Bidasoa

Fuenterrabia (Basque: Hondarribia; Spanish: Fuenterrabía; French: Fontarrabie) is a town situated on the west shore of Bidasoa river's mouth, in Gipuzkoa, in Basque Country, Spain. The border town is situated on a little promontory facing Hendaye (France) over the Txingudi bay. A service boat makes the trip between the two cities. The town holds an ancient old quarter with walls and a castle. In addition, Fuenterrabia features a beach across the Bidasoa from the touristy housing estate Sokoburu in Hendaye, alongside a mountain called Jaizkibel providing a hilly backdrop to the town. A road leads north-east from the beach area to the Cape Higuer, located in this municipality. The town harbours the San Sebastian Airport, which serves domestic flights. The population as of 2005 is 15,700 inhabitants.

The siege of Hondarribia of 1638 took place in June – September 1638, between Spain and France during the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659). The French army commanded by Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, Bernard de La Valette, Duke d'Épernon and Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis composed of 27,000 men and several warships besieged the city for two months, firing 16,000 shells into the walled city, leaving only 300 survivors, most of them women and children. The city was virtually destroyed, but nevertheless did not surrender. On 7 September, the Spanish army led by Juan Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera, 9th Admiral of Castile, relieved the city and defeated the French forces. The raising of the siege is celebrated annually on 8 September in a parade, known as Alarde. After the French disaster of Fuenterrabía (Hondarribia), Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis attempted to blame the defeat on Bernard de La Valette, Duke d'Épernon, who had refused to lead the attack, believing that it would fail. For the successful resistance, the city received the title of «Muy noble, muy leal, muy valerosa y muy siempre fiel».

The siege of Fuenterrabía took place in 1523 when the Franco-Navarrese army had taken it in a new incursion after the failure of the third attempt to reconquer the Kingdom of Navarre, which had been occupied since 1512 by troops from the unified Crown of Castile and Crown of Aragon, with Navarrese support. There were Navarrese on both sides. The Fuenterrabía of the 16th century also included most of the municipal term of the current city of Irun, the municipality of Lezo, and parts of Hendaye, Urruña (Behovia neighborhood) and Pasajes (Pasajes de San Juan). The town and fortress were located on a hill surrounded by thick walls, mountains and the sea at the mouth of the Bidasoa River.Its border situation and its geographic characteristics made both Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Francis I of France covet its possession. For this reason, both nations appointed commissioners to elucidate the problems of water limits in the conflicts of the towns of Fuenterrabía and Hendaye, something that until then had been solved by agreement. In 1512, the first counteroffensive was carried out to recover the kingdom of Navarre after its invasion by the Crowns of Castile and Aragon, in which Marshal Pedro de Navarre with 2000 men within the contingent of Lautrec and Borbón were stopped by Luis I of the Cave, II Lord of Solera. To prevent another invasion, the fortification proceeded, ordering in November of that year the construction of a castle in Behovia, which reinforced the effectiveness of the Fuenterrabía fort. As of 1517, the territorial rights of the area were defined by law by the two kingdoms, that of Spain and that of France, leaving the natives divided.

The Bay of Txingudi (Basque: Txingudiko badia, French: Baie de Chingoudy, Spanish: Bahía de Chingudi) is a bay in the right or French bank of the estuary of the Bidasoa river, near Hendaye in the département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in south-west France. It faces the town of Hondarribia and the airport of San Sebastián in the Gipuzkoa province of the Basque Country, in north-eastern Spain. The border between the two countries passes through the Bidasoa estuary. It is an important area for bird-watching.The name may, by extension, be applied to the whole body of water between the French and Spanish sides. The coastal marshes on the Spanish side have been designated as a protected Ramsar site since 2002.

