title: Trini Lopez

text: During the 1960s and 1970s, Lopez moved into acting, though his film career was not as successful as his music. Lopez's first film role was in "Marriage on the Rocks" (1965), in which he made a cameo appearance in a nightclub scene; Lopez's soundtrack song, "Sinner Man", became a hit single (no. 54 pop/no. 12 adult contemporary). He was one of "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), appeared as himself in "The Phynx" (1970), and played the title role in Claudio Guzman's "Antonio" (1973). He made two appearances (playing different characters) on the television program "Adam-12". In 1977, he played the role of Julio Ramirez in “The Mystery of the Silent Scream” which was part of "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" TV series.


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez remained a lifelong bachelor and had no children. His nephew, Trini Martinez, was the drummer for the Dallas indie rock band Bedhead.


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez died on August 11, 2020, at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California. He was 83, and suffered complications from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in California.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The 1998 Royal Rumble was the 11th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; WWE as of 2002). It took place on January 18, 1998, at the San Jose Arena in San Jose, California. Six matches were contested on the event's card. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 1998 event, the winner received a match for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The main event was a casket match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker for the WWF Championship, which Michaels won to retain the title. The main match on the undercard was the 1998 Royal Rumble match, which Stone Cold Steve Austin won by lastly eliminating The Rock, thus becoming the third person to win two Royal Rumble matches, and back-to-back, after Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels. Additionally, The Legion Of Doom (Hawk and Animal) defeated The New Age Outlaws ("Road Dogg" Jesse James and "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn) by disqualification therefore, not winning the WWF Tag Team Championship, and The Rock defeated Ken Shamrock to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV), produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four", and was considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along with King of the Ring. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 1998, the winner earned a match for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV. The 1998 event was the 11th event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 18, 1998, at the San Jose Arena in San Jose, California.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The card consisted of six matches. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters to build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWF's writers, with storylines produced on their weekly television show, "Raw".


