Orthez (in Gascon Occitan Ortès ) is a common French, located in the department of the Yrénées-Atlantiques and the area Aquitaine.

The inhabitants are called Orthéziens and Holy-Suzannais (of the name of the old commune attached to Orthez in 1973).

Geography

Hydrography

The commune is crossed by the Gave of Pau and its affluents, the brooks the Laâ (and its tributaries, brooks Ozenx and of the Mills), of Rontrun and Caséloupoup.
Affluents of the Luy de Béarn, the brooks of the Ourseau (11,5 km) and Room No, are also present on the commune.

Localities and hamlets

• Holy-Suzanne, old commune amalgamated with Orthez.
• Argagnon

Communes bordering

• Saint-Bosom-in-Béarn and Bonnut in north
• Baigts-with-Béarn, Rooms-Mongiscard and Lanneplaà in the west
• Ozenx-Montestrucq, Laà-Mondrans and Biron in the south
• Sallespisse, Balansun and Castétis in the east.

Toponymy

The toponym Orthez appears in the forms Ortez and Ortesium (respectively 1193 and 1194, cartulaire of Sauvelade), Orthesium (1220, cartulaire of Orthez), Ortes (1375, contracts of Luntz), Ortais (14th century, Jean Froissart), Feels-Per Ortes (1391, notaries of Navarrenx) and Hortes (1578, titles of the room of the accounts of Pau).

History

One should not confuse the town of Orthez with the Viscount of Orthe which recovered under the old mode the territory of the current canton of Peyrehorade.

The oldest vestiges of the town of Orthez do not go up beyond the 11th century. These are two Romance churches which are; one in the Borough Old (named also formerly Borough of the bridge)   ; the other embedded in the Saint-Pierre church.

Around each one of these churches a group of houses made two small boroughs of them. The first, strengthened, ordered the passage of the gave of Pau which was done, according to the times, by a ford, out of vat or by a bridge. The second, with the hands of a family of merchants, had a commercial vocation safe from his church.

The city is the result of the meeting, around 1260, of these two boroughs with the creation of a municipal council. This association is symbolized on the blazon of the city by the presence of a bridge and keys of Saint-Pierre.

The initial agglomeration was increased new Borough and Saint-Gilles Suburb in the following years. This rapid expansion of the city is explained by the choice of the Viscount Gaston VII of Béarn, in the years 1250, to build a new castle there where it establishes his main home. It is at the same time that it made replace the palisade of wood which defended the old borough by a true rampart and which the Pont-Vieux, true door strengthened over the river, was built.

In 1385, one counted in Orthez 436 fires.

13th at the 15th century, Orthez was the residence of the Viscounts of Béarn.

Although in 1460 this residence was transferred to Pau, more power station, Orthez remains during all the old mode the largest city and most dynamic of Béarn. It remains the place of the market where all the products of the area go intended to be exported towards the port of Bayonne. The city will undergo little destruction apart from two battles in 1569 at the time of the wars of religion.

With 18th and 18th centuries, the economy thrives thanks to the revival of the Atlantique trade. The tradesmen make fortune and of many houses before out of wooden and cob are rebuilt out of stone. The roofs are remade with terra cotta tiles. These are these buildings that one sees still today in the old part of the city.

The city extended little under the old mode. The Moncade Borough, concerned with the castle, remained a long time institutionnellement with the variation of the city because of its military functions. The Starting Borough, located beyond the river, was officially joined together at the city only under the revolution.

The February 27th 1814 saw the battle of Orthez with the victory of the Anglo-Portuguese troops of the Duc of Wellington over the Napoleonean army of Marshal Soult. But this event had only little influence on the city.

It is only starting from 1957 and the discovery of the layer of gas of Lacq that the number of Ortheziens exploded. It passed in fifteen years from 7.200 to 11.000 inhabitants involving the construction of several suburban suburbs and public equipment.

Heraldic

Weapons of the town of Orthez:

“Of azure, with the bridge of four unequal arches surmounted in its medium of a crenelated and covered tower, the sand money whole built, the alongside tower of two gold keys, the web as a chief towards the side. ”

Currency

It is Gaston de Moncade, cut off behind the walls from its castle, which launches to king d' Angleterre these proud words become the currency of Orthez: “Toquoy if gaouses” is “Keys there if you it oses”.

Administration

Intercommunality

The common one belongs to six inter-commune structures:

• Communauté of communes of the canton of Orthez
• arranges public local management
• intercommunity association of defense against the floods of the gave of Pau
• trade union of drinking water Gréchez
• mixed trade-union of the Area of Orthez
• departmental trade union of electrification.

Orthez constitutes a urban Espace , or multipolar urban space , which is, in France and according to the definition of INSEE, a continuous whole of urban surfaces and common known as multipolarized, i.e. of which at least 40% of the population resident active work in one or the other of these urban surfaces.

Demography

Economy

Although the activity is strongly turned towards agriculture (breeding, vine growing), of the workshops of weaving and manufacture of pieces of furniture take part in the economy of the commune.

Culture and inheritance

A table of the 19th century preserved at the town hall represents Gaston de Béarn, wire of Gaston Fébus which will be assassinated by his/her father.

