Editing Cerdanya (section)

=== Modern times ===
[[File:Transnational_Cerdanya.svg|right|300px|thumb|The modern natural comarca of Cerdanya in [[Catalonia]] and [[Pyrénées-Orientales]].]]
[[File:Coat of Arms of Cerdanya Comarca.svg|right|200px|thumb|The [[coat of arms]] of the [[Comarques of Catalonia|comarca]] of [[Cerdanya (comarca)|Lower Cerdanya]] in [[Catalonia]], which is also donned on its administrative [[Comarcal council#Comarcal Council of Cerdanya|Comarcal Council]] emblem.]]

Cerdanya proper was split between Spain and France by the [[Treaty of the Pyrenees]] of 1659, with the north of Cerdanya becoming French, while the south of Cerdanya remained Spanish. The counties of [[Roussillon|Rosselló]], [[Capcir]], and [[Conflent]] also became French at that time.

Today, the Spanish side of Cerdanya is a [[Comarques of Catalonia|Catalan ''comarca'']] known as [[Baixa Cerdanya]] (i.e. "Lower Cerdanya"), and whose capital is [[Puigcerdà]]. Puigcerdà was already the capital of Cerdanya before the division of 1659, having replaced Hix in 1178 as capital of Cerdanya. Hix, the place where the counts of Cerdanya resided, is now a village inside the [[commune in France|commune]] of [[Bourg-Madame]] on the French side of the border. Hix had itself replaced [[Llívia]], which was the ancient capital of Cerdanya in [[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]]. At the Treaty of the Pyrenees it was decided that Llívia would remain Spanish (allegedly because the treaty stipulated that only villages were to be ceded to France, and Llívia was considered a city and not a village, due to its status as the ancient capital of Cerdanya), so Llívia is now an [[enclave]] of Spain inside French territory.

The French side of Cerdanya is part of the ''[[département in France|département]]'' of [[Pyrénées-Orientales]] and has no particular status. People in France refer to it as ''Cerdagne française'' (that is, "French Cerdanya"), or just ''Cerdagne'', while people on the Spanish side refer to it as ''[[Alta Cerdanya]]'' ("Upper Cerdanya"). Its main towns are Bourg-Madame and the ski resort of [[Font-Romeu]].

Despite the split between France and Spain, ties remain between families on both sides of the border, with frequent travel from one country to the other.  During [[World War I]], Cerdanya has been the place of an important smuggling trade in which horses and mules went from French to Spanish Cerdanya, before being sold to the French army and going back to France through [[Le Perthus]].<ref>{{66 PHPC}}</ref>