Mauléon-Licharre

Mauléon- Licharre (Basque: Maule Lextarre ) is a commune with 3217 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the department of Pyrénées- Atlantiques in the Basque part of the Aquitaine region. The two villages have united only in 1841 to a municipality.

Location

The double municipality Mauléon- Licharre is located on the season, a tributary of the Gave d' Oloron, about 228 km ( driving distance ) south of Bordeaux and about 90 kilometers southeast of Bayonne. The nearest major town is Oloron -Sainte -Marie ( about 31 kilometers east ).

Demographics

Economy

As almost everywhere in the Basque Country for centuries played the field and grazing the dominant role in people's lives. The soils are fertile and its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees in the south falls sufficient rainfall. Previously, the Basques lived according to the principle of self-sufficiency, that is, the income of the fields and livestock were consumed within the family. In the region of several cheeses are made - the most popular being: the Ossau Iraty, a cheese made from sheep's milk and the Etorki, a hard cheese made ​​from sheep's milk.

In the 19th and 20th centuries was added a little industry, which was based on the traditional craft skills of the population - so Mauléon- Licharre has become the center of the French espadrille production.

History

About three kilometers south of Mauléon archaeologists have located about 200 meters above the village Libarrenx prehistoric fortress height Gastelugain, whose age is estimated at about 4000 years discovered. The existence of a similar facility on the castle hill of Mauléon is suspected.

Since the Basque language was set down in writing only since the 16th century, is known about the early and medieval history of the whole area of ​​land as well as individual sites, very little - only a few places and persons name from an earlier period have survived. The Silviet, the traditional gathering of men of the Pays de Soule (Basque: Xiberoa or Ziberua ), gathered in the 17th and early 18th century in the forest of Libarrenx.

Attractions

• Château de Mauléon: The old castle ( château vieux ) of Mauléon was built on a hill, had been on the back to the 11th century, a kind of moth wooden palisades. In the 13th and 14th century was the place at the instigation of the English crown, which claimed the title of viscount ( vicomte ) in the field of Soule, crowned with a stone fortress. In the period of the Hundred Years War between England and France, the area changed hands several times the ruler until it was conquered in 1449 by Gaston IV, Count of Foix, final for the French crown. In 1642 it was on the orders of Louis XIII. and his first minister Richelieu destroyed, but a few years later ( 1648) rebuilt using the old foundations in parts. However, a strategic military importance had not the castle; It was abandoned and only used again in the time of the French Revolution as a prison.

• Château de Maytie or Château d' Andurain: The Renaissance building with its typical for the time windows with cross, was built in 1598 by Arnaud de Maytie, who had been appointed by Henry IV to the bishop of Oloron. It originally consisted of a rectangular core structure with four - also rectangular - corner towers; during the Matalas Uprising (1661 ), a tower of the castle was destroyed and never rebuilt. The towering roof of the core building is higher than the actual building; Attic window indicate that parts of the attic was also used for residential purposes ( servants ). The property is now considered still the descendants of the original owner's family; in the months of July to September, can be visited.
• The Town Hall (Hôtel de Ville) is a - built for Philibert de Gramont ( 1621-1707 ) - palace from the 17th century. He was acquired in 1777 from the stands of the Soule. In the revolutionary period and thereafter ( until 1926 ) it was used as a sub-prefecture of Mauléon; since 1980 it serves the small town as a town hall.

• La Maison de la Fée (Basque: Laminar Etxea ), 8 rue du Fort, is perhaps the oldest house of Mauléon. About the wide mounted double door, which was intended both for people and for the cattle, it bears a year, sometimes as 1485, sometimes as 1785 read - a dendrochronological investigation has not yet been made. The life of people played almost exclusively in the - from the upper floor, the ' heated ' a little by the rising heat from the barn was - slightly projecting and on a wooden beamed ceiling resting.
• La maison de Bela ou manoir de Bela is a house in the upper town of Mauléon with a built in its present building late medieval round tower. It belonged to the tax collector Gérard de Béla.
• Chapelle St- Jean -de Berraute: The existence of a chapel of St John is already in use for the year 1220; Formerly it was probably the chapel of a Commandery of this order, who cared especially for the safety and the care of sick or even dying pilgrims. Mauléon was on a Santiago pilgrim, who continued from Oloron about L' Hôpital- Saint- Blaise to Ostabat and Saint -Jean -Pied -de-Port. Later, the church was converted into a parish church of the town. The leader of the revolt of Matala, pastor of Moncayolle is buried here.
• Église Notre- Dame de la Haute -Ville: The Church of the Upper Town was built in the 14th century, but time and again destroyed. The present church dates mainly from the 17th century - its highly visible Clocher provides Trinitaire him on a par with other churches in the Pays de La Soule.