Anglet


Anglet is a French commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.
Anglet lies in the traditional province of Labourd of the Northern Basque Country while its inhabitants have traditionally spoken Gascon.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as Angloys or Angloyes.

Geography

Location

Anglet commune is part of the urban area of Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz located south-west of the city and part of the Basque province of Labourd. The commune is 10% covered with pine forests, including those of Pignada, Lazaretto, and Chiberta. The sandy coast starts 200 km north at the Pointe de Grave on the shore of the estuary of the Gironde and ends in Anglet. It is punctuated by numerous seawalls cutting the shore. At Anglet the outline of the public maritime domain has been updated and a coastal reserve wide has been observed since 1978. With its many bays and inlets this area is a laboratory for monitoring techniques for studying coastal erosion.
The Anglet coast is about 4.5 km long and has 11 beaches from north to south:
The French Basque Coast designates the part of the Aquitaine coast between the Chambre d'Amour cave at Anglet and the Spanish border.
Anglet has an airport Aéroport de Biarritz-Anglet-Bayonne some south of the town accessible from the D810 road. It has flights to destinations across France as well as Europe.

Access

Anglet is served by the A63 autoroute, the D810 road from Bayonne to Anglet town, and the D260 road from Bayonne to the northern part of the commune and continuing south-west towards Biarritz.
During the winter season of 2013/2014 the A1, A2, C, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, and N Chronoplus bus routes operated by the Transdev agglomeration de Bayonne serve Anglet connecting it to other communes in the metropolitan area: Bayonne, Biarritz, Bidart, Boucau, Saint-Pierre-d'Irube, and Tarnos.

Hydrography

The Adour flows into the Atlantic Ocean between Anglet on the left bank and Tarnos on the right bank.
The commune is traversed by the following tributaries of the Adour:

Toponymy

The origin of the name Anglet is Roman from the Latin angulus, "Land shaped like a wedge" or "low terrain or depression". This last hypothesis was confirmed by Jean-Baptiste Orpustan who indicated that the official name and the basque name derived from two distinct strains of the same origin: angellu, a diminutive of Angulu, and cited by L. Michelena who affirmed that "low terrain" applies to "all the sandy beach-front in the commune".
The Basque name of the commune is Angelu and the Gascon name is Anglet. The inhabitants are known as Anglòi in Gascon and Angeluar in Basque.
The following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune.
NameSpellingDateSourcePageOriginDescription
AngletAngles1188Raymond
6
CartularyVillage
Anglet1249 & 1253Orpustan
28
Portu de Angleto1291Orpustan
28
Sanctus Leo d'Anglet1761Raymond
6
Collations
AritxagueUrruzaga1140Raymond
142
CartularyMill, from the Basque Haritzaga meaning "place of oaks".
Urrucega1149Raymond
142
Cartulary
Urrusague12th centuryRaymond
142
Cartulary
Aritzague1750Raymond
142
Cassini
Ritzague1863Raymond
142
Chambre d'AmourYgasc1198Raymond
48
CartularyHamlet, from a cave next to the sea.
Higas12th centuryRaymond
48
Cartulary
AudiosAudoz1198Raymond
48
CartularyHamlet in 1863
BlancpignonBlanpignon1863Raymond
33
Place
BrindosVilla que dictur Berindos12th centuryRaymond
36
CartularyHamlet
Beryndos1331Raymond
36
Gascon Roles
Beryndes1334Raymond
36
Gascon Roles
ChibertaLac de Chiberta1863Raymond
49
Lake
CourboisFausegui1198Raymond
53
CartularyHamlet
DonzacqMolendinum de Donzag1246Raymond
57
CartularyMill, the Donzacq stream rose in Biarritz, passed through Anglet and Bayonne and then joined the Adour
Lo moly appelé Donzac1539Raymond
57
Chapter
Moulin d'HausquetteMolin de Fausquete1259Raymond
76
CartularyMill
Moulin de Hausquete1556Raymond
57
Saint-Clare
HondritzUnderitz1149Raymond
78
CartularyHamlet
Honderiz1198Raymond
78
Cartulary
Honderiz1255Raymond
78
Cartulary
IrumendyYrumendie12th centuryRaymond
83
CartularyHamlet
Irumendie13th centuryRaymond
83
Cartulary
LamotheLamothe1863Raymond
91
Fief
LastourteLastourte1863Raymond
96
Redoubt
LazaretLazaret1863Raymond
98
"dépôt de mendicité"
MauléonMauléon1863Raymond
110
Château
MontoriMontori1863Raymond
117
Hamlet
NavarizLe Fontaine de Navariz1198Raymond
121
CartularyFountain at Montori
Le PignadaLe Pinada1863Raymond
135
Forest
PontotsPontots1863Raymond
138
Hamlet
Refuge Notre-DameLe Refuge1863Raymond
141
Religious house
SincosSincos1149Raymond
161
CartularyHamlet
SutarVilla quæ dicitur Huzater12th centuryRaymond
165
CartularyHamlet
Utsatarren1149Raymond
165
Cartulary
Usatarren1198Raymond
165
Cartulary
Ussutarren13th centuryRaymond
165
Cartulary
Hucetarren13th centuryRaymond
165
Cartulary
Sustaren16th centuryRaymond
165
Cartulary
Sutarre1863Raymond
165
TroissonatTroissonat1578Raymond
168
Chapterthe name of a place at the mouth of the Adour, called le Boucau on 28 October 1578

