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Bastide (planned town)Pyrénées-Atlantiques

Bastide de Lestelle (Lestelle-Bétharram)

Lestelle-Bétharram

Dimensions
The square of 200 metres a side divided into nine blocks of 65 metres, with its central square and its streets at right angles; the maison Gervine of 1560, on the corner of the square, with its mullioned window; the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, rebuilt after 1679, with a classified baroque retable; the single-arch bridge of Bétharram of 1687; the 17th-century sanctuary of Notre-Dame, a baroque masterpiece with a neoclassical façade; the calvary and its way of the cross rebuilt from 1841 to 1845.
Period
Bastide founded in 1335; sanctuary burned in 1569, raised again in 1616; church and bridge rebuilt in 1681 and 1687; calvary rebuilt from 1841 to 1845.
What stands there
Bridge of 1687 inscribed as a monument historique in 1925; the church's retable and numerous paintings, statues and objects of the sanctuary classified; chapel of Saint-Michel-Garicoïts inscribed. Bétharram was called the "Holy Land" in the 15th century; more than eighty miracles are said to have been recorded there in the 17th century. Thirty-two hearths in 1385. Member of the Fédération des Bastides d'Aquitaine.

On a terrace overlooking the gave de Pau, seven kilometres south-east of Nay, Lestelle was created in 1335 by Gaston II of Foix-Béarn on the territory of Asson, where a trade route linked Saint-Pé-de-Bigorre to the valley of Ossau and to Spain. The bastide forms a square of 200 metres divided into nine equal blocks, the middle one serving as the square; its inhabitants received enfranchisement, land, grazing franchises and exemption from the toll on the wooden bridge of Gatarram. That bridge, rebuilt in stone in 1687, leads to the sanctuary of Bétharram, "fine branch" in Béarnais: the Virgin is said to have saved a young girl there from drowning by holding out a branch to her, and pilgrims have flocked there since the 15th century. Burned by the Protestants in 1569 and raised again in 1616, the baroque sanctuary, its calvary and the maison Gervine of 1560 make Lestelle-Bétharram an engaging bastide.

Further reading

Getting there : Market town and sanctuary freely accessible. Tourist office of the Plaine de Nay; town hall of Lestelle-Bétharram. The pilgrimage is still much frequented. No market is documented.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Bastide de Lestelle (Lestelle-Bétharram)
Mercereau, Charles (1822-1864). Fonction indéterminée Sinnet, F. Fonction indéte · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Pyrénées-Atlantiques (24).