Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

Pyrénées-Atlantiques
region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
prefecture	Pau
Sub-prefecture (s)	Bayonne Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Residents	677,309 (Jan. 1, 2017)
Population density	89 inhabitants per km²
surface	7,642.83 km²
Arrondissements	3
Community associations	10
Cantons	27
Communities	546
President of the Department Council	Jean-Jacques Lasserre
ISO-3166-2 code	FR-64
Location of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine

The Pyrénées-Atlantiques department listen ^{? / I} [ Pirene (z) atlɑtik ] ( Basque Pirinio Atlantikoak , to 1969 bass-Pyrénées ) which is French department with the ordinal number 64. It is located in the southwest of the land in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine and after the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Named ocean .

geography

The department is located in the south of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region on the border with Spain . It borders the Landes department to the north, the Gers department to the northeast and the Hautes-Pyrénées department to the east , both in the Occitania region , the Spanish Autonomous Community of Aragon to the south, the Spanish Autonomous Community of Navarre to the south-west and the West to the Bay of Biscay and the Spanish Basque Country and is itself the French Basque Country .

The department stretches in the south into the mountain range of the Pyrenees , the highest point is the Pic Palas at 2974 m on the border with the Hautes-Pyrénées and Aragon .

See also : List of mountains in the Pyrenees

The most important rivers are the Gave d'Oloron and the Gave de Pau , both of which run as main watercourses from the Pyrenees in a north-westerly direction, merge shortly after the border with the Landes department to form the Gaves Réunis , rather this one on the border of the two departments in the Adour joins. The Adour forms the département border to Bayonne and finally flows into the Atlantic between Tarnos and Anglet . The extreme south of the department is protected as the Pyrenees National Park .

coat of arms

Description: In gevierten shield is in the field the golden one in red Navarrakette , blaugehörnte in gold two red field two bulls with blue bell on as colored collar, the third field is split into gold and blue and even shows a red lion , a long equal colored Holding staff in right paw and on the other hand a golden lily , in the lower right field in red a golden lion.

history

The department was formed during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790 from the historic provinces of Béarn , Labourd , Soule and the part of the Kingdom of Navarre ( Lower Navarre , French Basse-Navarre ) belonging to France . While the Béarn belongs to the historical language area of Gascon , the other three historical territories belong to the language area of Basque and form the French Basque Country . At that time the objection was raised that the merging of areas in which two completely different languages ​​are spoken into one department would not make sense. No further attention was paid to this, however, since only French should be used in an official capacity anyway.

The newly founded department was named Basses-Pyrénées . It was divided into six districts (French district ), the forerunners of the arrondissements . The districts were Mauléon, Oloron, Orthez, Pau, Saint-Palais and Ustaritz. The districts were in turn subdivided into cantons. At that time the department had about 310,000 (?) Inhabitants. The capital was initially Navarrenx , then Pau in 1790, Saint-Palais in 1795, and finally Pau in 1796 .

The arrondissements of Bayonne , Mauléon, Oloron , Orthez and Pau were established on February 17, 1800. On September 10, 1926, the arrondissements of Mauléon (to Bayonne and Oloron) and Orthez (to Oloron and Pau) were dissolved.

From 1960 to 2015 it belonged to the Aquitaine region , which in 2016 became part of the Nouvelle Aquitaine region.

On October 10, 1969, the department received its current name.

In the past decades, national Basque political groups have repeatedly called for the division of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department and the creation of a separate department for the French Basque Country . Before the 1981 elections, the realization of this demand was even one of the election promises of the Socialist Party under François Mitterrand . After the elections, however, this promise was not carried out, since territorial restructuring according to ethnic criteria was seen as a threat to the unity of the republic.

Cities

The most populous communes in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department are:

city	Population (2017)	Arrondissement
Pau	77,130	Pau
Bayonne (Basque Baiona )	51,228	Bayonne
Anglet (Basque Angelu )	38,929
Biarritz (Basque Miarritze )	25,404
Hendaye (Basque Hendaia )	16,484
Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Basque Donibane Lohitzun )	14.093
Billere	12,804	Pau
Lons	13,374
Oloron-Sainte-Marie	10,684	Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Orthez	10,449	Pau

Administrative division

The Pyrénées-Atlantiques department is divided into 3 arrondissements , 27 cantons and 546 communes :

Communes and arrondissements in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

Arrondissement	Cantons	Communities	Residents January 1, 2017	Area km²	Density of population / km²	Code INSEE
Bayonne	12	122	296,558	2,265.70	131	641
Oloron-Sainte-Marie	5	155	72.174	2,828.15	26th	642
Pau	13	269	308,577	2,548.98	121	643
Pyrénées-Atlantiques department	27	546	677,309	7,642.83	89	64

See also:

• List of communes in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department
• List of cantons in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department
• List of associations of municipalities in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

traffic

→ Main article : Rail transport in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

The railway network originally had a length of 750 km. There were many different branch lines and trams. Nowadays only a few stretches are left of this extensive network.

climate

The department has no meteorological station near the coast.

maritime climate data	J	F.	M.	A.	M.	J	J	A.	S.	O	N	D.
Water temperature near the coast	13	12	12	13	15th	19th	20th	21st	21st	18th	16	14th

Web links

Commons : Département Pyrénées-Atlantiques  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pyrénées-Atlantiques (French)
• Prefecture of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques (French)
• Département Pyrénées-Atlantiques 64 on silba.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ le64.fr
2. ↑ Climate data from: Jean-Noël Darde: Plages et côtes de France. Éditions Balland, Paris 1991.

Coordinates: 43 ° 15 ′  N , 0 ° 43 ′  W