Labourd · Iparralde

Ainhoa

Around 660 people live in Ainhoa, right on the border with Navarre. Listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France, it is a village laid out as a bastide, lined with 17th-century Labourdin houses.

Ainhoa in 30 seconds

665 inhabitants (2022) spread over 1,619 hectares, 28 km from Bayonne (Baiona) and 15 km from Ustaritz (Uztaritze). The municipality borders Spain (Navarre). It holds the Most Beautiful Villages of France label (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France) — one of four in the French Basque Country (Iparralde), along with Sare (Sara), La Bastide-Clairence and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Donibane Garazi).

A little history

13th century: Premonstratensian monks set up a vicariate in this area of pastures and oak woods, owned by Juan Perez de Baztán, a figure at the court of Navarre. The village was laid out as a bastide, its houses lined up on either side of a wide street; it still has its 17th-century Labourdin houses (maisons labourdines).

13th–14th centuries: as border country, Ainhoa was caught up in the conflicts between England and Navarre. It was only in 1451, under Charles VII, that the village became French again.

During the Revolution, the church was closed for worship and used as a fodder store; parishioners secretly attended the abbey of Urdax, on the other side of the border.

1794: the Committee of Public Safety had some of the inhabitants of the border municipalities, Ainhoa among them, arrested and deported; these municipalities were declared ‘infamous communes’ (communes infâmes).

1813–1814: at the end of the Peninsular War, fighting took place on the banks of the Nivelle.

The village also has a mining and metalworking past, reflected in place names such as Olha, Arrotza and Meha.

What to see

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption

The église Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption was built in the 13th century and has been protected as a historic monument (monument historique) since 1996. The churchyard around it still has discoidal and tabular stelae (gravestones) from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The chapel of Our Lady of Aranzazu (Our Lady of the Hawthorn)

The chapelle Notre-Dame-d’Aranzazu (Notre-Dame-de-l’Aubépine) is perched at an altitude of 389 metres, high above the village.

It has had Stations of the Cross since 1886, a grotto since 1897 and a calvary since 1898.

The Labourdin houses

The 17th-century Labourdin houses are what give the village its identity. The oldest, the Matxitorenea house, predates the 17th century.

The wash house

Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie stopped at the village wash house (lavoir) in 1858.

Local produce

The municipality lies within the Espelette pepper PDO area (AOC piment d’Espelette) and the Ossau-Iraty cheese appellation. Around 500 hectares of forest cover its land.

Notable people linked to Ainhoa

  • Jean-Pierre Duvoisin (1810–1891), Basque writer.
  • Marie-Hyacinthe-Louis Fabre, customs collector and linguist, author of a Dictionnaire français-basque (French–Basque dictionary, 1870), is buried in Ainhoa.

Where to eat

Ithurria (1 Michelin star)

A gourmet hotel-restaurant with a star in the 2026 Michelin Guide, on Place du Fronton. In 1962, Marie-Louise and Émile Ithurria bought the ‘Alaborda’ farmhouse in the heart of Ainhoa — a former staging post on the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St James) — to set up their own establishment. The third generation took over in 2007: Martin in the kitchen, Louis on pastry. There is also a bistro.

Basque pelota

The village fronton (the pelota wall) and the Ur Hegian covered fronton are where Basque pelota is played.

Around Ainhoa

Sources

Ongi etorri Ainhoara — Welcome to Ainhoa.

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