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Commune of Hendaye |
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| Location | |
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| Administration | |
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| Country | France |
| Region | Aquitaine |
| Department | Pyrénées-Atlantiques |
| Arrondissement | Bayonne |
| Canton | Hendaye (chief town) |
| Mayor | José-Louis Écénarro (2001-2008) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 0 m–108 m (avg. 25 m) |
| Land area¹ | 8 km² |
| Population² (1999) |
12,596 |
| - Density | 1,584/km² (1999) |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 64260/ 64700 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
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Hendaye (Basque Hendaia) is the most southwesterly town in France. It is a commune of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département, on the Atlantic coast, the "Côte Basque", on the right bank of the Bidassoa that marks the border with Irún, Spain.
A long sand spit at the river's mouth has made the town a popular seaside tourist resort in the traditional province, Lapurdi (Labourd), of the French Basque Country.
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History
On the fortified Île aux Faisans ("Pheasant Isle") in the river, the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659, ending decades of intermittent war between France and Spain. Authority over the Île changes between France and Spain every six months.
In 1940, Ramón Serrano Súñer, Francisco Franco, Adolf Hitler and Joachim von Ribbentrop met in the Hendaye railway station (then in German-occupied France) to discuss Spain's participation in World War II as part of the Axis. Franco, uneasy about committing his nation to another conflict so soon after the Spanish Civil War, was not convinced, and Hitler decided not to force the issue. Spain was officially neutral during the following five years of the war, though very much a pro-Axis state.
Sights
The town square, where there is a weekly open-air market on Wednesdays, is the location of the famous 17th century "Great Cross of Hendaye", a stone cross carved with alchemical symbols that occultists find to contain encrypted information on a future global catastrophe. The church of Saint-Vincent was built in 1598, and largely reconstructed over the centuries following fires and bombardments. Its most recent transformation was finished in 1968. The 13th-century crucifix is the principal treasure.
The seafront Château of Antoine d'Abbadie, built by the architect and theorist Eugène Viollet-le-Duc is a monument of the Gothic Revival.
Transportation
The town is an important railway junction, as Spain's mainline trains use a broader gauge than continental Europe.
Miscellaneous
- Hendaye is twinned with Peebles, in the Scottish Borders
- French author Pierre Loti lived here
- It is the western end of the GR 10 long distance footpath
- It marks the beginning (or end) of the Raid Pyreneen long distance cycle challenge
- Hendaye was the native town of Martin Guerre, the man at the center of a famous sixteenth-century case of imposture
See also
External links
- Official website (in French)
- HENDAIA in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia (Euskomedia Fundazioa) (in Spanish)
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