Last modified: 2024-10-19 by olivier touzeau
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![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-64-jl.gif)
Flags of Saint-Jean-de-Luz - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 11 June 2022
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Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Basque: Donibane Lohizune; 14,601 inhabitants in 2021; 1,905 ha) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department.
Saint-Jean-de-Luz was originally just a modest town on the dunes, between sea and marshes, at the entrance to the Nivelle estuary, facing the hill of Bordagain. Formerly the property of the canons of Bayonne Cathedral, the community, although it had become autonomous, never had an enclosure; it was therefore not represented as a town before modern times.
In the 15th century, Basque fishermen from the port of Saint-Jean-de-Luz explored the first banks of Newfoundland and cod fishing combined with whaling also increased the prosperity of the commune. From the 16th to the 18th century, the city became a nest of corsairs who fought on behalf of the King of France. The beginning of the 16th century in Labourd was marked by the appearance of the plague. Saint-Jean-de-Luz, often taken and looted by the Spaniards, suffered for a long time from its border position. It suffered in particular, in 1558, a fire which spared only one house - the one where the head of the Iberian contingent who occupied the city resided. It was both to facilitate the mooring of ships and to protect the bay that King Henri IV undertook to build the fort of Socoa (in the municipality of Ciboure).
Saint-Jean-de-Luz had its hour of glory when, at the end of the Treaty of the Pyrenees concluded a few months earlier (November 7, 1659) by Mazarin, Louis XIV came there to marry Marie-Thérèse of Austria, Infanta of Spain, on June 9, 1660. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht abandoning Newfoundland to Great Britain dealt a disastrous blow to Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
At the end of
the century, the whale having disappeared from the Bay of Biscay and
the ocean having broken the bars of Socoa and Sainte-Barbe, which
protected the bay, the port and part of the town were ruined.
Fishermen and seafarers emigrated en masse, the city lost most of its
inhabitants. In one century, the population fell from 13,000 to 2,000
inhabitants. The year 1782 was marked, in particular, by a terrible
storm which destroyed an entire district of the city (“La Barre”) and
submerged the Ursuline convent.
During the Revolution, the town was renamed, like many other Basque
localities. Merged with Ciboure on November 24, 1794, it indeed bore
(from November 21, 1793 to March 20, 1795) the name of Chauvin-Dragon,
after the name of a dragoon of the commune, killed by the Spaniards
while defending a redoubt.
The Basque Country in general and Saint-Jean-de-Luz in particular
suffered enormously from the Revolution and the Empire: the continuous
wars with Spain brought regiments of soldiers with their requisitions,
their looting and the fighting. The British blockade killed all
maritime activity for twenty years. In 1813, Wellington's offensive
spared Saint-Jean-de-Luz and the coastal regions.
On July 19, 1845, the territory of the commune of Saint-Jean-de-Luz
was increased following the reunion of part of the territory of the
former commune of Serres.
In the 19th century, the dykes, often destroyed, were rebuilt in orderto permanently ensure the security of the port and the city. Napoleon
III's travels in the region and then the enthusiasm of good society
for the Basque Coast led to a great tourist boom at this time, with
the arrival of the railway. Following the construction of its three
dykes (Socoa, Artha, and Sainte-Barbe), Saint-Jean-de-Luz was no
longer systematically invaded by water during major storms, as had
often been the case.
Breaking the big waves coming from the ocean, these dikes contributed,
from the beginning of the development of sea bathing, to make
Saint-Jean-de-Luz a holiday resort very popular with families.
At the
beginning of the 20th century, Saint-Jean-de-Luz became a modern city
and partly working class city. The generalization of the steam boiler
initially significantly modified the fishing conditions and shortened
the distances. Many factories were then built to process fish in the
Fargeot district, most of the workforce then comin from Spain and also
from Brittany.
Tourist development was not hindered, Saint-Jean-de-Luz remaining an
elegant and fashionable destination.
Following Marshal Pétain's call for an armistice on the outset of World War II, a coastal fringe of the Basque Country fell in the German occupation area. Before the agreement was enforced, a retreating Polish Army was evacuated from the town in mid June 1940.
After 1945, some of the traditional fishing-based industries of the Fargeot district gradually disappeared, mainly by overfishing and competition from elsewhere. The change strengthened the transformation of the town towards more luxury and tourism industries. In Saint-Jean-de-Luz over 40% of dwellings of the town are second homes.
Olivier Touzeau, 11 June 2022
The coat of arms is blazoned:
Party per fess 1. Azure a vessel rigging Sable and sails Argent on a
sea of the same, debruised by the vessl's hull Sable, 2. Gules a lion
Or crownd with a viscounbt's xorn of the same ; party per pale Azure a
crozier Argent palewise.
The traditional colours of the town are red and black, inherited from the corsairs, and very visible during the town festivals (see for example this article in Sud-Ouest about local celebrations in 2014).
A flag, horizontally divided black over red, can be seen in the municipal campsite (photo from this page).
Olivier Touzeau, 11 June 2022