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Béarn

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For other uses, see Béarn (disambiguation).
Béarn
Flag of Béarn
Flag
Coat of arms of Béarn
Coat of arms
Map showing the Viscounty of Béarn.
Map showing the Viscounty of Béarn.
CountryFrance
Time zoneCET

Béarn (French pronunciation: [be.aʁn]; Gascon: Bearn or Biarn; Basque: Bearno) is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony and Bigorre, it forms in the southwest the current département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64). The capitals of Béarn were Beneharnum (until 841), Morlaàs (starting ca. 1100), Orthez (starting second half of 13th century), then Pau (beginning in the mid 15th century).[1]

Béarn is bordered by Basque provinces Soule and Lower Navarre to the west, by Gascony (Landes and Armagnac) to the north, by Bigorre to the east, and by Spain (Aragon) to the south.

The name Béarn comes from Beneharnum, the capital city of the Venarni people, destroyed by Vikings by 840.

Today, the mainstays of the Béarn area are the petroleum business, the aerospace industry through the helicopter manufacturer Turbomeca, tourism and agriculture (much of which is corn grown for seed). Pau was the birthplace of Elf Aquitaine, which has now become a part of Total petroleum company.

In Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers series, the protagonist d'Artagnan was from Béarn (he mentions having attended his father's funeral there in the second book, Twenty Years After). That d'Artagnan is usually referred to as a Gascon is neither surprising nor incorrect, as Béarn is considered a part of Gascony.

In the eastern part of the province are two small exclaves belonging to Bigorre. They are the result of how early Béarn grew to its traditional boundaries: some old lesser viscounties were added by marriage, and absorbed into Béarn: Oloron to the south/southwest ca. 1050, Montanérès in the east in 1085, and Dax in the west in 1194.[2] When Montanérès was added, five communities or parishes (Villenave-Près-Béarn, Escaunets, Séron, Gardères, and Luquet) were not part of the dowry; they remained, or became, part of Bigorre.[1] However, they were absorbed into the département to which Béarn now belongs, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, rather than following Bigorre into Hautes-Pyrénées.

People from Béarn

See also

References

  1. ^ Bidot-Germa, Grosclaude, Duchon, "Histoire de Béarn" 1986
  2. ^ Bidot-Germa, Grosclaude, Duchon, "Histoire de Béarn" 1986, p. 23

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Béarn.

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