Bassussarry

Bassussarry (French pronunciation: [basysaʁi]; Basque: Basusarri) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.^[3]

Bassussarry Basusarri
Commune
Town hall
Coat of arms
Location of Bassussarry
Bassussarry Show map of France Bassussarry Show map of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Coordinates: 43°26′50″N 1°30′38″W
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Arrondissement	Bayonne
Canton	Ustaritz-Vallées de Nive et Nivelle
Intercommunality	CA Pays Basque
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Michel Lahorgue[1]
Area 1	7 km2 (3 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[2]	3,317
• Density	470/km2 (1,200/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	64100 /64200
Elevation	2–85 m (6.6–278.9 ft) (avg. 8 m or 26 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Basusartars.^[4]

Geography

Bassussary is located in the former province of Labourd and within the urban area of Bayonne some 5 km south-east of Biarritz and 4 km south by south-west of Bayonne. Access to the commune is by the D932 road from Anglet in the north which passes through the commune on the eastern side and continues south to Ustaritz. The town is in the west of the commune and can be accessed by the D254 road which branches from the D932 on the northern border of the commune and continues through the town west to join the D810 south-west of Biarritz Airport. The D3 comes from the A63 autoroute Exit  5  (Bayonne-Sud) to the town then south forming the western border of the commune and continuing to Arcangues. South-east of the town is another urban area of Betbeder. Much of the commune is urbanised with some areas of forest and meadows. The eastern part next to the D932 contains an industrial estate.^[5][6]

Two bus services pass through and have stops in the commune operated by Transports 64:

• Service 860 Bayonne to Cambo-les-Bains
• Service 880 Bayonne to Arbonne

The commune lies in the drainage basin of the Adour with the Nive river forming the whole eastern border of the commune as it flows north to join the Adour. The Ruisseau d'Urdains flows from a small lake just south of the commune northwards, forming the north-eastern border of the commune, before joining the Nive in the north-eastern corner. The Ruisseau de Harrieta flows from the south-west of the commune to the north-east joining the Ruisseau d'Urbaine near the D932. The Ruisseau de Pétaboure rises in the north-west of the commune and forms the northern border as it flows east to join the Ruisseau de Harrieta in the commune.^[5][6]

Places and Hamlets

• Axerimendi
• Behikenea
• Betbeder
• Borda Nasa
• Bordaberria
• Castanche
• Dorriotz
• Harrieta
• Juanita
• Juantipi
• Larrebure
• Lataste
• Luberri
• Martinaskoenea
• Moussans
• Oihenart
• Peillé
• Penen
• Portukoborda
• Urdains (château)^[7]
• la Vigne
• Xemeto

^[6]

Toponymy

The commune name in Basque is Basusarri.^[8] Jean-Baptiste Orpustan proposed a structure of baso meaning "forest" and sarri meaning "dense" or "tight" giving the overall meaning of "dense forest".^[9]

The following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune.

Name	Spelling	Date	Source	Page	Origin	Description
Bassussarry	Bila-nave quœ vocatur Bassessarri	1150	Raymond	23	Bayonne	Village
	bila nave que nunc dicitur bassessarri	1170	Orpustan	30
	Bassessarri	1186	Raymond	23	Bayonne
	Bacessari	1256	Raymond	23	Bayonne
	Bassissari	13th century	Raymond	23	Bayonne
	Bassissarri	1265	Orpustan	30
	Sanctus Bartholomeus de Bassussary	1768	Raymond	23	Collations
	Bassussarits	1771	Raymond	23	Collations
	Bassussary	1801	Raymond		Bulletin des Lois
	Bassussarri	1926	Lhande
Urdains	Urdaidz	1255	Raymond	171	Bayonne	Chateau
	Urdainz	1402	Raymond	171	Navarre
	Ourdains	1739	Raymond	171	Register

Sources:

• Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. (in French)^[7]
• Orpustan: Jean-Baptiste Orpustan, New Basque Toponymy^[9]
• Ldh/EHESS/Cassini: Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Bassussarry, EHESS (in French).
• Lhande: Pierre Lhande, Basque-French Dictionary, 1926 (in French)
• Register: Church Register of Bayonne^[10]

Origins:

• Bayonne: Cartulary of Bayonne or Livre d'Or (Book of Gold)^[11]
• Collations: Collations of the Diocese of Bayonne^[12]
• Navarre: Titles of the Kingdom of Navarre^[13]

Bassussarry appears as Baßußarry on the 1750 Cassini Map^[14] and does not appear at all on the 1790 version.^[15]

History

During the Peninsular War on 10 December 1813 Bassussarry was the scene of a battle between General Suchet and the Spanish-English.

