Producer history
The newspaper was set up in 1846 as a voice for the Republican Party and to support local politicians. Two years later, it was closed. In 1868, it appeared again and in 1914, after following different political inclinations, it began to be managed by the Brousse family from Cerdanya. In 1933, the newspaper extended to the Aude department with a print run of 40,000 copies. During the Second World War, the publication continued, but with some difficulties caused by the German occupation of French territory. In 1944, the newspaper was suspended and accused of collaborating with the Germans, and it was not returned to the Brousse family until 1947. In 1966, we find the first special edition focused exclusively on the Costa Brava, which continued to be published until the summer of 1977. In 1986, the newspaper celebrated its 140th anniversary and the two owner families sold it to the Midi Libre Group in Montpellier. In 1996, it reached a print run of 85,000 copies and in the summer it reached 115,000, coinciding with the celebration of its 150th anniversary. In 1997, the new headquarters was inaugurated in Ribesaltes, with new technology and a new format.
Archive history
The images held by the archive are copies of part of the fonds. The images were acquired by the Centre on rolls of negatives in boxes (which were numbered with 'UI', 'Reg', etc.) and photographer Jordi S. Carrera made the copies on paper with an 18 × 24 cm format. Once this was done, the aim was to link the paper copies with the information we had on the rolls. Later, in 2003, the first detailed description of the images and the photographic reports was carried out, and in 2005 the description was added to the database.
