Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques / France

Pau is a commune overlooking the Pyrenees, and capital of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Département in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The city is located in the heart of the former sovereign principality of Béarn, of which it was the capital from 1464. Pau lies on the Gave de Pau, and is located 100 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean and 50 kilometres from Spain. This position gives it a striking panorama across the mountain range of the Pyrenees as well as the hillsides of Jurançon. The appellation Horizons Palois has been created with the aim of protecting the view, in particular from the Boulevard des Pyrénées which extends for 1.8 kilometres from the Château de Pau to the Parc Beaumont. Alphonse de Lamartine said: "Pau has the world's most beautiful view of the earth just as Naples has the most beautiful view of the sea." The site has been occupied since at least the Gallo-Roman era. However the first references to Pau as a settlement only occur in the first half of the 12th century. The town developed from the construction of its castle, likely from the 11th century by the Viscounts of Béarn, to protect the ford which was a strategic point providing access to the Bearn valleys and to Spain. The city takes its name from the stockade which surrounded the original castle. The village built around the castle benefited from its strategic position as well as the protection of the Viscounts of Béarn and grew over the following centuries. Pau became the capital of Béarn in 1464, becoming the political, cultural and economic centre of this small state which continued to defend its independence from the neighbouring French, English and Spanish territories. The town and its castle took on a new dimension, becoming the seat of the Kings of Navarre, after the capture of Pamplona by the Kingdom of Castile in 1512. Pau became a leading political and intellectual centre under the reign of Henry d'Albret and his wife Marguerite. Pau's most distinguished son was Henry of Bourbon, born on 13 December 1553 in his grandparents' castle. He acceded to the throne of France in 1589 under the title of Henry IV. The image of the city has since then been widely associated with that of this monarch, made famous by his willingness to put an end to the seemingly endless Wars of Religion. With the end of Béarnaise independence in 1620, Pau lost its influence but remained at the head of a largely autonomous province. It was home to the Parliament of Navarre and Béarn which wrote its texts in Occitan until the Revolution and its dismantling to create the Department of Basses-Pyrénées . It was during the 18th century that Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte became Marshal of the Empire and King of Sweden, today still the ruling dynasty of Sweden and also of Norway when that country was under the Swedish monarchy. The Belle Époque marked a resurgence for the Béarnaise capital with a massive influx of wealthy foreign tourists , they came to spend the winter to take advantage of the benefits of Pau's climate described by the Scottish physician Alexander Taylor. Pau turned widely with the construction of many villas and mansions to accommodate these wintering rich people, the city also developed all elements of modernity for their comfort: baths, funicular and railway station. It was at this time that Pau became one of the world capitals of the nascent aerospace industry under the influence of the Wright brothers, crowned heads then pressed there to observe the flight of the first flying school in the world. With the decline of tourism during the 20th century, the Pau economy gradually shifted towards the aviation industry and then to that of petrochemicals with the major discovery of the Lacq gas field in 1951. Pau today is a city of about 80,000 inhabitants, the main urban area of Pau and of the Communauté d'agglomération Pau Béarn Pyrénées with 30 neighbouring communes which carry out local tasks together. The Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, founded in 1972, accounts for a large student population. The city plays a leading role for Béarn but also for a wide segment of the Adour area. An administrative capital, it boasts a dense economic fabric including service activities. Pau also plays the role of cultural capital with many events, including sports. Pau's heritage extends over several centuries, its diversity and its quality allowed it to obtain the label of City of Art and History in 2011. The name of its people is Palois in French, and paulin in Occitan. The motto of Pau is in Latin: Urbis palladium et gentis .