Sources:
Origins:

Prehistory

Based on discoveries made, the oldest land in Anglet dates back to prehistory and Mousterian culture. Various flint tools characteristic of the Mousterian period have been discovered. The use of splinters on both faces to make sharp points allows working on skins and making axes with wooden handles. Around Anglet, including the Tower of Lannes, Brindos, and Sutar, open air locations high above low swampy parts were preferred as in other parts of Basque Country.
The prefecture of the Aquitaine region, considering the knowledge elements of the archaeological heritage of the commune currently identified in the archaeological database of the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs of Aquitaine issued an order for the following sites: Brindos, Cote 50, La Ballastière of Micoteau, and Hondritz referenced as having Paleolithic occupation. The sites in the Rue du Colombier and the Tower of Lannes are referenced to as prehistoric sites of refuge which also refers to occupation in proto-historic times.

Roman times

During the Roman era, Bayonne served as a castrum for a cohort large enough for a rampart to be built surrounding an area somewhat excessive for an Army, but no remains indicate that there was a city. At that time, the regional Roman capital was "Aquae Augustae" and the people living in the geographical area between Dax and Oiartzun called themselves Tarbelli. Furthermore, there is evidence that outside these walls, there were many potters who worked for the Roman cohort.

Middle Ages

The history of Anglet actually appears from the Middle Ages where it was discovered that the core of the oldest settlement is located in a rural area called "Berindos" which is Brindos. There are some remains of a mill, dating to the 12th century, which was used to grind corn. Two grindstones for wheat and the mule barn are still present. It was also found that Berindos was a parish or at least included a church from the 12th century. This area is located south of the airport: its agricultural past has disappeared under residential urbanization and development.
The mill is now a ruin: saved from demolition in 2000 by a local association. A developer planned to replace it with a parking lot for a shopping area. Authorizations were granted at that time. However, what is probably one of the oldest heritage buildings of the city remains although the house, as old as the mill, was destroyed in 1978. A fire destroyed part of the mill in 2011, creating a need for security in 2013.
In the parish of Brindos there are ancient lordships and noble houses: the Domain of Urcos and the Terra de Sincos. Other areas of population also appear in the Book of Gold of Bayonne namely:
There are also references to orchards and mills at Mufale/Aumufale and at Balaison/Balichon. In the current area of Pontots/Beyries there is also Dames de Montori, a religious order of Saint-Bernard d'Esteyron who established themselves on the Route de Biarritz. They later moved to the right bank and were dependent on the Bishop of Dax and not of Bayonne.
Anglet also had a port area, Fausquette/Hausquette, where resin, wine, cider and wheat were loaded. The Hausquette Mill cited in 1256 in the Book of Gold of Bayonne is located on the Maharin Stream near this port. The building is now a private house located at 181 rue de Hausquette still visible and referred to by the city as a "Route for walking and cycling - Streams and fountains - Discover the historic and natural heritage of Anglet".
In the Middle Ages, Bayonne was already a fortified city under English domination from the 12th to the 15th centuries. The population became more numerous and extended beyond the perimeter walls to settle in the suburbs surrounded by fields and vineyards where the suburb of Saint Léon was an extension from the gate of the same name. The chronicler Froissart stated that "the suburb as important as the city". Saint Léon was organized around its church and extended to the "Port of Beyries" and "to the Arritzague Stream". The church dates back to 1089. Two parishes seem to have been identified: Saint Léon and Brindos. However, before the end of the 16th century, Bayonne was taken from the English by the Kingdom of France and the suburbs were demolished as being too close and too prejudicial to the defence of the walled city, which concentrated within the confines of the existing small and large Bayonne. France was wary of Spain who tried several times to capture Bayonne.
In 1557, the Saint Léon church was demolished and transferred to its current location in 1564 in front of the current town hall of Anglet. As Manex Goyhenetche points out in his book on Anglet, the city was then "the surrounding countryside of Bayonne", "densely populated rural suburb of peasants". It was more than a single entity, but a set of different districts including religious buildings which have disappeared today. It was a large rural territory dominated by a topography of landforms and lower parts covered various agricultural operations, woods, orchards, vineyards, and mills which lived on agriculture and cattle.