Heraldry

Arms of Bassussarry

Blazon: Party per pale, at 1 Gules 2 wood pigeons Argent in pale; at 2 Vert 3 oak leaves Argent 2 and 1; in chief Sable charged with a fess wavy Argent.

Administration

List of Successive Mayors^[16]

From	To	Name
	1820	Pierre Michel Larre
	1850	Charles Larre
1995	2020	Paul Baudry
2020	2026	Michel Lahorgue

Intercommunality

Bassussarry is one of nine inter-communal structures:

• the Communauté d'agglomération du Pays Basque;
• the SIVOM of Arbonne-Arcangues-Bassussarry;
• the energy association of Pyrénées-Atlantiques;
• the inter-communal association for the management of the Txakurrak centre;
• the inter-communal association to support Basque culture;
• the joint association for the management of drinking water Ura;
• the joint association for collective and non-collective sanitation Ura
• the joint association of maritime Nive;
• the joint association of the drainage basin of the Nive.

Bassussarry is the seat of the SIVOM Arbonne-Arcangues-Bassussarry

The commune is part of the Bayonne-San Sebastián Eurocity.

Demography

In 2017 the commune had 3,126 inhabitants.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 263 —     1800 224 −2.27% 1806 276 +3.54% 1821 342 +1.44% 1831 332 −0.30% 1836 382 +2.85% 1841 424 +2.11% 1846 447 +1.06% 1851 411 −1.67% 1856 456 +2.10% 1861 467 +0.48% 1866 486 +0.80% 1872 398 −3.27% 1876 452 +3.23% 1881 401 −2.37% 1886 366 −1.81% 1891 358 −0.44% 1896 384 +1.41%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 420 +1.81% 1906 404 −0.77% 1911 386 −0.91% 1921 331 −1.53% 1926 343 +0.71% 1931 342 −0.06% 1936 342 +0.00% 1946 331 −0.33% 1954 349 +0.66% 1962 350 +0.04% 1968 483 +5.51% 1975 715 +5.76% 1982 890 +3.18% 1990 1,056 +2.16% 1999 1,817 +6.22% 2007 2,391 +3.49% 2012 2,490 +0.81% 2017 3,126 +4.65%
Source: EHESS[17] and INSEE[18]

The War Memorial plaque in the church

Education

The commune has a public primary school.^[19]

Economy

The commune is in the Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) zone of Ossau-iraty

Culture and heritage

The Parish Church of Saint-Barthélemy

The Interior of the Church

Basque Hilarri in the Cemetery

Religious heritage

The Parish Church of Saint-Barthélemy (19th century) is registered as an historical monument.^[20]

Language

According to the Map of the Seven Basque Provinces by Louis Lucien Bonaparte the Basque spoken in Bassussarry is Northern Upper Navarrese dialect.

Notable people linked to the commune

• Dominique Joseph Garat, born in 1749 at Bayonne and died in 1833 at Bassussarry, was a lawyer, journalist, and French philosopher. He was elected to the Académie française in 1803.
• Christophe-Louis Légasse, born in 1859 at Bassussarry and died in 1931 at Périgueux, was a French Catholic Prelate, successively Apostolic prefect in Saint Pierre and Miquelon from 1899 to 1915, Bishop of Oran from 1915 to 1920, and Bishop of Périgueux from 1920 to 1931.
• Christophe Hondelatte, journalist born in 1962 at Bayonne, grew up in Bassussarry.^[21]

See also

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

References

1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020.
2. "Populations de référence 2022" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 19 December 2024.
3. INSEE commune file
4. Inhabitants of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (in French)
5. Bassussarry on Google Maps
6. Bassussarry on the Géoportail from National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (in French)
7. Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, Paul Raymond, Imprimerie nationale, 1863, Digitised from Lyon Public Library 15 June 2011 (in French)
8. Euskaltzaindia - Academy of the Basque language (in French)
9. Jean-Baptiste Orpustan, New Basque Toponymy, Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2006, ISBN 2 86781 396 4, p. 30-31 (in French)
10. Manuscripts from the 18th century - Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (in French)
11. Manuscript from the 14th century in the Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (in French)
12. Manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries in the Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (in French)
13. Titles of the Kingdom of Navarre in the Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (in French)
14. Baßußarry on the 1750 Cassini Map
15. Bassussarry on the 1790 Cassini Map
16. List of Mayors of France (in French)
17. Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Bassussarry, EHESS (in French).
18. Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
19. Schools in Bassussarry (in French)
20. Ministry of Culture, Mérimée IA64000718 Church of Saint Barthélemy (in French)
21. Interview with Christophe Hondelatte by the Journal du Pays basque on 24 January 2009 Archived 28 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine "I, who grew up in Bassussaury..." (in French)

External links