Cerbère (French pronunciation: [sɛʁbɛʁ] ⓘ; Catalan: Cervera de la Marenda) is a commune and railway town in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.

A monument featuring an exposition of photos taken by photographer Manuel Moros of those refugees now marks the crest of Belitres Pass, where Portbou in Spain and Cerbère in France can be seen from the same spot.

Cerbère is mentioned from the first century by the earliest Roman geographer Pomponius Mela, as marking the limit of the Gauls : Cervaria locus finis galliae; this is reflected in 1659 in the negotiations to fix the Franco-Spanish border.

Although the commune of Cerbère only dates from 1889, its territory was already defined in document of 981, in the form of a fiefdom granted by the French King Lothaire to his friend the Duke Gausfred.

The place was attached to Abeilles, creating a single seigneurie (manor), of which Dominique Isern, from Rigarda, was owner at the end of the Ancien Régime.

In this year, an agreement was signed between Spain and France to build a rail link between the two countries, leading to the construction of two frontier stations at Portbou and at Cerbère.

The rail infrastructure grew to a considerable size, since the differing track gauges in Spain and France necessitated moving all merchandise between trains - simpler than changing the axles.