[3] The town's confined site, at about 440 m above sea level, is relatively level ground surrounded by The N116 from Perpignan on the Mediterranean passes, as a two-lane highway, between the southern town wall and an embankment cut into the high ground to the south; this route continues west into the adjacent Cerdagne region.

It was already occupied by Celtic tribes, and then by Romans, Visigoths, Muslim Moors, and then the Spanish.

Fortifications around the town were built by the counts of Conflent at the end of the 9th century;[4] in 1374, Villefranche resisted the siege of Jaume III the son of last king of Majorca.

[4] In July 1654, the French captured the city after eight days, and the troops of Louis XIV took Puigcerda from the Spaniards.

The town was part of the program of construction and improvement of outlying French defenses, which included building the Fort Libéria on a hill above the village by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the military engineer of Louis XIV,[4] and as such was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2008.