Santa Coloma de la Comanda, depended on the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes from the 10th century. At the beginning of the 11th century, it passed to Viscount Bernat de Cerdanya.
His son Sunifred had to engage in a lawsuit against some families in the surrounding area to guarantee his rights.
This legal action took place in the church of Llupià, under the chairmanship of Bernat Tallaferro, Count of Besalú,
and his brother, Count Guiffré de Cerdanya.
During the 12th century, Santa Coloma passed to the Royal Domain, and under the reigns of Jaume II of
Mallorca, and then Pere III of Catalunya-Arago, this lordship was granted to the Palaldà family.
It is probably this family that granted the lordship to the Catalan Templars of the Commandery of
Masdeu, and it is from this period that the place was popularly called Santa Coloma de la Comanda.
After the dissolution of the Templars in Catalonia, it was the "Hospitallers" who inherited this Lordship.
The Romanesque church of Santa Coloma, with a single nave under a slightly broken arch vault and a
semicircular apse, is a building distinguished by the beauty of its masonry and its elegant bell tower;
it still preserves the remains of its fortifications from the 13th and 14th centuries.
The church was raised in the 15th or 16th century by a walkway, visible because the rough masonry differs from that of the original building. The wall bell tower was added between the 17th and 18th centuries. The church still houses two statuettes from the 17th century, a reliquary cross also from the 17th century, and a bust of the dead Christ from the 15th century.
Ultimately, Sainte-Colombe-de-la-Commanderie has always been agricultural and then wine-growing. The village is surrounded by vineyards and garrigue and is located on the first foothills of the Aspres. Many walking and hiking trails start from here in a bucolic setting.
To learn more about activities around the village and Mas Peu del Causse, click on the button below: