Horsarrieu

Horsarrieu is a common French, located in the department of the Landes and the area Aquitaine.

Geography

Horsarrieu is located in Chalosse in edge of the secondary road 933, halfway of Mount-with-Marsan and Orthez, with 3 kilometers of the chief town Hagetmau.

Horsarrieu has a surface of 1090 hectares and a population in progression to reach to date nearly 700 inhabitants. The villages bordering are:

Hagetmau, Doazit, Audignon, Dumes and Holy-Dove.

Etymology

Several etymologies were proposed for the name of Horsarrieu (in Gascon Horsarriu, pronounced: houssarriw ).

"except arriou" (or fors-arrious) " means; above or apart from the ruisseaux" corresponds well to the situation of the village built on a headland surrounded by several small brooks

"fortarrious" mean " place rich in ruisseaux" and actually, the sources and small brooks are very numerous in Horsarrieu since one counts a good score of it.

"horcs arriu" mean " junction of two courses of eau".

Presentation

The population, traditionally agricultural, knew the rural migration and the departure of its graduates towards qualified jobs downtown. The village changed thanks to the establishment of artisanal companies, large surfaces and a program of embellishment, including the installation of the covered arenas and hall of the sports.

History

The history of Horsarrieu is lost in the mists of time and one does not know exactly the beginning of it. The common one knew during the centuries the various invasions, wars and torments of the History. With the Middle Ages, in the Moors of Gascogne and in Chalosse, the need for the inhabitants of the campaigns for defending oneself in a country become the theater of continual wars justified the construction of military constructions on the rivers and at the top of the hills. The country houses of form linear, square, or rectangular, which were built in these regions by the officers of the kings d' Angleterre show the same characteristics as those built by the French authority. They were built from nothing on a generally uniform preconceived level and during the time a hundred years (1250 - 1350).

Horsarrieu was built like many others country houses on a headland (Tuc in Gascon), in straight line, with only one street, an enclosure provided for any rampart with a palisade to protect the gardens which were behind the houses which skirted the street. With an end of the main street of the village the house " Péhosse" (feet of the ditch) and the pond which still existed a few years ago probably points out the drawbridge which was there while with the other end the house " Pourtaou" seem to indicate the gate which kept the entry at the top of the coast. During the English occupation, forty country houses were built in the Moors with approval king d' Angleterre, for example Pimbo, Cazères, Geaune, Grenade and Bonnegarde. We can think that it is at that time, and with the approval of king d' Angleterre, that the castle and the borough of Horsarrieu were built.

Pilgrimage of Compostelle

The borough, stage on the way limousine of the way of Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle, comprised in the beginning on the road of Hagetmau a commandery (convent containing a hospital for the pilgrims and the poor) and a hospital. It was a lodging of stage of the pilgrims of Saint-Jacques-to-Compostelle. It was at the edge of the " Way of Espitaou" , with the entry of what were formerly the commandery and the hospital that was famous Calvaire Monolith of Horsarrieu. This enigmatic cross of eighty-five centimetres in height appearing a Christ primitive is regarded as the oldest martyrdom of the Moors. It was moved of a hundred meters towards Horsarrieu at the time of the regrouping of 1973.

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