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Bayonne (Municipality, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France)

Flags of Bayonne - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 6 June 2022

Presentation of Bayonne
Flags of Bayonne

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Presentation of Bayonne

Bayonne (52,749 inhabitants in 2020; 2,168 ha) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Bayonne is located at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers and is the seat of the Communauté d’agglomération Pays Basque. The site on the left bank of the Nive and the Adour was probably occupied before ancient times. In the 3rd century AD, the area was the site of a Roman castrum called Lapurdum, which was a military site, before the city was populated by the Vascones.
In 840 the Vikings appeared before Lapurdum; in 842, viking troops launched a large-scale inland offensive and settled outside the city on the river bank. Lapurdum was an oppidum and they needed a port. Bayonne (from Basque ibai, "river") became a key place on the route between the Adour and Ebro rivers, which served as a kind of link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. This commercial route was the main goal of viking invaders. By this route, they could easily reach Muslim-controlled Tortosa, which was the main marketplace in Europe dealing with slaves.

In 1023, Bayonne was the capital of Labourd. In the 12th century, it extended to the confluence and beyond of the Nive River. At that time the first bridge was built over the Adour. The city came under the domination of
the English in 1152 through the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine: it became militarily and, above all, commercially important thanks to maritime trade. In 1177, Richard the Lion Heart of England took control of it, separating it from the Viscount of Labourd. Bayonne was a key commercial center at the southern end of the English kingdom. By the 13th century, the city was an important port, with a Gascon and Basque population.

In 1451, the French king Charles VII, took the city at the end of the Hundred Years' War and the Adour changed course shortly afterwards, leaving Bayonne without its access to the sea: the river was gradually filled with
silt and had become impassable to ships. As the city developed to the north, its position was weakened compared to earlier times. In htese times, the district of Saint-Esprit developed initially from settlement by Sephardic Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish expulsions dictated by the Alhambra Decree. This community brought skill in chocolate making, and Bayonne gained a reputation for chocolate. The course of the Adour was changed in 1578 by dredging under the direction of Louis de Foix, and the river returned to its former mouth. Bayonne flourished after regaining the maritime trade that it had lost for more than a hundred years. Bayonne endured numerous sieges from Plantagenet times until the end of the First French Empire in 1814. In the 17th century, Vauban built large fortifications and the Citadelle in and around the city. These proved crucial in 1813 and 1814, when Wellington's army besieged the city in the Napoleonic Wars, only taking it when they used a bridge of ships across the Adour to position artillery around the city. It was the last time the city was under siege.

By the mid-19th century, Bayonne had declined somewhat with the centralisation of power to Paris and to the new département capital, non-Basque Pau, after the 1789 French Revolution, and with Wellington's
bombardment. However, rail links with Paris from 1854 and the growing importance of nearby Biarritz as a tourist centre brought industrialisation and development. Spanish Basquessought refuge in Bayonne in the 20th century during Franco's repression, with Bayonne still a centre of Basque nationalism.

In 1951, the Lacq gas field was discovered in the region; its extracted sulphur and associated oil are shipped from the port of Bayonne. During the second half of the 20th century, many housing estates were built, forming
new districts on the periphery. The city developed to form a conurbation with Anglet and Biarritz: this agglomeration became the heart of a vast Basque-Landes urban area. Bayonne is also an important part of the Basque Bayonne-San Sebastián Eurocity and it plays the role of economic capital of the Adour basin. Modern industry—metallurgy and chemicals—have been established to take advantage of procurement opportunities and sea shipments through the harbour. Business services today represent the largest source of employment. Bayonne is also a cultural capital, a city with strong Basque and Gascon influences. The Fêtes de Bayonne are an important traditional event.

Olivier Touzeau, 6 June 2022

Flags of Bayonne

A white flag with the coat of arms can be observed on the city hall: photo (2011), photo 2018).
The coat of arms of Bayonne is blazoned: Gules, a tower turreted of Or, masooned, windowed, and porte of Sable on a sea wavy of Azure, Or and Sable in base and surmounted by a fleur-de-lis Or, between two oaks proper fructed of seven Or and debruised by two lions langued Or confronting.
The arms were officially adopted on August 3, 1919. The tower in the arms symbolises the fortifications in the city.

On the Saint-Esprit bridge, it can be seen together with a bicolore flag, vertically divided red and green: photo (2011), photo (2016), photo (2021).

Olivier Touzeau, 6 June 2022

Former reported flag of Bayonne - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 6 June 2022

The bicolore flag has often been reported as horizontally divided red over green, but I could not find examples of this combination in photographs. French vexillologist Pascal Vagnat quoted on his website [source: emblemes.free.fr] as a source for this combination: Pasch, G., "Drapeaux et pavillons des villes maritimes françaises. III-Ports de la Manche et de l'Atlantique", in: Neptunia, n°65, 1962, p.24.

Olivier Touzeau, 6 June 2022