The Cape Higuer (Basque: Higer lurmuturra) is a cape on the Bay of Biscay standing out at the end of the mountain range Jaizkibel by the France–Spain border in the municipality of Hondarribia (4 km (2.5 mi) away from the town centre). The site is home to a lighthouse, besides holding a camp-site and a couple of inns. It is sometimes considered the westernmost land strip of the Pyrenees, with the trek trail GR 11 setting out at this point. Ancient Roman vestiges have been found 17 m (56 ft) deep in the water at a natural berth, next to the castle San Telmo. A wreck lies on the bed of the water, arguably a Roman one, with mineral load and remnants of timber alongside ceramics items in it. This is the third Roman archaeological site uncovered in the area of the Lower Bidasoa, which bears witness to the ancient Basque Roman town Oiasso.

The Cape Higuer Lighthouse (Spanish: Faro de Higuer) is a lighthouse at the Cabo Higuer on the Spanish Atlantic coast in the Bay of Biscay. It lies in the municipality of Hondarribia, west of the mouth of the Bidasoa, which forms the border with France. It is the easternmost lighthouse on the Spanish Atlantic coast.

Hendaye station (French: Gare d'Hendaye) is a railway station in Hendaye, France, on the Bordeaux-Irun and Madrid-Hendaye lines. The station is served by TGV high speed trains, Intercités de nuit night trains, Intercités long distance and TER local services operated by the SNCF, Trenhotel and Arco services operated by RENFE, and EuskoTren services. The Euskotren 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge services operate from a station on the forecourt of the SNCF station, for which separate ticketing is required. The station is a border railway station where all trains have to stop, as those coming from/going into Spain have to change gauge from 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge to 1,668 mm (5 ft 5+21⁄32 in) Iberian gauge. The electric supply also changes here from 1500 V DC (overhead France) to 3000 V DC (overhead Spain). Between the stations of Hendaye and Irun, both track gauges run together.

The Great Cross of Hendaye (French: Croix d'Hendaye) is a stone cross located on the town square of Hendaye, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in southwestern France. The cross includes references to apocalyptic beliefs about Christianity, Rosicrucianism, and alchemy. Many, including devotees of Nostradamus, the Bible Code, and especially the 2012 phenomenon, believed that a great comet would pass by, or crash into the earth in the year 2012, and interpreted the Cross of Hendaye as another reminder that 2012 would be the end.

Irun Ficoba is a railway station in Irun, Basque Country, Spain. It is owned by Euskal Trenbide Sarea and operated by Euskotren. It lies on the San Sebastián-Hendaye railway, popularly known as the Topo line.

The Plaiaundi Ecology Park is a 24 -hectare coastal wetland lying where the Bidasoa River meets the sea in the Bay of Biscay. This is in the Basque country of northern Spain, close to the border with France. It is near Irun and Hondarribia in Gipuzkoa, Spain, and Hendaia in France. The confluence of the sea and river have made it one of the most important sites for migratory birds in Europe, with up to 175 species seen visiting the park each year. It is a natural flora and fauna reserve. The park contains three lagoons, two of which are tidal, and a beach.

Hendaye (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃daj]; Basque: Hendaia, Spanish: Hendaya) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department and Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.The town, Metropolitan France's most southwesterly and a popular seaside tourist resort, stands on the right bank of the River Bidassoa – which marks the Franco-Spanish border – at the point where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean in the French Basque Country. Hendaye has three distinguishable parts: la ville (the town), which stretches from Saint Vincent's church to the area around the SNCF railway station and the industrial zone; la plage (the beach), the seaside quarter; and les hauteurs (the heights), the villas and camping sites on the hills between and behind the other two areas.

Bidasoaldea (Basque: Bidasoaldea, Spanish: Bajo Bidasoa) is one of the eight eskualdeak or comarcas of Gipuzkoa, Basque Autonomous Community, corresponding to the basin of the lower Bidasoa extending in Gipuzkoan soil and named after the river, in Spain. The region comprises two municipalities, i.e. Hondarribia and Irun. This is the most easterly land strip of Gipuzkoa, bordering on the east with the region of Labourd (France), on the south with the Bortziriak (Navarre), on the west with Oarsoaldea and on the north with the Bay of Biscay.