Sames (; )
[SAMATZE]
Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia
Pic d'Anie (Basque Auñamendi) is a mountain of the Pyrenees in France, located close to the Spanish border. It is high.
The mountain boasts an almost perfect pyramidal shape and is surrounded by the spectacular karst landscape of. ''Larra'', i ...
is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...
department in southwestern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. It is considered part of the
Basque Country province of
Lower Navarre
Lower Navarre ( eu, Nafarroa Beherea/Baxenabarre; Gascon/Bearnese: ''Navarra Baisha''; french: Basse-Navarre ; es, Baja Navarra) is a traditional region of the present-day French ''département'' of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It corresponds to the ...
(Basque: ''Behe Nafarroa'').
[
]
Geography
Sames lies in the valley of the Adour, a major river running to the Bay of Biscay. It is located on a low plain
In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...
between the Adour, Gaves, and Bidouze rivers. An outcrop of the Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
rises some 60m over the plain, blocking the Bidouze to the north and east.
North of Sames is the hilly country of southern Landes, formed from rocks and soil left by receding glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
s over 20 million years. The Adour valley extends west to the bay, about 35 km away. South of Sames are the foothills
Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topogr ...
of the Pyrenees, which reach a height of 150m just across the river, 600m about 15 km from the commune, and 900m at a distance of 20 km.
Neighbourhoods
The commune is organized into several neighbourhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...
s, with distinct personalities partly shaped by history:
* Le Bourg, a small borough uphill, consists of a cluster of homes around a medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
church. Traces of human habitation have been found dating back to the 3rd century
The 3rd century was the period from 201 ( CCI) to 300 ( CCC) Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE) in the Julian calendar..
In this century, the Roman Empire saw a crisis, starting with the assassination of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexande ...
.
* Quartier Saint-Jean dates back at least to the late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...
. It developed around a hostel belonging to the Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
that was established around 1445, with a hospital facility and rooms for travellers to and from Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. Until the late 18th century, the settlement was organised as a self-supporting hamlet and had its own church and graveyard.
* Vic Neuf (also known as Vic Nau) is a rural zone with dispersed homes sloping down from Le Bourg to the banks of the Bidouze.
* Vic de Lalande is a rolling upland stretching from Le Bourg to the neighbouring communes of Hastingues
Hastingues (; oc, Hastings, eu, Hastinga) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Its nickname, due to its location on a rounded-shaped hill, is Lou Carcolh (the snail).
Geography
The town lies o ...
and . It was originally farmland but now has many new homes.
* Le Îles, a sparse strip of farms along the banks of the Gaves and Adour, derives its name from small river islet
An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...
s that stood there in the 16th century and have since disappeared. (Some similar islets still exist downstream at Lahonce and Sainte-Marie-de-Gosse.)
* Moura is a real-estate zone developing around a reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
that was created in the early 1990s during a huge civil works project for a nearby highway linking Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
to Bayonne.
Demographics
Economy
The economy of Sames is based on agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
, primarily maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...
, kiwi
Kiwi most commonly refers to:
* Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand
* Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders
* Kiwifruit, an edible berry
* Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency
Kiwi or KIWI may also ref ...
, and (to a somewhat lesser extent) vegetable
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...
s.
Local craftsmen also make blade
A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Histor ...
s and knives
A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...
in a typical Pyrenean style. Lames de Sames, an artisanal workshop founded by designer and craftsman Christophe Lauduique, has a shop at the nearby seaside resort of Anglet.
History
Settlement
Artifacts discovered in Sames (such as a set of 3rd-century Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
bronze coins found in the recess of a wall) indicate that some type of settlement, probably agricultural, existed at the hilltop site of Le Bourg in ancient times. The local church—built in a simple Roman style, which was all that a very rural parish could afford—has been dated back to the early 14th century. The first documents mentioning the commune by its current name are from 1255; several minor mentions can be found from throughout the 13th
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...
and 14th centuries.