The rivalry between Anglet and Bayonne

Bayonne then had a monopoly on trade and fishing in the whole basin of the Adour from Biarritz to Capbreton. Bayonne tried to master the marshy strip of land that was once on the left bank of the river when the natural mouth of the Adour was much further north. The major event of this period was the diversion of the Adour. Trade in Bayonne declined due to the remoteness of the river mouth and especially the silting of the Adour that prevented large vessels enter the estuary. Louis de Foix, an engineer sent by the king, succeeded, after many efforts using local labour, in diverting the river to allow an exit for the Adour only from Bayonne.
Rivalries and conflicts between Anglet and Bayonne continued for the jurisdiction and rights over this sandy strip of land that was now cut in half, with one part north of the Adour and not solely on the left bank of the river, which complicated the situation even more. A war of justification of the boundary marks and rights therefore intensified between the two cities to see who could enjoy the sands of Gauseirans where were identified as "Les Pignadas". The name of Gauseirans/Betenave would be resumed in Gibraltar and then "basquised" to Chimberta and Chiberta.
In the texts of the city of Bayonne, it says to maintain the rights to the land and demand the sand. Conversely, England on its side tried to justify the demarcation, especially those "north of the river", and showed grazing agreements from 1395 and 1525 before the diversion. This did not deter the rivalry that continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and finally ended in settlement agreements.

18th century

Besides the issue of communal boundaries, the rivalry was exacerbated by the antagonism of behaviour between the Bayonne bourgeoisie and the Anglet peasantry. At that time, the lords, nobles and bourgeois of Bayonne bought land at Anglet but fled from community measures and obligations. Despite careful control of the people and the obstinacy of the peasants, some aristocrats from Bayonne won a fight which was not played on equal terms.
At that time, many of the inhabitants of Anglet were herdsmen who sought ox carts to bring fertilizer to their land from the stables of Bayonne. These oxen were used to transport goods between Bayonne, Saint Jean de Luz and Spain as well as to maintain their vineyards, corn, or wheat fields. In the pignadas, the resin or "gem" is harvested from pine trees for producing candles or to allow the caulking of ships as well as for making soap, perfume, and many household goods. Plastic and synthetic products would destroy his employment and his crop. There were also plantations of cork oak used for many purposes.
During the Revolution and the Empire there was "a double movement of land grabbing and dilapidation of heritage" to convert land under cultivation at the expense of the old houses of Anglet who used communal land for their flocks. In 1812, an image of the town is provided by the Mayor of the time: "a population of 1965 souls houses are distant from each other without any rallying point that the church provided". At Anglet, most of the people were small farmers although some wealthy Bayonne people settled in the commune such as the binder and lithographer Jean Bernain who bought "Quintau" in 1787.
The difficulties were compounded by the wars of the Revolution and the billeting of troops "at extraordinary and necessary expense occasioned by the cavalry, the train of artillery, and the troops of the line" who stayed during their passage to the Spain. The same then occurred in 1814 by Wellington's British troops during the fighting that devastated the Blancpignon forest, then returning to Spain to face the routed Napoleonic army routed. Part of the population abandoned Anglet in 1813 and 1814 to escape to the north or south. In 1822 cholera struck Anglet.
In March 1815, during the disorders caused by the Hundred Days and after the Battle of Waterloo, a Spanish army commanded by the Earl of Labisbal made a brief foray beyond the Bidassoa to Anglet and Ustaritz. These troops made a fighting retreat after an intervention by Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, with the Spanish monarch Ferdinand VII.

