Pau (; ; ; ) is a commune overlooking the Pyrenees, the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France.INSEE commune file

The city is located in the heart of the former sovereign principality of Béarn, of which it was the capital from 1464. Pau lies on the Gave de Pau, and is located from the Atlantic Ocean and from Spain. This position gives it a striking panorama across the mountain range of the Pyrenees, especially from its landmark "Boulevard des Pyrénées", as well as the hillsides of Jurançon. According to Alphonse de Lamartine, "Pau has the world's most beautiful view of the earth just as Naples has the most beautiful view of the sea."

The site has been occupied since at least the Gallo-Roman era. However the first references to Pau as a settlement only occur in the first half of the 12th century. The town developed from the construction of its castle, likely from the 11th century by the Viscounts of Béarn, to protect the ford which was a strategic point providing access to the Bearn valleys and to Spain. The city takes its name from the stockade (pau in Béarnese) which surrounded the original castle.

Pau became the capital of Béarn in 1464 and the seat of the Kings of Navarre in 1512 after the capture of Pamplona by the Kingdom of Castile. Pau became a leading political and intellectual centre under the reign of Henry d'Albret. With the end of Béarnaise independence in 1620, Pau lost its influence but remained at the head of a largely autonomous province. It was home to the Parliament of Navarre and Béarn during the Revolution, when it was dismantled to create the Department of Basses-Pyrénées. The Belle Époque marked a resurgence for the Béarnaise capital with a massive influx of wealthy foreign tourists, who came to spend the winter to take advantage of the benefits of Pau's climate. It was at this time that Pau became one of the world capitals of the nascent aerospace industry under the influence of the Wright brothers.

With the decline of tourism during the 20th century, Pau's economy gradually shifted towards the aviation industry and then to petrochemicals with the discovery of the Lacq gas field in 1951. The Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, founded in 1972, accounts for a large student population. The city plays a leading role for Béarn but also for a wide segment of the Adour area. Pau's heritage extends over several centuries, its diversity and its quality allowed it to obtain the label of City of Art and History in 2011.

The name of its people is Palois in French, and paulin in Occitan. The motto of Pau is in Latin: Urbis palladium et gentis ("protective of the city and its people").

Geography

Location

Pau is from the Atlantic Ocean and from the border with Spain on the Pyrenees. The frontier is crossed by the col du Somport () and the col du Pourtalet (). Access to the crossings partly accounts for Pau's strategic importance.

Pau is located west of Toulouse, from Tarbes and Lourdes, from Oloron. The conglomeration of Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz is at , Bordeaux .

Communal boundaries To the north: Buros, Montardon and Morlaàs To the east: Bizanos and Idron To the south: Gelos and Jurançon To the west: Lons and Billère

Hydrography

The city, located at an average altitude of , is crossed by the Gave de Pau, where a ford gave passage to the Pyrenees. Gave is the name given to a torrent in the Pyrenees. The Gave de Pau, which becomes a torrent when mountain snow melts, takes its source in the Cirque de Gavarnie and is the main tributary of the Adour, into which it empties after . The crossing was used for pasturage for sheep in the high meadows. The old route is now a hiking path, GR 65, that runs south to the border.

The lands of the commune are also watered by the Luy de Béarn, a tributary the Luy, and by its tributaries, the Aïgue Longue and the Uzan, as well as the Soust, the Herrère, the Ousse and the Ousse des Bois, tributaries of the Gave de Pau. The Aygue Longue is in turn joined the territory of Pau by the Bruscos and the Lata streams, just as the Ousse is joined by the Merdé stream. The Lau Creek that feeds the Canal du Moulin, meanwhile is also present in the municipality.

Climate Pau features wet mild winters, with warm, mild summers that are drier. Its geographical location, not far from the Pyrenees, gives the city a contrasting, warm oceanic climate. Temperatures colder than are rare and those below are exceptional. Temperatures reached lows of in February 1956 and in January 1985. Snow falls about 3 days per year ( in 1987), from November to March.

In summer, the maximum temperatures are of the order of , temperatures above are often reached during summer heat waves. During some days of winter, the foehn, a warm wind, can raise the temperature over . As soon as the wind stops, snow can fall.

Rainfall is high, of the order of per year (compared to in Paris, in Bordeaux, and in Toulouse). Sunshine averages around 1850 hours per year, or a little less than its neighbour of the Hautes-Pyrénées, Tarbes, which averages 1940 hours of sunshine per year. Fog is infrequent and does not persist much beyond noon. The lack of wind especially characterizes the climate of the Pau region. Strong winds are very rare, in general, winds are very low or zero.

This climate has helped Pau to become, at the end of the 19th century, a winter resort spot popular with the English, Russian and Brazilian bourgeoisie. In 1842 a British doctor, Alexander Taylor, attributed healing 'sedative' virtues to the Pau climate.

This mild and rather wet climate, is also an enhancement to the gardens, parks and public spaces of the city, and for plants from more exotic regions such as Chinese windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), originating in the Chinese mountains, but also for giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and laurel magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) of American origin.

