Sournia

Sournia
Sournia; Sornian
	Commune
	A general view of Sournia
	Coat of arms
	Location of Sournia
	Sournia Sournia
	Coordinates: 42°43′43″N 2°26′34″E
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Pyrénées-Orientales
Arrondissement	Prades
Canton	La Vallée de l'Agly
Government
• Mayor (2001–2008)	Paul Blanc
Area 1	29.99 km2 (11.58 sq mi)
Population (2017-01-01)[1]	498
• Density	17/km2 (43/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	66198 /66730
Elevation	380–1,234 m (1,247–4,049 ft) ; (avg. 500 m or 1,600 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Sournia (Sornian in the Occitan language) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in the Occitanie region of south-western France. Its inhabitants are known as Sourniannais.

Geography

Sournia is a town of the Fenouillèdes, the languedocienne part of the Pyrénées-Orientales, in the canton of La Vallée de l'Agly and in the arrondissement of Prades. The river Désix runs through the village. Sournia is 22 km from Ille-sur-Têt and from Vinça, 24 km from Prades and from Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet, 30 km from Latour-de-France and 34 km from Axat.
The commune is covered by the quality wine standard AOC 'Côtes-du-Roussillon'.
Sournia is crossed by the long distance footpath, GR 36.

Map of Sournia and its surrounding communes

Administration

The current mayor of Sournia is Paul Blanc, a senator, of the centre-right and right wing party UMP founded by Jacques Chirac.

Population

The population of Sournia in 2013 was 501 people.

Graph of population change 1794-1999

Population 1962-2008

For some reason at the end of the 19th century, the population of Sournia seemed to have a reputation for having one of the longest longevity in France, even though this fact was not clearly verified.[2]

Places of interest

Ruins of the former church of Saint-Michel from the tenth century.
The ancient church of Sainte-Félicité from the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Church of Arsa from the twelfth century.

References

INSEE

"Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
(in French) Fabricio Cardenas, Vieux papiers des Pyrénées-Orientales, Record de longévité à Sournia en 1897 , 3 January 2015

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[1] "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.

[2] (in French) Fabricio Cardenas, Vieux papiers des Pyrénées-Orientales, Record de longévité à Sournia en 1897 , 3 January 2015