Perpignan - Notable People Born in Perpignan

Notable People Born in Perpignan

• Menachem Meiri (1249–c. 1310), a famous Catalan rabbi, Talmudist and Maimonidean.
• Louise Labé (1524–1566), a female Lyons poet of the Renaissance which at the siege of Perpignan, or in a tournament there, is said to have dressed in male clothing and fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.
• Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743), who painted the definitive portraits of Louis XIV.
• François Arago (1786–1853), the physicist, astronomer and liberal politician, who secured the abolition of slavery in the French colonies in 1853, was born in the nearby village of Estagel (Estagell) and is memorialized in the eponymous Place Arago that bears his statue in the centre of the town.
• Aristide Maillol (1861–1944). French Catalan sculptor and painter. Bronzes in the Garden of Tuileries, Paris and at the Metropolitan, NYC.
• Robert Brasillach (1909–1945), fascist author and journalist, executed for advocating collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II.
• Frédérick Bousquet (born 1981), French freestyle and butterfly swimmer who competed at three consecutive Summer Olympics (2000, 2004, and 2008).
• Sandrine Erdely-Sayo (born 1968) pianist – youngest recipient of the French Minister of Culture Prize at 13 years old. She lives in Philadelphia where she became National Interest for the United States.