FIGUERAS  , a

town of north-eastern Spain, in the province of Gerona, 14 M . S. of the French frontier, on the Barcelona-Perpignan railway . Pop . (1900) 10,714 . Figueras is built at the foot of the Pyrenees, and on the northern edge of El Ampurdan, a fertile and well-irrigated plain,which produces wine, olives and rice,and derives its name from the seaport of Ampurias, the ancient Emporiae . The castle of San Fernando, 1 m.N.W., is an irregular pentagonal structure, built by order of Ferdinand VI . (1746-1759), on the site of a Capuchin convent . Owing to its situation, and the rocky nature of the ground over which a besieger must advance, it is still serviceable as the key to the frontier . It affords accommodation for 16,000 men and is well provided with bomb-proof cover . In 1794 Figueras was surrendered to the French, but it was regained in 1795 . During the Peninsular War it was taken by the French in 1808, re-captured by the Spaniards in 1811, and retaken by the French in the same year . In 1823, after a long defence, it was once more captured by the French .

An

annual pilgrimage from Figueras to the chapel of Nuestra Senora de Requesens, 15 M . N., commemorates the deliverance of the town from a severe epidemic of fever in 1612 .