Bayonne

The story of Bayonne

Bayonne is a commune in southwestern France, near the Spanish border, set at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers in the French Basque Country. Its most striking feature is that river junction, because the site was shaped from the beginning by water, with a port and a fortified position on a mound in the Cathedral Quarter overlooking the Nive.

The oldest documented human occupation site is on that hill above the Nive and its meeting with the Adour. In the 1st century AD, the Romans already seem to have treated the place as important, and they surrounded it with a wall to keep out the Tarbelli. Archaeological work in October and November 1995 found, in the four layers of sub-soil along the foundation of the Gothic cathedral in the apse of the cathedral area, a 2-metre depth of old objects from the end of the 1st century, including sigillated Gallic ceramics.

The setting mattered for trade as well as defence. The geographical location at the crossroads of a river system running east to west and a road network linking Europe to the Iberian Peninsula from north to south gave the site a double role as fortress and port. In the 12th century, the city extended to the confluence of the Nive and beyond, and its first bridge spanning the Adour was built. Bayonne came under English control in 1152 through the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and in 1177 Richard the Lion Heart of England took control of the city, separating it from the Viscount of Labourd. In 1451, it was taken by the Crown of France after the Hundred Years’ War.

Bayonne’s later history was closely tied to the river’s changing course. After the loss of trade with the English, the Adour gradually filled with silt and became impassable to ships, weakening the city as it developed to the north. The course of the Adour was changed in 1578 by dredging under the direction of Louis de Foix, and the river returned to its former mouth. Bayonne then flourished after regaining the maritime trade it had lost for more than a hundred years.

The city’s religious and community life is still visible in its different quarters. Bayonne is in the Diocese of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron, and the diocese is located in Bayonne in the Place Monseigneur-Vansteenberghe. Besides Bayonne Cathedral in Grand Bayonne, the city has Saint-Esprit, Saint Andrew, Arènes, Saint-Étienne, and Saint-Amand churches. The Jewish community of Bayonne is old, formed by different groups of fugitives from Navarre and Portugal who established themselves at Saint-Esprit-lès-Bayonne after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496. The synagogue was built in 1837 in the Saint-Esprit district north of the town, and the Jewish Cemetery was established in 1689 in the Saint-Étienne neighborhood, later remodeled and enlarged in the 18th and 19th century.

Bayonne is also known for festivals that are deeply rooted in local custom. For 550 years, every holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday the Foire au Jambon has been held to mark the beginning of the season. An annual summer festival has been held in the commune since 1932 for five days, organized around parades, bull races, fireworks, and music in the Basque and Gascon tradition. Bayonne has the oldest French bullfighting tradition, and a bylaw regulating the encierro is dated 1283, when cows, oxen and bulls are released each year in the streets of Petit Bayonne during the summer festivals. The current arena, opened in 1893, is the largest in South-west France with more than 10,000 seats.

Today Bayonne remains a compact city of 53,312 people within a wider urban area, but its identity still comes from the meeting of rivers, the old quarters around the cathedral, and the places where its long civic and religious traditions continue to be marked.