Civil inheritance

• the Batcave house presents an good example of private medieval architecture.
• the hotel of the Moon, halt for the pilgrims of Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle, goes back to the 15th century.
• the house of Jeanne d' Albret, today seat of the tourist bureau and museum of Protestantism inhabitant of Béarn, is in fact in the beginning a rich person remains middle-class 16th century, object of a gift of Adrien-Arnaud de Gachassin (or Gachissan), captain of the militia of Albret husband of Jeanne d' Asprémont, with the king Antoine of Bourbon and Jeanne d' Albret in order to obtain letters of ennoblement.
• Hotel of the Beautiful Hostess
• Castle of Baure
• the castle of Préville, carried out by Jean-Baptiste Ernest Lacombe.
• Pigeon of Cassou

Religious heritage

• the church Saint-Pierre date of the 13th century with the construction of the chorus. Work will be completed only one century later with, meanwhile, a change of style. Among his characteristics, one can quote the absence of collateral and the highest vault of the Béarn. At the 16th century, the Protestant confiscate it. In 1865, the church is restored then increased, and a bell-tower is built above the gate of entry. It shelters a draft of Leon Bonnat for his panel of the the Pantheon of Rome - the Martyrdom of holy Denis - draft which was offered by the Art schools in 1924. Two statues with of wood - one representing Holy Anne, mother of Marie and the other Holy Jacques - also decorate the church.

• Parish church St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
• Parish church Saint Martin's day
• Holy-Suzanne Parish church
• the temple protesting
• Monastery of Orthez, Colettines, Monastery of moniales franciscaines. It is about a monastery of contemplative nuns of spirituality franciscaine.

Military inheritance

• the Moncade tower is built about 1250 by Gaston {{VII}} Moncade at a strategic place which was obviously strengthened since very old times. Gaston Fébus into complete the fortifications and gives him its final form. It is then the seat of a sumptuous court. The tower is saved total destruction about 1840 per decision of the municipality because it is used quite simply as career for the construction of the houses neighborhood.

• the Old Bridge, dating from, spans Gave. It is started with Gaston Moncade at the time when this one made of Orthez the capital of Béarn and transports its court there. In the beginning it has two turns; it is remarkable today by its unequal arches and its strengthened central tower. It resisted the two important attacks that Orthez underwent, in 1569 by the Protestant troops of Montgomery and in 1814 by those of the Duc of Wellington launched behind the Napoleonean troops.

Environmental inheritance

• Lac of Orthez (30 ha)
• Orthez was rewarded for a flower to the Concours for the cities and flowered villages 2006.

Sport

Sports events

Orthez was the starting point on July 25th of the 16th stage of the Tour de France 2007. The course of 218 kilometers connected Orthez to Gourette - Collar of Aubisque.

Clubs and sports equipment

• the Élan Inhabitant of Béarn Pau-Orthez is a professional club French of Basket-ball pertaining to the elite of the championship of France and based with Pau. It was founded in 1931 and evolved/moved in the town of Orthez. The club of Basket-ball was not whereas a section of the general sports club created 23 years before. In fact it was not about a club to the direction where it today is heard, but of a patronage, created by ecclesiastics to allow the young people of the town of Orthez to make sport. The “laic ones” on their active side to the U.S. Orthez.
• the Sporting union Orthez is a club of Rugby to XV French evolving/moving in 2006-2007 in Fédérale 1.
• nautical Orthez Canoe Kayak, club of Canoe-kayak whose certain members evolve/move in 2006-2007 in Main road I.

Equipment

The commune has of three elementary schools, three elementary schools and two colleges (Daniel Argote and Gaston Fébus).
The commune has a school calandreta ( calandreta of Ortès ).

Characters related to the commune

• Gaston {{III}} Febus (April 30th, 1331 - 1391), count de Foix-Béarn.

• Adrien-Arnaud de Gachassin, born in 1497 and deceased in 1569, first lord of the noble Abbey of Orthez of this family, with the title of Viscount, by letters patent of Jeanne d' Albret.
• Pierre Viret (Sphere, 1511-Orthez, 1571) is a reformer Vaud ois and an important figure of the Réforme.
• Jacques Faget de Baure (1755-1817), politician and historian.
• Bernard Dessein, born on March 19th, 1762 in Orthez, is a French soldier.
• Pierre-Chaumont Liadières (1792-1858), politician.
• Pierre-Charles Chesnelong (April 14th 1820 Orthez - July 22nd 1899 Orthez) mayor of Orthez in 1855, appointed of 1865 à1870, senator with life in 1876
• Francis James, (December 2nd, 1868 - November 1st, 1938), is a French poet.
• Pierre Seillant, is a leading French sportsman of basketball (President and directing Élan Inhabitant of Béarn Pau-Orthez)
• Gaston Planté, French physicist, (Orthez 1834 - Bellevue 1889) is the inventor of the electric fencer in 1859.
• Élie Reclus, journalist, ethnologist and anarchistic militant, (Orthez 1827 - Brussels 1904).
• Elisee Recluse, geographer and anarchistic militant, (Orthez 1830 - Thourout 1905).
• Onésime Recluse, geographer, (Orthez 1837 - 1916), inventor of the word francophonie.
• Jean-Louis Curtis (May 22nd, 1917 with Orthez - November 11th, 1995, Albert Laffitte with the civil statue) is a novelist and essay writer French, prize winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1947 for its novel the Forests of the night and elected to the French Academy in 1986.
• François Saint Macary, born on January 7th, 1936 in Orthez, was the archbishop of Rennes of September 1998 in March 2007, Fraud-of-Brittany and Saint-Malo, and metropolitan archbishop of the ecclesiastical Province of Rennes.
• Rene Bénésis is a player of Rugby to XV, born on August 29th, 1944 in Orthez.
• Alain Larrouquis, born on June 15th, 1950 in Orthez, is a player of Basket-ball.
• Corinne Touzet is an actress, director and producing born on December 21st, 1959 in Orthez.
• Jean-Marc Lalanne (born in 1967 in Orthez) is a film writer and critic.

The Spanish poet Nicasio Álvarez Cienfuegos (Madrid, 1764-Orthez, 1809), neo-classic and preromantic author, died exiled has Orthez, where there is his tomb.

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