Laruns

Geography

Located at 35 km of Pau, 120 km of Bayonne and 240 km of Bordeaux and Toulouse, Laruns is the 3rd common Frenchwoman of metropolis by her surface. It occupies 45% of the surface of sound canton and counts 57% of its population.

She is located in the Vallée of Ossau, valley inhabitant of Béarn located at the east of the department, bordering on the Hautes-Pyrénées in the east and Aragon in the south. The Valentine joined there the Gave d' Ossau.

Hydrography

The commune is crossed by the Gave d' Ossau, affluent of the Gave d' Oloron and its affluents:

the brook Arrioutort and its affluent:

the arrèc of Lars

the arrèc of Besse
the Gave de Bious (11.9 km) and its affluents:

the arrèc of Aas
the arrèc of Aule
the brook of Magnabaigt

the brook the Canceigt (10 km)
the brook of Cotcharas and its affluent:

the arrèc of Sesques

the arrèc Dayguebère
the arrèc of Gaziès
the brook of Lurien
the brook of Pombie
the Soussouéou (16.2 km) and its affluents:

the brook of Arrious
the brook of Quèbe

the brook the Valentine (14.3 km)

The brook For-Mourt, affluent of the brook Shakes it (affluent of the Gave d' Aspe) also crosses the commune.

Localities and hamlets

Pon, district of Laruns (Locality)
Gabas
Geteu, a old commune incorporated in Laruns in 1828
Water-Heats, the thermal spa
Gêtre.

Communes bordering

Manages-Bélesten and Aste-Béon in north
Arrens-Marsous (Hautes-Pyrénées), Louvie-Soubiron, Water-Good Béost and in the east
Aydius, Bedous, This-Eygun, Etsaut and Urdos in the west.

Toponymy

The toponym Laruns appears in the forms Larus (1154, titles of Barcelona), Laruntz (1286, titles of Ossau), Saint-Pierre de Larhuns (1612, insinuations of the diocese of Oloron).
It has a Basque origin and means “place where the moors abound”.
The toponym Gabas appears in the forms Gavas (XIIe century, titles of Gabas), Espitau de Gavas (1385, censier of Béarn), Guabas (1440, titles of Ossau), Gabaxs (1536, reformation of Béarn).
The toponym Geteu appears in the forms Yeteu (1385, censier of Béarn), and Géteu (1863, topographic dictionary Basque Béarn-Country).

History

In 1385, Laruns counted 114 fires and Geteu 5. They depended on the Bailliage of Ossau.
Paul Raymond note which the commune counted a vassal laic abbey of the Viscount of Béarn.

Gabas, hamlet dependant on Laruns, is an old commandery and hospital on the road of the Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-to-Compostelle, which borrowed the Vallée of Ossau ( in lo parsan aperat Gabas in vale Ursaliensi , reformation of Béarn)

Administration

Intercommunality

The common one belongs to five inter-commune structures:

SIVOM of the valley of Ossau
SIVU for the construction of the old people's home of Haut-Ossau
trade union of defense of water of believed of the gave
mixed trade-union of tourist Haut-Béarn
trade union of the canton of Laruns.

The common one belongs to the Pays of Oloron and Haut-Béarn.

Demography

The Newspaper of Pierre Casalivetery, notary with Mauléon, counts for years 1460-1481 138,5 fires with Laruns, and 515 for the years 1540-1548, sign of a demography in strong growth.

Economy

The economy of the commune includes/understands several types of activity, agriculture, tourism, hydrotherapy, the hydroelectric production, the sector of the building and public works and the services. One can also mention the forestry development, declining.

Culture and inheritance

Civil inheritance

The commune has a station on the railway line coming from Pau and connected to the Ligne Toulouse-Bayonne.

Religious heritage

The pilgrims on the road of the Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-to-Compostelle, who borrowed the Vallée of Ossau (Col of the Monks) stopped in Gabas (hamlet of the commune) where an old people's home and a vault had created by the Viscount Gaston IV the Crusader in 1102 and placed under the Holy dependence of the Hospital Christine of Somport, located in Aragon at the site of the winter sports resort of Candanchú. Gabas always has this vault of mountain dating from XIIe and XIIIe siècles.
The church of the Assumption-of-the-Happy-Virgin-Marie dates from the beginning of the XVIIe century. She was rebuilt and increased with the XIXe siècle.
The church Saint-Pierre date completion of the XIXe century and was built on the site of an old church of XVe and XVIe siècles.

Environmental inheritance

The Lacs of Arrémoulit are located above the Lac of Artouste in the Vallée of Ossau and the commune of Laruns.
A space museographic is devoted to the Lac of Castet by the commune of Laruns.

Sports events

The commune is located on the way of the 16th stage of the Tour de France 2007 which will take place on July 25th. The course of 218 kilometers will connect Orthez to Gourette - Collar of Aubisque.

Equipment

; Teaching The commune has a public college, the college the Five-Mounts, as well as an elementary school and a nursery school.

; Sport The commune has a swimming pool, a ground of Rugby, a gymnasium and courts of tennis.

Personalities related to the commune

Pierre-Etienne-Louis Eyt, cardinal, archbishop of Bordeaux between 1989 and 2001.
Jacques Clabères, born in Laruns, took part, on August 2nd, 1802, with the one of the first rises of the Pic of the South of Ossau, in company of the count Armand d' Angosse.
Jean-Baptiste Guindey, hussard of Napoleon. He killed the crown prince to Prussia in combat with horse, of a blow of saber. Its statue is on the principal place, vis-a-vis the church.

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