Halfway between the sea and the mountains, nestling at an altitude of 280 metres in a circus of wooded hills, stands Espéraza, a beautiful little village nestling in a bend in the Upper Aude Valley. The commune stretches on either side of the banks of the river Aude, between the Pyrenees and Corbières, a place of prehistoric life. A nature village from which many hiking trails start. It hosts two museums and offers pleasant summer activities (Saint James' Day in July and Saint Michael's Day in September). A High Valley full of history, starting with the time of Charlemagne, marked by the birth of numerous abbeys (Saint-Hilaire, Saint-Martin-Lys, Alet). In 813, it was Espéraza's turn to have its own priory. In the Middle Ages, the village lived from the work of the "carrassiers" or radeliers, who transported trains of logs and trunks between Quilllan and the sea. The wood was first used for heating, then from the 17th century onwards, for shipbuilding. In the middle of the 19th century, Espéraza became a centre for the manufacture of woolen felt hats, to the point where it became the second largest hat factory in the world! In 1989, a new turning point came when paleontological research uncovered several thousand dinosaur bones. An excavation site that still today extends as far as Campagne-sur-Aude and conceals one of the most important fossiliferous deposits in Europe!

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