19th century, the transformation of Anglet, a rural area in an urban space

In 1838/39, Father Cestac acquired the property Châteauneuf to install the institution of Our Lady of refuge and create a community of servants of Mary away from the city and the critics. This property now has the last agricultural land between Chiberta forest and the Boulevard BAB. Father Cestac did not have much money which forced him to work the land with his community who were unaccustomed to working the land. The nuns founded a school, cultivated and cleared most of the land surrounding the Refuge, which grew considerably. Beyond the corn fields, near the forest, there are greenhouses where they still maintain today decorative flowers and gardens. Some of them wanted to go further in their work of prayer and meditation, namely absolute silence. These were the Bernardines who settled in the area about a kilometre from the Refuge near the greenhouses. Next to the Bernardine convent is the cemetery for Bernardines and the Servants of Mary with more than 300 graves in sand - all symmetrically aligned and decorated with a shell cross. This site is unique in France. Each year, they are rebuilt during the season of Lent because the weather erodes them. Nearby there is also a chapel of straw with a sand floor, symbol of the greatest austerity of their religious faith.
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Early in 1870 it was decided to build a racetrack on the sands of Chiberta to develop a new area of recreation and tourism on the current site of La Barre like its neighbour biarrot. This racecourse included fifty hectares of land previously used for the cultivation of vines and some market gardening, while crystallizing a divide between tourism development then reserved for the elite and the peasants, still rooted in the rural world. Its creation was due to a cousin of the mayor of Bayonne, Felix Labat, supported by an Englishman, Lord Howden, a former Spanish ambassador and owner of the Château de Caradoc in Bayonne. The racecourse and shopping places became the most fashionable distraction on the Basque coast. This was the rendezvous of all the "elite" of the time who came to show themselves in the elegant galleries.
In 1877 the BAB railway line of "American railway" type was inaugurated. It served Anglet through the "Five Cantons" halt near the Villa Marie Antoinette. However, it was critical that the new railway crossed rural roads in the commune by unmanned level crossings while avoiding the administrative centre of Saint John. The concern was not to serve the people of Anglet but to link Bayonne to Biarritz.
It was not until 1888 that a new line connected Bayonne to Biarritz along the National Route N10 and strengthened the intersection located in the Saint John district. BLB quickly became more attractive than the BAB, especially because of its coverage of Saint John - the administrative district - and the Marracq High School stop in Bayonne where many students were enrolled from Anglet.
In 1884–1885, the first bathing establishment opened its doors on the House of Love beach wishing to compete with the baths in Biarritz. Swimmers had at their disposal: seventy-five cabins, a wide assortment of bathing suits, and a swimming coach who personally watched over them.
On 9 January 1924 the town was hit by a "tsunami" that destroyed the racetrack. The bathing establishment, also hit hard, was rebuilt away.
It was not until the mid 1920s that the company BALF acquired 150 new hectares to create the Chiberta Golf Course. In 1928 a second bathhouse was created at the House of Love, with a saltwater pool, a dozen "cabanas", and a large hall. Its art deco style is signed Anatole Durruty. This property attracted the biggest names in high society of the time and caused a real buzz for the performances, sporting events, galas and world exhibitions. This was the golden age of Anglet.
In 1929, the city was classified as a "resort". The three cities, Bayonne, Anglet, and Biarritz agreed to the creation of an airport offering international services which was located two-thirds in the commune of Anglet.
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The VFDM railway line which links Bayonne to Hendaye via la Barre was built from 1913 to 1927 . Traversing the woods and countryside Chiberta and overlooking the beaches of the House of Love, the "coast tram" quickly became a tourist line and was also popular with families and local residents. The line closed in 1948 due to a growing disaffection related to the crisis of the 1930s.
The chapel of the House of Love, created by Napoleon III became obsolete. Father Sabes was able to mobilize funds from High Society parishioners which allowed him to build a new church, Saint Mary's, in 1932 which became a listed church in 2014 - the first historical monument in Anglet.

Post-Second World War: continuing urbanization

Postwar, urbanization continued because of the space available and attractive prices, unlike Bayonne or Biarritz. From 1970 to 1980 Anglet absorbed 70% of subdivision projects in the metropolitan area against 10% for Biarritz. The "thirty glorious years" spared no area of the commune, when only a few years past it had farmland, parks, ancient marshes. There were real estate programs of all kinds. Even areas reserved for high society changed in the democratization of holidays and mass tourism. The rural past of the town was relegated to memory.
During the 1960s and 70s, the pool of prestigious bathing establishments underwent violent storms that damaged them and eventually lead to their demolition in 1977. The pier was consolidated and the building became a community centre. Today the buildings have been renovated and renamed Space Ocean.
Urban planning was done without a large-scale organizational plan, torn between two neighbouring communes. It was not until 1972 that the agglomeration created a first instance of intercommunal dialogue and today the urban community of Côte Basque-Adour.

Heraldry

Administration

Anglet town is the seat of two cantons: Anglet-Nord and Anglet-Sud which do not include any other commune.
List of Successive Mayors
FromToNamePartyPosition
18701897Eugène Bernain
1897Albert Le Barillier
19351937DaubinDoctor
19371941François DommainRadical
19711993Victor MendiboureUDF
19931999Michel BonnetUDF
19992001Alain LamassoureUDFVice President of the UDF
Advisor to the Court of Auditors
20012008Robert VillenaveUDF
PS		Vice-President of CABAB
Vice-President of Côte Basque-Adour agglomeration
20082014Jean EspilondoPS
20142020Claude OliveUMPGeneral Councillor for Anglet-Nord Canton

Inter-communality

The town is part of six intercommunal structures:
It is also a member of the Eurocity Basque Bayonne - San Sebastian.

