Bilhères

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the French Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal, see Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas .

Bilhères
region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Arrondissement	Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Canton	Oloron-Sainte-Marie-2
Community association	Vallée d'Ossau
Coordinates	43 ° 4 ′  N , 0 ° 27 ′  W Coordinates: 43 ° 4 ′  N , 0 ° 27 ′  W
height	480-1,817 m
surface	17.19 km 2
Residents	160 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	9 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	64260
INSEE code	64128
View of Bilhères

Bilhères is a French municipality with 160 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2016: Aquitaine ). The municipality belongs to the arrondissement of Oloron-Sainte-Marie and the canton of Oloron-Sainte-Marie-2 (until 2015: Canton Arudy ).

The inhabitants are called Bilhérois or Bilhéroises . The name in the Gascognischen language is Vilhèras d'Aussau .

geography

Bilhères is located about 30 km south-east of Oloron-Sainte-Marie above the Vallée d'Ossau in the Béarn .

The highest point is the Pic de l'Ourlène ( 1817  m ) on the southwestern border of the municipality.

The place is surrounded by the neighboring communities:

Oloron-Sainte-Marie	Arudy	Izeste
Escot		Bielle
Sarrance	Bielle

Bilhères is located in the catchment area of ​​the Adour River . The Barescou, a tributary of the Gave d'Aspe, flows in the western part of the municipality.

The following tributaries of the Gave d'Ossau also flow through the municipality:

• the Ruisseau Arrioubeigt with its tributaries
  • Ruisseau Caou Sèque and
  • Ruiseau le Serres as well
• the Arriou Mage.

In addition, the Arriou Tort with its tributaries Ruisseau de la Técouère and Arrec d'Ezau flows through the southern part of the municipality.

history

Before the Gallo-Roman period there was already a settlement of the area, which can be deduced from the megaliths , which are dated to the beginning of the Iron Age .

Bilhères is mentioned in 1154 in the Copial Book of Barcelona under the name Bileles . Further toponyms were subsequently Billere (1286, documents of the archdeaconate of Ossau), Vilheres d'Ossau (1535) and Bilheras (1595), Saint-Joan de Bilhères (1618, incorporated into the diocese of Oloron ). On the map of Cassini 1750, the municipality is marked as Billeres , during the French Revolution in 1793 it was also listed as Billeres , and eight years later as Bilhères during the French Consulate .

In the census of 1385 56 households were counted and it was noted that the village is in the Bailliage of the Archdeaconate of Ossau. The relatively large number shows the growing importance of the community in the Middle Ages .

Population development

After reaching a high of almost 500 inhabitants in the middle of the 19th century, the number fell to around a third of the maximum number counted by the turn of the millennium and has stabilized since then. In particular, the population decreased by more than 37% between 1946 and 1954 alone.

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2009	2017
Residents	219	172	157	164	153	158	151	158	160

From 1962 official figures without residents with a secondary residence
Sources: EHESS / Cassini until 2006, INSEE from 2009

Attractions

Church Saint-Jean-Baptiste

• Church dedicated to John the Baptist . In 1892 the architect of the department, Gustave Lévy, was commissioned to enlarge the existing church. Was the result of the construction project an almost complete new building in 1869. The present nave is three aisles , with pointed arches separated, with four yokes and a bell tower above the entrance. The stained glass windows are the work of 1864 by Mauméjean stained glass from Biarritz , the paintings are the work of the artist Paul Poublan from 1867.
• Chapel of Houndaas. The path to the Bénou plateau leads past this chapel, which was built at the beginning of the 20th century to replace the original structure built towards the end of the 17th century. It is intended to commemorate the overcoming of a cattle or sheep epidemic.
• Cromlechs . At several places in the municipality there are circles of menhirs from the beginning of the Iron Age. Traces of coal from the Late Iron Age have been discovered in one of the cromlechs.

Economy and Infrastructure

Ossau-Iraty

Bilhères is located in the AOC des Ossau-Iraty , a traditionally made semi-hard cheese made from sheep's milk.

Active workplaces by industry on December 31, 2014
total = 19

Sports

Hiking trails at Bilhères

The Col de Marie-Blanque ( 1035  m ) is a pass between the Vallée d'Aspe and the Vallée d'Ossau on the territory of the municipality. He has been included in the Tour de France thirteen times since 1978 .

The extensive mountain landscape is criss-crossed with hiking trails. Bilhères is a stage of the Tour de la Vallée d'Ossau , a circular hiking trail in seven stages with a total length of more than 100 km.

education

Bilhères has a public primary school with 24 pupils in the 2016/2017 school year.

Paul-Jean Toulet

traffic

Bilhères is crossed by Route départementale 294.

Personalities

• Paul-Jean Toulet, born on June 5th, 1867 in Pau , died on September 6th, 1920 in Guéthary , writer and poet. He developed the contrerime and gave the lyric form its name. Paul-Jean Toulet spent his childhood with his uncle in Bilhères.

• Joseph Paroix, shepherd and writer, lived in Bilhères. One of his works is Berger dans les nuages (Shepherds in the clouds).

• Guy Sénac de Monsembernard, historian, born on August 15, 1925 in Bilhères, died on February 23, 2009.

Web links

Commons : Bilhères  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tour de la Vallée d'Ossau (French)
• Bilhères on the website of the local council's tourist office
• Bilhères on the website of the Pyrénées Béarnaises Tourist Office (French)
• Website of the AOP Ossau-Iraty association (French)
• Bilhères on the map by Cassini 1750

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pyrénées-Atlantiques Gentile ( fr ) habitant.fr. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
2. ↑ Bilhères ( fr ) Gasconha.com. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
3. ↑ géoportail Bilhères ( fr ) Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière . Retrieved March 8, 2017.
4. ↑ Ma commune: Bilhères ( fr ) Système d'Information sur l'Eau du Bassin Adour Garonne. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
5. ↑ Bilhères ( fr ) Visites en Aquitaine. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 8, 2017. 
6. ^ Paul Raymond: Dictionnaire topographique du département des Basses-Pyrénées ( fr ) In: Dictionnaire topographique de la France . Imprimerie nationale. P. 32, 1863. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
7. ^ France 1750 ( en ) David Rumsey Map Collection: Cartography Associates. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Notice Communale Bilhères ( fr ) EHESS . Retrieved March 8, 2017.
9. ↑ Populations légales 2014 Commune de Bilhères (64128) ( fr ) INSEE . Retrieved March 8, 2017.
10. ^ Conseil régional d'Aquitaine: Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste ( fr ) Visites en Aquitaine. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 8, 2017. 
11. ↑ Regional Council of Aquitaine: Chapelle de Houndaas ( fr ) Visites en Aquitaine. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 8, 2017. 
12. ↑ Regional Council of Aquitaine: Cromlechs de Bilhères ( fr ) Visites en Aquitaine. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 8, 2017. 
13. ↑ Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité ( fr ) Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité . Archived from the original on February 5, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 8, 2017. 
14. ↑ Caractéristiques des établissements en 2014 Commune de Bilhères (64128) ( fr ) INSEE . Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 8, 2017. 
15. ↑ GRP® Tour de la Vallée d'Ossau (TVO) ( fr ) Comité départemental de la Randonnée pédestre des Pyrénées-Atlantiques (CDRP 64). Retrieved March 8, 2017.
16. ^ École élémentaire ( fr ) National Ministry of Education. Retrieved March 8, 2017.