Capbreton

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

Its inhabitants is called Capbretonnais.

Old very active port of fishing (one was going to fish the Morue until Newfoundland), it is currently a marina and a Seaside resort famous just located opposite Hossegor on the Atlantic Ocean where finish the Rivière S of the Bourret and of the Boudigau. It is considered that this modest river is the vestige of the old course of the Adour, which was moved with Bayonne to finish between Anglet and Boucau - Tarnos.

Geography

With broad of Capbreton, the Gouf , or Pit of Capbreton , is a underwater Fjord more than 1000 m of depth and 50 km length, which separates in Capbreton the zone Pyrénéen from the plate from the Landes. This gouf, whose origin was a long time mysterious for the scientists, is the witness of the vast movements of the tectonic plates which moved away the Iberian peninsula from France. Thanks to this " gouf" naturalness, the sailors have an access to the protected port: the Ocean is calmer there by heavy weather.

With the right of this fjord the Estuaire of the Adour formed roads which made until the 14th century of Capbreton an important port of the Atlantique littoral. The lakes of Hossegor and Moïsan are the vestiges.

Capbreton shelters the only marina to oceanic opening of the department of the Landes. It was arranged in the Seventies, within the framework of the installation of the coast Aquitaine.

Name

The name of the commune (before Cape-Breton ) is a reinterpretation (a cacography probably) of Cape Bertou or Cabertou (attested in 1170 and on other sea charts of the 16th century on which appear sometimes Capbreton , sometimes Caberton ).

The origin of the " root; breton" was not elucidated up to now: is necessary it to read course bartou for limit of the bushes or the marshes (?). Let us recall that in Gascon, the writing one decides - or/ũ/. In the same way, in Gascon, the " p" of Capbreton is not marked: the old ones said and say still " cabretoun" and even " cabertoun" ; modernement, " locally is said; cabreton".

Lastly, Capbreton was a wine outlet of the wearing of Bayonne, coplanté of sand vines for a long time: the name even of the type of vine king of the country (a variety of cabernet) bears the name of the city: " cabreton rouge" who slipped under the term of " breton" , major type of vine of the Loire and Gascon origin without any doubt!

Under the French revolution, Capbreton was renamed Cape-Brutus , according to the taste of the time for the heroes of the Roman republic.

In spite of a tough modern legend, the name of Capbreton does not have thus anything to see with the Brittany.

History

It is in second half of the 12th century that the name of Capbreton appears for the first time in the files of Bayonne: the history of the two cities is then closely bound, for better and for worse (the Bayonnes, at the price of fights and ceaseless lawsuits, wanted to make sure the monopoly of the commercial exchanges on Adour and its maritime outlet).

High place of hunting for the whale which attended water of the Bay of Biscay abundantly, Capbretonnais and Basques of the close maritime cities were bold harpooners. Did these intrepid sailors pursue the whale to the shores of the New World, hundred years before the voyages of Christophe Colomb? They were among the first Europeans to attend as of the 16th century full of fish water of Newfoundland and controlled art to preserve and dry cods.

There exists off Newfoundland, the island of theBreton one: does it draw its name from Capbreton? Nothing is less sure but, in this island, the presence of the Gascon sailors is attested as testify some to many names of villages or localities of the island (quote, inter alia, the village of " Gabarrus" who bears the name of one of the most famous families of ship-owners capbretonnais).

At the time of its apogee (S), Capbreton counted between 2.000 and 3.000 inhabitants, drawing his prosperity from remote fishings and especially from the flourishing trade towards Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands of its famous “sand wines”, resulting from the vines planted on the dunes bordering the ultimate course of Adour, Labenne with Messanges, and the products of the surrounding forest (cork, pitch, resin, boards of pine).

Capbreton preserved few testimonys of its old splendor: it was indeed devastated by raids of the Spanish sailors of the time of the many wars which opposed kingdom of France and Spain: some houses with corbelling and half-timberings are still visible. Its old working of Bouret was placed on the driving littoral way with Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle. The Saint Nicolas's Day church was rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century but still preserves a Gothic door as well as a very beautiful piétà polychrome of the 15th century. Its bell-tower, in the shape of high often altered tower, was used as land-mark for the ships. If the traditional ex-votos of the sailors were destroyed with the Revolution, it is necessary to admire placarded on the walls of the porch and the nave the names of many native sailors of Capbreton who often perished well far from their home port!

In 1578, after gigantic work, engineer Louis de Foix diverted Adour with the " Boucau Neuf" , event which involved the progressive but irremediable loss of the mouth of Capbreton and, more in North, of that of the Port of Albret, from now on " Old man boucau" (old mouth in Gascon) then principal maritime outlet of this wandering river which was Adour. This decision, disastrous for Capbreton and Port of Albret, made it possible the Bayonne trade to take again his monopoly, at the price of expensive talks of this new mouth which was a long time, by its bar, famous very dangerous, contrary to the very sure harbor located at range of Capbreton.

The inhabitants of Capbreton never resigned themselves to the loss of their port: if engineers de Vauban recognized the quality of natural shelter of the gouf of Capbreton, the emperor Napoleon III had to be awaited so that work gives again life with the old port. A flushing basin was created since the Hossegor Lake, which, channeled, made it possible to perennialize the natural mouth of Capbreton, but quite modest width from now on compared to that of its past! In first half of the 20th century, an important flotilla sardinière existed in Capbreton.

But it is especially the fashion of the sea bathings and the centers héliomarins which will allow at the end of the 19th century a true resurrection of Capbreton. The refitting of the dams marking the entry of the port then the digging of the basins of the marina, allowed the installation of vast and harmonious tourist complex, being prolonged until Hossegor to do one of the seaside resorts of them headlights of the southern part of the Moors, one of the capitals landaises of surfing and other sliding sports!

Economy

Tourism
Thalassotherapy, Balnéothérapie
the common one produces sand wine resulting from the Vignoble of sands of the ocean.

Administration

Demography

Provisional results of the census of 2005: 7.546; to see card INSEE

Famous characters

Tourist monuments and places

Casino
Pier, symbol of the town of Capbreton
Fishing port
Municipal Cinema Rio: (program: www.cinema-le-rio-capbreton.com)

Events

Festival of the tales: in July
French-speaking Beachcombers (Literature, Poetry, Song S and tales coming from all the Francophonie): at the end of July
Festival of double basses: mid-August
Festival S of the Saint Nicolas (patron saint of Capbreton): at the beginning of December

Culture

Sports

Championships of the world of Surfing

Twinnings

The Pier

The pier is a pier frames some being used to prolong a chamber wall to guide the boats at the entry of a lock or to enable them to moor.

The emperor Napoleon III, at the time of his visit on September 2nd 1858, during a reception, was made give by the municipal council the plans of the future port of Capbreton establish by engineers Descombes and Pairier. After some steps on the establishment of the future project, it decided the realization of it. September 27th, 1858, the municipal council, at his meeting, grants the Engineer Descombes 600 pines for the port.

They then built a Pier of 400 m prolonged later of 50 m and surmounted in 1948 of a Phare and a lantern of a range of 14 miles in 1950. To date, the Pier measures 189 m 60, and is a great walk appreciated by Capbretonnais.

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