Twinninghttp://www.cncd.fr/frontoffice/bdd-region.asp?action=getRegion&id=2#tabs3 National Commission for Decentralised cooperation

In 2009 the commune had 37,661 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger towns that have a sample survey every year.

Economy

Once oriented towards agriculture and in particular vegetable crops, Anglet now has, thanks to its location within the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz urban area, a broader economic scope.
Anglet is associated with the cities of Bayonne and Biarritz with which it shares the administration of the Biarritz – Anglet – Bayonne Airport.
Anglet is included in the control of the Port of Bayonne which also covers the communes of Bayonne and Boucau in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Tarnos in Landes.
Among local economic activities there are seaside tourism, Thalassotherapy, sports and aerospace.
The commune also hosts agri-food sector enterprises who are among the top fifty largest in the department:
Winds and Tides was a lively review of poetry in Anglet which was organised by Jeanne Monteil and Jean-Léopold Dumontier-Béroulet from 1976 to 1992.

Languages

Anglet and the neighbouring communes of Biarritz and Bayonne can be seen at different times and through different points of view as either Gascon or Basque. The majority of people in this area spoke Gascon according to the Linguistic Atlas of Gascony and investigations on the limits of the Basque language by Lucien Bonaparte in 1863. At the same time some areas could be described as Basque. Since the 20th century the French language has been the majority language.

Civil heritage

The commune has several buildings that are registered as historical monuments:
Paul Campagne and his wife Julienne Moussempès were owners of the famous Hotel de l'Angleterre in Biarritz and in 1900 built a second home called "Marnoger" whose name comes from the names of their three children Marcel, Nora and Roger based on plans by architect Raymond Larrebat Tudor. This sumptuous house and its park renamed "Beatrix Enea" are part of the municipal heritage of Anglet which was acquired in 1985: the municipal city services are housed there.

Architectural Heritage

During the urbanization of the late 19th and early 20th century architecture in Anglet was dominated by a model which took as a reference a Labourd farm, typical of the Basque Country, modelled from Villa Arnaga to Cambo-les-Bains. This model was called Néobasque. This movement was very popular at the beginning of the 20th century. Another type of architecture, the "chalet" for permanent and popular housing in a commune where the population increased sharply and lost its original rural character. Its purpose was residential and had no connection with what was later called the vacation home.
The vacation home is found along the coast, between the Biarritz golf course and Anglet near Chiberta and Chambre d'Amour. These vacation homes had an architectural style called eclecticism. There is no model and each house is influenced by and mixes various styles. Some houses are Moorish style, some are Mediterranean, others Norman-style English, and some are unclassifiable. Neo-Basque challenged this style of architecture.
Around 1930, in the works of the Gomez brothers and architect William Marcel, the model evolved into the "casa torre" which is typical of the neighbouring provinces of Navarre and of Gipuzkoa. The El Hogar home was of this style and was a milestone in the architecture of the time. The house was made for an old Béarn native who made his fortune in Chile and so had a high sensitivity to Hispanic architecture which inspired its architect. William Marcel also designed the new town hall in Anglet in the "New Spanish" style where is clearly displayed. In 1950, the labourdine neo-Basque-type house still remains as the predominant model and reference for appreciating a building well integrated into its environment.

Religious heritage

The city has seven churches: Saint-Michel, Holy Trinity, Saint-Léon, Saint-Bernadette, Our Lady of Refuge, Saint-Joseph, and Saint-Marie.
One wall of the former Dominican monastery of Couillioure was classified as an historic monument in 1928.
The Church of Notre-Dame-du-Refuge of the Congregation of the Servants of Mary contains one item that is registered as an historical object:
There is also a worship hall for Mormons and a Kingdom Hall for Jehovah's Witnesses in the commune.

Environmental heritage

In its prize list of 2012, the National Council of Cities and Villages in Bloom of France awarded four flowers to the commune in the Contest of cities and villages in bloom.

Amenities

Education

The town has many public kindergartens, two colleges, two schools and an ikastola. Furthermore, a Building Institute, an art school and a unit of the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts are present in the commune.
Montaury Park hosts disciplines from the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour such as those dealing with biology, physics, chemistry, logistics, and construction and public works.

Internet

In 2010 the commune of Anglet was awarded the label "Internet City @@@@".

Sports and sports facilities