Lapurdi

Time to travel north of the Pirinioak to Iparralde and more specifically to the Basque province of Lapurdi. So far I have posted information about three provinces located in Hegoalde (Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa).

Lapurdi is historically one of the seven provinces of the historical Basque Country. Lapurdi extends from the Pyrenees to the river Aturri, along the Bay of Biscay. To the south is Gipuzkoa and Nafarroa, to the east is Nafarroa Behera, to the north are the Landas. It has an area of almost 900 km² and a population of over 200,000 which makes it the most populous of the three provinces of Iparralde. Over 25% of the inhabitants speak Basque (17% in the Baiona-Anglet-Biarritz zone, 43% in the rest). Lapurdi has also long had a Gascon-speaking tradition, noticeably next to the banks of the river Aturri but also more diffusedly throughout the whole viscounty (about 20% in Baiona-Anglet-Biarritz).

The main town of Lapurdi is Baiona, although the capital, where local Basque leaders assembled, is Ustaritz, 13 km away. Other important towns are Biarritz, Anglet (between Baiona and Biarritz), Hendaia, Ziburu and Donibane Lohitzune along the coast, and Hazparne inland. The area is famous for the five-day Fêtes de Bayonne and the red peppers of Ezpeleta. Many tourists come to the coast, especially at Biarritz, and the hills and mountains of the interior for walking and agri-tourism. Larrun, a 900m high hill, lies south of Donibane Lohitzune on the border with Hegoalde. The hill is a Basque symbol, with spectacular views from its peak.

The traditional buildings of Lapurdi have a low roof, half-timbered features, stone lintels and painted in red, white and green. The house of Edmond Rostand, Villa Arnaga at Kanbo, is such a house and is now a museum dedicated to the author of Cyrano de Bergerac and to Basque traditions.

Lapurdian (Lapurtera) is a dialect of the Basque language spoken in the region.

History

Ancient Lapurdi was inhabited by the Tarbelas, an Aquitanian tribe. They had the port of Lapurdum, that eventually would become modern Baiona, and give its name to the region.

In the Middle Ages it formed part of the Duchy of Vasconia or Wasconia, that eventually came to be called Gascony. In the year 844 Viking raiders conquered Baiona where they established a base for their incursions. They were only expelled in 986, leaving a legacy of naval expertise in Lapurdi and all the coastal Basque Country.

In 1020 Duke Santxo VI ceded the jurisdiction over Lapurdi and what came to be known as Nafarroa Behera, to King Santxo III the Great of Iruñea. This monarch made it officially a Viscounty in 1023, naming as Viscount certain Lupo Sancho, a relative of the Duke of Gascony. This territory included all modern Lapurdi and possibly some parts of modern Nafarroa north of the Bidasoa river.

C. 1125, Baiona was chartered by Duke William IX of Aquitaine. In 1130-31, King Alfonso the Battler of Aragon and Navarre attacked Baiona over a dispute on jurisdictions with the Duke of Aquitaine, William X the Saint.

Lapurdi was ruled directly, between 1169 and 1199, by Richard Lionheart, who gave a second charter to Baiona c. 1174 and, c. 1175, gave to the merchants of this city the return of the duties they paid in the tolls of Poitou, Aquitaine and Gascony. This caused an uprising of Gascons and Basques (including Labourtines from outside Baiona) but Richard defeated all the cities that had sublevated.

Richard married Navarrese princess Berenguela in 1191, which favored the trade between Nafarroa and Baiona (and England). This marriage also induced a juridisctional transaction that shaped the borders of the Northern Basque Country: Nafarroa Behera was definitively annexed to Nafarroa, while Lapurdi and Zuberoa remained as parts of Angevine Aquitaine. This pact was formalized in 1193 in form of the sale of their rights by the legitimate viscounts of Lapurdi, who had established their seat in Ustaritz. Ustaritz was since then the capital of Lapurdi instead of Baiona, until the suppression of the province in 1798.

John I of England, gave to Baiona the Municipal Law, that created the figures of mayor, 12 jurors, 12 counsilors and 75 advisors.

Lapurdi passed to French hands in 1451, just before the end of the Hundred Years' War. Since then and until the French Revolution, Lapurdi was largely self-ruled as an autonomous French province.

In 1610, Lapurdi suffered a major witch-hunt at the hands of judge Pierre de Lancre, that ended with some 70 supposed sorginak burnt at the stake.

In 1798, the newly born French Republic, with its centralizing Jacobin ideals, suppressed the historical provinces, including Lapurdi, incorporating them into the newly created département of Basses-Pyrénées, together with Bearn.

In the last decades there have been repeated petitions asking for the spearation from Bearn and the creation of a Basque département, together with the other two historical Basque provinces of Nafarroa Behera and Zuberoa. Though these petitions have almost universal support inside Lapurdi and the rest of the Pays Basque, they have been ignored by successive French governments

Mariner activities

Lapurdi, like the other coastal territories of the Basque Country, played an important role in early European exploitation of the Atlantic Ocean.

The earliest document (a bill) that mentions the whale oil or blubber dates from 670. In 1059, Labourdin whalers already gave to the viscount the oil of the first captured animal. It seems that Basques disliked the taste of whales but made good business selling their meat and oil to the French, Castilian and Flemish. Basque whalers used for this activity the longboats known as traineras, that only allowed whaling near the coast or based in a larger ship.

It seems that it was this industry, along with cod-fishing, is what brought Basque sailors to the North Sea and eventually to Newfoundland. Basque whaling in Newfoundland and Labrador began in the 1530s. By at least the early 17th century Basque whalers had reached Iceland.

The development of rudder in Europe seems also a Basque and specifically Labourdine development. Three masted ships appear in a fresco of Estella (Nafarroa), dating to the 12th century, seals preserved in the Navarrese and Parisian historical archives also show similar ships. Rudder itself is first mentioned as steer "a la Navarraise" or "a la Bayonaise".

After Nafarroa lost Donostia and Hondarribia to Castile in 1200, it signed a treaty with Baiona that made it the "port of Navarre" for nearly three centuries. Role that extended also into the Early Modern Age, after Nafarroa had been annexed by Castile (but both provinces remained autonomous).

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