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: In the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view, Ken Shamrock had been facing various members of the Nation of Domination ahead of his booked match against Intercontinental Champion Rocky Maivia (The Rock), defeating Kama Mustafa and Faarooq with his ankle lock despite interference from other Nation members. The "Raw is War" before the Rumble saw Shamrock team up with Mark Henry against Maivia and D'Lo Brown, but just as Shamrock looked set to lock his submission on The Rock, Henry turned on him, joining the Nation in giving him a post-match beat down.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: After winning their first tag team title, the New Age Outlaws further humiliated the erstwhile champions, the Legion of Doom, by shaving one of Hawk's mohawks and, with the help of D-Generation X, powerbombed Animal through the announcer's table, damaging his back. Although he was advised not to compete by doctors, Animal rested through the first few weeks of the year while the Outlaws ran roughshod through the tag division before this pay-per-view.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The buildup to the Royal Rumble match itself focused almost entirely on Stone Cold Steve Austin. He declared that before the match he would be living by the motto "Do unto others, before they do unto me" interfering in matches regularly on "Raw is War", or appearing just as matches finished, delivering the stunner to anyone in sight as well leaving other wrestlers back stage buried under tables and chairs. In the final segment of the "Raw" preceding the event, all competitors of the Royal Rumble were in the ring, waiting to draw their number of entry when Austin ran in through the crowd and began to throw punches all over the ring, sparking a brawl between the various wrestlers feuding in the ring, and kicking the number generator out of the ring.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The main event for the WWF Championship was a rematch between champion Shawn Michaels and challenger The Undertaker. The feud had begun after SummerSlam the previous August after Michaels, who was the special referee in the match between then-champion Undertaker and Bret Hart, hit Undertaker with a chair meant for Hart and counted the pin to cost Undertaker the championship. The first match between the two came at the following month, a match that ended in a no contest due to outside interference from Michaels' D-Generation X cohorts, Triple H and Chyna. Michaels and Undertaker resumed the feud at in October 1997 in the first Hell in a Cell match which ended with the debut of Undertaker's (kayfabe) brother, Kane, giving Michaels the unfair win by delivering a tombstone piledriver on Undertaker, allowing the almost beaten Michaels to steal the match. To mock his opponent, Triple H and Chyna brought a casket to the ring only for Michaels to appear from inside and spray paint it in D-Generation X slogans. The following week, while Michaels was delivering a promo, the same casket appeared again but this time Undertaker appeared from inside, grabbing the champion by the throat and dragging him into the coffin. Undertaker made his full presence known the following week, interrupting an interview in which Michaels was claiming to introduce the newest DX member: Kane. Undertaker told his opponent to leave his family out of the feud, before attacking the stable and being outnumbered. Kane made a surprise appearance and helped Undertaker, fighting DX up to the ramp before turning and reaching his hand out in an Undertaker-like salute which his brother returned.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The opening match began with Goldust attacking Vader as he entered the ring. Vader soon recovered and threw Goldust into the turnbuckle before he eventually fell out of the ring where Vader also shoved Luna Vachon to the ground. After a suplex and a big splash, Goldust was dragged to the corner so Vader could attempt his Vader Bomb, but a low blow stopped him. Vader then attempted the move for the second time, only to have Luna jump on his back. Vader hit the move anyway, and scored the pin.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: With Sunny as the special guest referee, a six-man tag match of lucha libre midget wrestling took place. The face team took most of the early advantage, tagging frequently while the heel team were regularly thrown under the bottom rope and replaced with a fresh member. Max Mini used Sunny to help him dropkick Battalion, Tarantula and then El Torito in order and then delivered a top rope hurricarana to Torito, and winning the match with a backslide pin.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The Intercontinental Championship bout began with an exchange of punches and a few kicks until Ken Shamrock mistimed a hurricarana, allowing Rocky Maivia to slam him down. After being kicked to the corner, Shamrock replied with a crossbody that only gained him a two-count, as did a fisherman suplex pin. Rock took control by reversing an Irish whip into a DDT and then putting the challenger in a headlock. His next attempt at a DDT was reversed, however, into a powerslam prompting Nation members to storm the ring. With the referee distracted after The Rock's Nation of Domination teammate D'Lo Brown's foot gets stuck with the ropes, The Rock used a brass knuckles to hit Shamrock and then disposed of the knuckleduster inside Shamrock's trunks. By the time the referee looked back to the ring, he could only make a two count and Shamrock pulled off a belly to belly suplex slam, winning the match. However, as Shamrock celebrated, Rock appealed to Mike Chioda who, upon discovering the foreign object, reversed the decision and took the belt from a bemused Shamrock. Then, Chioda gave it back to The Rock, making him the winner via disqualification. A furious Shamrock attacked the referee for stripping him of the title.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: In the tag team match, New Age Outlaws prematurely began by attacking Legion of Doom before the bell rang but the Legion quickly turned the match in their favor, chasing the Outlaws up the ramp as the champions tried to lose by count out. Still holding control, the Legion took turns on Road Dogg who eventually handcuffed Hawk to the corner outside the ring. Regardless, Animal successfully dominated both Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, powerslamming Gunn into a pin that was broken by a chair shot. The disqualification gave the victory to LOD while the New Age Outlaws retained the belts, double teaming Animal until Hawk broke free from the cuffs to save his partner.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The Royal Rumble began with Mick Foley's persona Cactus Jack as #1, bringing trash cans to the ring. The second contestant was Terry Funk's alter-ego Chainsaw Charlie who ran to the ring wielding his chainsaw before Cactus hit him with a chair and the two engaged in a hardcore battle briefly interrupted by Tom Brandi who they both eliminated over the top rope. As The Rock entered, he was met with a trash can over the head, being bundled out of the ring under the bottom rope briefly. As the ring filled up Cactus Jack went to clothesline Charlie over the top rope but inadvertently threw himself over and eliminated himself. Owen Hart came out #9 but before he was able to enter the ring, NWA North American Champion Jeff Jarrett and ally Jim Cornette attacked him. Soon after, at #16, Mick Foley returned to the ring in his Mankind gimmick, returning the favour by eliminating Chainsaw Charlie while Ken Shamrock and The Rock resumed their feud from earlier. Jarrett officially came out at #18 and was soon joined in the ring by Owen Hart, who ran out from the back and eliminated Jarrett. Hart himself was soon distracted by the non-competing Triple H, who hit him with a crutch as Chyna yanked him out. When the clock counted down to #22, no contestant appeared with Jerry Lawler on commentary attributing the number to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had reportedly been taken out backstage by Ken Shamrock. By #23, the Nation of Domination had four members (Rock, D'Lo Brown, Mark Henry and Kama Mustafa) in the ring although they seldom worked together. All fighting in the ring ceased when Austin's music played for #24 but, after a lengthy wait, Stone Cold appeared from behind and tossed out Marc Mero and 8-Ball. Savio Vega, who entered #26, was accompanied by the rest of Los Boricuas who went straight after Austin. Faarooq completed the Nation stable in the ring but went straight after teammate The Rock before Foley's third appearance as Dude Love. Soon only four men remained (Rock, Austin, Dude Love and Faarooq) and Austin and Dude Love, former tag team partners, teamed up against the Nation members, until Austin turned on Dude, allowing Faarooq to clothesline him out of the match. When Faarooq then turned to Austin, Rock tossed his teammate out of the ring leaving the former Intercontinental Champion against the current champion. The Rock survived almost being thrown out only to be stunnered and tossed out again.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The main event began with The Undertaker mostly controlling Shawn Michaels. After walking on the top rope, Undertaker rolled Michaels into the casket but Michaels' hand grabbing the ring apron stopped it from being shut. As Undertaker went to shut the casket, Michaels threw it open and dazed his opponent by throwing powder into his eyes, leaving him stunned. Despite a throat shot, Undertaker began to lose his dominance of the match as things moved outside of the ring, with Michaels delivering a piledriver on top of the steel steps, before fellow degenerate, Triple H, hit him with a crutch. Michaels, too, failed to close the coffin's lid on Undertaker, forcing the fight back into the ring where Shawn tried to submit his opponent, following with a high-flying elbow drop and Sweet Chin Music. So sure of the win, with Undertaker lying in the casket, Michaels chose instead to taunt Undertaker, giving a crotch-chop which Undertaker seized on, leading to a brief fight in the ring but going back into the casket when Undertaker missed a flying clothesline and his momentum caused him to tumble inside. Michaels climbed to the top rope and delivered an elbow drop into the casket and the two fought inside a closed coffin. After eventually climbing out, both made it back to the ring where Undertaker gave Shawn a chokeslam. He then dragged the champion to the ring apron and hit a jumping tombstone piledriver, depositing Michaels into the casket. Before Undertaker could close it, the New Age Outlaws and Los Boricuas ran in and collectively pummeled Undertaker until the lights went out in the arena. Kane's music played and the Big Red Monster single-handedly took out everyone in the ring. In the meantime Chyna and Triple H helped a visibly hurt Shawn Michaels out of the casket. Kane suddenly turned on Undertaker, punching him and chokeslamming him into the casket. Triple H and Chyna shut it, thus ending the match and allowing Michaels to retain his title.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: Kane was not done, however, as Paul Bearer came to ringside and the two padlocked Undertaker inside the casket and rolled it to the top of the entrance ramp where Kane chopped holes in the casket with an axe, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. After the show went off the air, with the casket still burning, Kane and Bearer left the arena while various emergency officials extinguished the fire and Commissioner Slaughter and others tried to break open the casket to free Undertaker. However, when the casket was opened, no one was inside. Undertaker's voice then was heard to say "Kane, until our paths cross again, I shall never rest in peace!"