The history of the commune is closely tied to the Order of Malta, which, around 1445, built a hostel and hospital on the bank of the Bidouze to supplement facilities in the nearby port city of Bayonne. They named the site after the Order's patron saint, John (in French, Saint Jean), and the neighbourhood was known as Saint-Jean-d'Etchart until the Order left in the late 18th century. ("Etchart" is most likely of Basque origin; a nearby swampy area is still known as "Etchouette".) The Order also established a chapel that served as a secondary church for locals, and they sustained their right to be buried there until a royal decree in 1668 forbade it. Several buildings from that period, dating to the early 1600s, are still standing.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a few wealthy landowners built mansions in the village: three on the hilltop (the first around 1775; the other two, more lavish and surrounded by parks and gardens, around 1850) and one in 1807 on the site of the old Order of Malta establishment.
Political control
While Sames itself held no strategic interest, being devoid of any military stronghold, the area at large was in constant turmoil because of rivalries between the powers that ruled the Aquitaine
Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 Janu ...
region and northern Spain.
Until the late 12th century, the area was part of the province of Labourd, ruled from Bayonne and included in the dukedom of Aquitaine, and hence the realm of France. The local powers were the lords of Guiche, 1.5 km away across the Bidouze, and the Abbey of Arthous 2 km away on the other side of the hills, which was founded in 1160 and served as a staging ground for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...
in Spain.
However, in 1193, Richard I of England
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
, who was also duke of Aquitaine and, as such, a vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...
to the king of France, agreed to relinquish sovereignty over a strip of land—located next to the Earldom of Béarn and stretching from the Pyrenees down to the Adour—to his father-in-law, Sancho VI of Navarre
Sancho Garcés VI ( eu, Antso VI.a; 21 April 1132 - 27 June 1194), called the Wise ( eu, Jakituna, es, el Sabio) was King of Navarre from 1150 until his death in 1194. He was the first monarch to officially drop the title of ''King of Pamplona'' ...
, who ruled over northern Spain. This land was then integrated into the kingdom of Navarre under the name Lower Navarre
Lower Navarre ( eu, Nafarroa Beherea/Baxenabarre; Gascon/Bearnese: ''Navarra Baisha''; french: Basse-Navarre ; es, Baja Navarra) is a traditional region of the present-day French ''département'' of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It corresponds to the ...
(French: ''Basse-Navarre''; Basque: ''Neferroa Beheroa''), and thus removed from the realm of France for the next four centuries.
Sames, hemmed in at the confluence of the three rivers, remained under French control but found itself politically isolated. It was cut off from the village of Oeyregave to the northeast by the Earl of Orthe's fortress at Peyrehorade
Peyrehorade (; oc, Pèirahorada) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises ...
, and from the rest of Labourd by the Bidouze river, on the opposite bank of which was set a ring of villages belonging to Navarre. It was also cut off from its southwestern neighbours beyond , where a fortress was built in 1325 by the Earl of Gramont, and from Guiche to the south, which had a strong fortress dating back to the 11th century
The 11th century is the period from 1001 ( MI) through 1100 ( MC) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium.
In the history of Europe, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. ...
. Additionally, in 1289, the Duke of Aquitaine—who controlled Bayonne, the only port between Spain and Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
—established a stronghold on the hilltop of Hastingues
Hastingues (; oc, Hastings, eu, Hastinga) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Its nickname, due to its location on a rounded-shaped hill, is Lou Carcolh (the snail).
Geography
The town lies o ...
half a mile away under an agreement with the Abbey of Arthous (which sought protection from the Earl of Orthe).
As a result of this isolation, the commune's jurisdictional, police, and fiscal situation were blurred until two decisive steps were taken in the second half of the 16th century:
# In 1563, Sames and neighbouring villages to the south were integrated into the new Earldom of Guiche, created by King Charles IX of France on behalf of the Gramont family. Sames was thus clearly reinstated into the province of Labourd.
# In 1589, Henry of Navarre became King Henry IV of France, ending Lower Navarre's four centuries of detachment from France.
In 1790, when the territorial divisions of France were reorganized by the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, Sames and its neighbours in Labourd and Lower Navarre were placed in the Basses-Pyrénées department, later renamed Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Culture
Since 2006, Sames has been the seat (at Quartier Saint-Jean) of an association dedicated to the promotion of lyric arts. The association organizes performances of comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
s for Sames and surrounding communes.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sames, Pyrenees-Atlantiques
Lower Navarre
Communes of Pyrénées-Atlantiques