Bayonne (France)

Bayonne (French: Bayonne pronounced /baˈjɔn/; in Basque and Gascon Occitan Baiona) is a French commune and town located in southwestern France, in the New Aquitaine region, at the confluence of the Nive rivers or Errobi and Adur, near the Cantabrian Sea, in the department of the Atlantic Pyrenees, of which it is one of its sub-prefectures; it forms part, at the same time, of the Basque-French historical province of Labort and of the cultural region of Gascogne. Bayonne is also the seat of the Community of the Basque Country agglomeration, which encompasses almost all the municipalities of the French Basque Country.

Its population was 51,943 inhabitants in 2019. The name in Spanish is bayonés or bayonesa (in French "bayonnais" and in Basque "baionar"). The town forms an urban nucleus of more than 100,000 inhabitants with the adjoining communes of Anglet and Biarritz.

History

Bayonne was founded in the year 950 on the ruins of an ancient Roman castrum, called Lapurdum, which has left its name to the territory of Labort. There are several explanations for the meaning of the name Bayonne: It could also be a Basque or Gascon augmentative of the Latin Baia ("great expanse of water") or a name derived from the Basque Ibaiona ("good river") or Ibaiune ("place of the river").

In the IX century, it was occupied by the Vikings, who passed on the secrets of their shipbuilding to its inhabitants. Recovered by the Duke of Vasconia Guillermo Sancho almost a century later, it became the capital of the Viscounty of Labort. For years it was part of the Duchy of Aquitaine, which came under English domination in 1155, developing as an important port, until Dunois He conquered it on August 21, 1451, during the reign of Charles VII of France, for the crown of France, the last chapter of the Hundred Years' War.

At the beginning of the XVI century, it suffered several attacks by Castilian-Aragonese troops, as a consequence of the conflicts derived from both the Conquest of Navarre as well as the wars between the Spanish Monarchy and the Kingdom of France.

Many Jews expelled from the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon by the Catholic Monarchs settled in Bayonne, until in 1602 the king forced them to leave the city, to which they returned in 1789, when they settled in the neighborhood of Saint Esprit. Throughout the sporadic conflicts that raged the French countryside in the 17th century, the farmers of Bayonne found themselves short of gunpowder and projectiles. They then stuck their hunting knives into the barrels of their shotguns and made makeshift spears that would henceforth be called bayonets.

In the castle of Marracq, the acts of abdication of King Carlos IV of Spain and his son Ferdinand VII in favor of Napoleon Bonaparte were signed in 1808, a fact known as the Abdications of Bayonne. On July 8 of that same year, the Statute of Bayonne was promulgated as the Spanish constitution of José Bonaparte. The Saint-Esprit district, located on the right bank of the Adour, joined Bayonne on June 1, 1857. Previously it formed an autonomous commune within the Landes department.

Economy

It is fundamentally based on commerce, the metallurgical and chemical industries.

Tourist attractions

View from the Petit Bayonne neighborhood.

• The Cathedral of Santa Maria: this ojival cathedral, begun in 1213, is crowned by two 85 m high bell towers. It welcomes the tomb of San Leon, patron of the city. A 1240 cloister is attached to it in its southern zone. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998, as a monument to the Camino de Santiago in France.
• Château-Neuf
• Château-Vieux
• Citadel and fortifications of Vauban
• Basque and Historical Museum of Bayonne
• Bonnat Museum, created with the collections of the realistic painter Léon Bonnat. The most important of the Basque-French area. Together with works by Bonnat himself, he houses paintings and drawings by Botticelli, Rafael, Rembrandt, José de Ribera and later teachers. It is closed for expansion works up to 2025.
• Bullring

Heraldry

In a field of gules, a circular tower, of gold, open, adjudicated and masoned with sable, placed on waves of water of its natural color, rippled with gold and sable and lying on the tower of two trees of its natural color, gold fruity; and two golden lions, steep and facing the tower. The tower is surmounted by a gold fleur-de-lys. Stamp: Ducal Crown.

Demographics

Graphics of demographic evolution of Bayona (France) between 1800 and 2019