Ascarat

Ascarat Azkarate
Commune
Traditional Farmhouse in Ascarat
Coat of arms
Location of Ascarat
Ascarat Show map of France Ascarat Show map of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Coordinates: 43°10′17″N 1°15′14″W / 43.1714°N 1.2539°W / 43.1714; -1.2539
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Arrondissement	Bayonne
Canton	Montagne Basque
Intercommunality	CA Pays Basque
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Philippe Etchenique[1]
Area 1	5.82 km2 (2.25 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]	339
• Density	58/km2 (150/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	64066 /64220
Elevation	120–446 m (394–1,463 ft) (avg. 161 m or 528 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Ascarat (French pronunciation: [askaʁat]; Basque: Azkarate)^[3] is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.

The inhabitants are known as Azkaratear.^[4][5]

Ascarat is located in the former province of Lower Navarre in the Aldudes Valley immediately north-west of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. Access to the commune is by the D918 road from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port which passes through the length of the commune on the eastern side and continues to Louhossoa. The D15 road goes north-west from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port through the southern part of the commune continuing to Irouléguy. Access to the village is by country roads - Garategana from the D15 and Learraa from the D918. There are substantial forests in the commune however about 70% of the land area is farmland.^[6]

The Nive river forms the eastern border of the commune as it flows north to join the Adour at Bayonne. Three streams flow into the Nive in the commune: the Nive d'Arnéguy, the Nive de Béhérobie, the Berroko erreka, and the Pagolako erreka.^[6]

^[7]

The name Ascarat appears in the forms:

• Ascarat (1106^[8]),
• Escarat (13th century^[8]),
• Azcarat (1350^[8]),
• Atzcarat (1366^[8]),
• Azquarat (1413^[8]),
• Axcarat (1513,^[9] Titles of Pamplona^[10]),
• Axcarate (1621,^[9] Martin Biscay^[11]), and
• Sanctus Julianus d'Ascarat (1763,^[9] Collations of the Diocese of Bayonne^[12]).

Jean-Baptiste Orpustan indicated that the name is composed of aitz ("rock") and garate ("high place"), giving "a height of rocks".^[8]

Chubitoa was a hamlet in Ascarat and Anhaux, mentioned in 1863^[13]

Jauréguy was a fief, vassal of the Kingdom of Navarre, cited in the 1863 dictionary^[14] as was Larragoyen.^[15]

The commune name in basque is Azkarate.^[3][5]

The parish was mentioned in 1256 and was "ravaged by soldiers" in 1396.^[16]

In 1391 Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry included the modern communes of Anhaux, Ascarat, Irouléguy, and Lasse.^[17]

Blazon: Quarterly, at 1 Azure, a vine stalk leaved in Argent, fruited in Or; at 2 Argent an eagle rising of Sable on a mount of Vert; at 3 Argent with 2 fesses of Gules; at 4 Azure with a horse gai passant of Or surmounted by two mullets of Argent posed in fesse, a canton sinister of Gules charged with a sword of Argent.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (April 2021)

List of Successive Mayors^[18]

The commune is part of nine inter-communal structures:^[19]

• the Communauté d'agglomération du Pays Basque;
• the SIVOS of Garazi;
• the SIVU Hiruen Artean;
• the AEP association of Anhice;
• the Energy association of Pyrénées-Atlantiques;
• the inter-communal association for sanitation of Ur Garbi;
• the inter-communal association for the management and development of the abattoir at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port;
• the joint association for the Drainage basin of the Nive;
• the association to support Basque culture.

In 2017 the commune had 321 inhabitants.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 334 —     1800 260 −3.51% 1806 279 +1.18% 1821 369 +1.88% 1831 402 +0.86% 1836 441 +1.87% 1841 440 −0.05% 1846 445 +0.23% 1851 403 −1.96% 1856 340 −3.34% 1861 375 +1.98% 1866 354 −1.15% 1872 360 +0.28% 1876 353 −0.49% 1881 350 −0.17% 1886 354 +0.23% 1891 346 −0.46% 1896 412 +3.55%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 338 −3.88% 1906 350 +0.70% 1911 354 +0.23% 1921 321 −0.97% 1926 323 +0.12% 1931 355 +1.91% 1936 353 −0.11% 1946 348 −0.14% 1954 325 −0.85% 1962 274 −2.11% 1968 283 +0.54% 1975 282 −0.05% 1982 294 +0.60% 1990 294 +0.00% 1999 275 −0.74% 2007 284 +0.40% 2012 313 +1.96% 2017 321 +0.51%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Source: EHESS[20] and INSEE[21]

The commune is part of the production zone of the Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) of Irouléguy and also of the AOC zone of Ossau-iraty.

Economic activity is mainly agricultural.

There are several houses and farms in the commune which are registered as historical monuments. These are:

• Uhaldea House (18th century)^[22]
• Harizpea Farm (1587)^[23]
• Chateau de Vergues (or Chateau de Fargas) (18th century)^[24]
• Houses and Farms (17th-19th centuries)^[25]

The Church of Saint-Julien-d'Antioche is of medieval origin was heavily rebuilt in the 18th and 19th century.^[26]

• Pierre Narbaitz, born in 1910 at Ascarat and died in 1984 at Cambo-les-Bains, was a historian, writer, and a basque French academic of the Basque and French languages.

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

• Ascarat on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (in French)
• Azcarat on the 1750 Cassini Map

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ascarat.