Things to see in Bayonne

Bayonne is at the confluence of the Nive and Adour, where the Landes meet the French Basque Country in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Its sheltered port made the city prosperous and strategically important, and Bayonne endured fourteen sieges over its history. The surviving cityscape includes fortifications, religious buildings and collections devoted to Basque culture. Arcaded streets also recall Bayonne’s chocolate-making tradition.

The cathedral and old streets

Sainte-Marie Cathedral was built between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries in the Gothic style. It contains the shrine of Saint Léon, Bayonne’s ninth-century bishop, and is crowned by two spires more than 80 metres high. Neoclassical paintings attributed to Claude Joseph Vernet decorate the choir. Victor Hugo also wrote about the cathedral in Alpes et Pyrénées.

The adjoining cloister is flamboyant Gothic and long functioned as a meeting place as well as part of the cathedral precinct. During Boeswillwald’s nineteenth-century restoration, the gallery beside the cathedral disappeared. Changes associated with a parish chapel also concealed the only church portal in the complex that had survived the French Revolution.

Rue du Port-Neuf was created in the sixteenth century over the site of a canal. Its houses were built on piles and present arcades at street level, with shutters traditionally painted blue, red, brown or green. Terraces and artisans occupied the arcades, including the Cazenave chocolatier associated with Bayonne’s reputation for chocolate.

Basque heritage and a fortified city

On Quai des Corsaires, the Musée Basque brings ethnographic material together with records of Basque history. The museum has more than twenty rooms and over two thousand objects. Agricultural and shepherding tools, traditional art, paintings and games document everyday life, while other displays trace Basque identity over time.

Bayonne’s strategic position is clearest around its defences. The Romans had already fortified the settlement before Vauban improved the existing walls. His work also included the Château Vieux, Château Neuf and the Citadel. The surviving ramparts are concentrated around Petit Bayonne and Grand Bayonne, close to the meeting of the two rivers.

The city’s arena belongs to a later phase of its history. First built in wood at the end of the nineteenth century, it was destroyed by deliberate fire in 1919 and subsequently rebuilt in concrete. The venue has been associated with concerts, performances and bullfighting, rather than with the older military role of the surrounding districts.

Gardens and the River Nive

Bayonne’s botanical garden occupies part of Vauban’s bastions above the city. Municipal workers created it in the late 1980s using recovered materials. The design combines Basque and Japanese references across several planted areas, with Strelitzia, azaleas and a bamboo collection.

Parc de Caradoc developed around a nineteenth-century residence bought by the English diplomat Lord Caradoc and later acquired by the municipality. Its established planting includes cedars, lime trees, sequoias, magnolias and Japanese maples. One specimen is known as the Caradoc magnolia.

The banks of the Nive offer another view of the city’s geography. A former towpath follows the flat riverside in the direction of Ustaritz. Rowers from Aviron Bayonnais also use the river, linking the historic working waterway with Bayonne’s sporting life.