History

Toponymy

The origin of the name is uncertain. One tradition suggests it is a derivation of pal (fr. pieu), from the palisade around the original château. Another is that the name refers to a ford across the river administered by the church, the pious. According to Michel GrosclaudeMichel Grosclaude, Dictionnaire toponymique des communes du Béarn, 2006, pg. 304 and other onomasticians, more recent research suggests the pre-Indo-European root for a rockface was *pal or *bal, and that the name refers to Pau's position at the foot of the mountains. The palisade or pal, from the Latin palum, also has the same ancient basis but it is not under this meaning that formed the name of Pau, this can be compared to the Col de Pau in the Aspe Valley (, Lescun) which has nothing to do with the city. Its name in the Béarnese dialect is Pau.

The name of the town was recorded in the 12th century. The inhabitants of the city are known as paulins in Occitan, and palois in French. Their motto is Urbis palladium et gentis.

Origins Before the 10th century, there are no traces to date of occupation of the site on which the city is now built. The city was built on a site with very special qualities. The Gave de Pau, which descends from the Pyrenees, was a river which was fairly difficult to cross, and for a distance of approximately , only three fords existed: from Nay to the east, from Orthez to the west and that of Pau, strategically located between the two. The northern extremity of a plateau, formed to a point, overlooks this ford of almost . In summary, it is an ideal natural location to control the passage and the arrivals from the Pyrenees, and a small monitoring station was built around the year 1000, a fort surrounded by a simple palisade.

The site was fortified in the 11th centuryHistoire de Pau, pp. 11–15 to control the ford across the Gave de Pau. It was built on the north bank, equidistant from Lescar, seat of the bishops, and from Morlaàs.

Until the 12th century, this fort was consolidated and some houses were combined there, together, in a small hamlet. The lords of Béarn then granted the status of viguerie (a small administrative district in the Middle Ages) to this new village which continued to expand gently. In Bearnese, the palisade was called Paü. Historians agree to this being the origin of the name of the city.

In the 13th century, new recognition of the importance and the expansion of Pau, which had become the town of Castelnau, with a bailli appointed by the viscounts of Béarn.

Gaston Fébus (descendant of the counts of Foix and one of the first iconic figures of Béarn), who was very attached to the independence of his small country. He began his major work to reinforce the strongholds of Béarn, including the Château of Pau where he finally settled.

Pau was made the capital of Béarn in 1464, instead of Orthez. During the early 16th century, the Château de Pau became the residence of the Kings of Navarre, who were also viscounts of Béarn.

Pau is the only city in Europe in which two founders of royal dynasties were born: Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, born in 1553, and Charles XIV John of the Swedish House of Bernadotte, born in 1763.

History

Middle Ages Pau was a castelnau founded at an unknown date, in the second half of the 11th or the very beginning of the 12th century, to control a fording of the Gave de Pau which was used for the passage of the shepherds in transhumance between the mountains of Ossau and pasture of the plain of the Pont-Long. A castle was built, overlooking the north bank, at equal distance from Lescar, seat of the bishops, and from Morlaàs, capital of the Viscounts of Béarn.

In 1188, Gaston VI assembled his there, predecessor of the conseil souverain and roughly equivalent to the House of Lords. Gaston VII added a third tower in the 13th century. Gaston Fébus (Gaston III of Foix and Gaston X of Béarn) added a brick donjon (keep), known as la tour Billère [the Tower of Billère].

16th–18th century

In 1464, Gaston IV of Foix-Béarn, after he married the Infanta Eleanor of Aragon, transferred his Court of Orthez to Pau. Pau thus became the fourth historic capital of Béarn, after Lescar, Morlaàs and Orthez. The city had a municipal charter; fairs took place, like the Béarn states. He transformed the curtain walls of his castle home.

In 1512, it became the capital of the Kings of Navarre, who were refugees north of the Pyrenees, after the capture of Pamplona by the Spaniards. In 1520, it had a sovereign council and a chamber of accounts.

In 1527, Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre and sovereign viscountcy of Béarn, married Marguerite of Angoulême, sister of Francis I of France: She transformed the château in the Renaissance style and created its gardens.

In 1553, his daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, gave birth to Henry III of Navarre by singing a song of Béarn to the Virgin Mary, so that the future Henry IV was "neither fearful nor balked." She had crossed into France to ensure her son would be born there. The baby's lips were moistened with the local Jurançon wine and rubbed with garlic shortly after birth. When Henry IV left Pau to become King of France, he remarked to local notables that he was not giving Béarn to France, but giving France to Béarn.

The troops of Charles IX took the city, but d'Albret took over in 1569. Catherine of Bourbon, sister of Henri IV, governed Béarn in his place.

In 1619, Pau revolted. Louis XIII occupied it and, after receiving the submission of the fortified town of Navarrenx, pronounced the attachment of Béarn and Navarre to France by the edict of 20 October 1620. It thus transformed the sovereign Council of Béarn in the Parliament of Navarre, joining the future courses of Pau and Saint-Palais.

Pau had a new enclosure in 1649, and then a university in 1722.

King Charles XIV of Sweden, the first royal Bernadotte, was born in Pau in the 18th century.