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: In 2010, Jack Bramma of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 7.0 [Good], stating, "Worth a look for historical purposes if nothing else. Rocky was clearly on his way to being a star, Austin wasn't quite yet the biggest name in the industry but was close, and Michaels' (sort of) career-ending injury. And oh yeah four quality matches."


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: In 2019, Thomas Hall of Wrestling Rumors gave the event a rating of D, stating, "Good main event aside, this was a REALLY dull show overall. 1998 would wind up being an awesome year, but this wasn’t the best start to it in the world. We saw a lot of the relics of the bad times here, but Austin was coming and there was absolutely nothing WCW could do to stop him. This wasn’t a good show at all, but it was a necessary evil to get us to the glory days."


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: In 2022, John Canton of TJRWrestling gave the event a rating of 6/10, stating, "It was another average Royal Rumble event that was lacking in terms of great matches aside from the main event. When it comes to that Undertaker/Shawn match, while it was very good, it’s not their most famous match or their best match. The other undercard matches were poor, so that hurt the card quite a bit. In addition to that, the Royal Rumble match was probably the most predictable Rumble ever with Steve Austin winning. Aside from a few fun moments, it wasn’t very interesting at all. The crowd was engaged most of the night, so that’s a positive and I also felt like they built up the top WrestleMania matches pretty well. At least Mike Tyson botching his interview and saying “Cold Stone” made me laugh."


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: By winning the Royal Rumble match, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin won the right to face Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV. Mike Tyson's presence in the director's box was revealed the following night to be because he was taking the role of special guest referee for the event. Following an altercation with Austin, however, he was changed to special enforcer and soon allied with D-Generation X. At WrestleMania, though, Tyson showed his true colors and stepped in when the referee was knocked down making the three-count for Austin which many see as the official genesis for the "Attitude Era" and WWF's resurging dominance over chief rivals World Championship Wrestling (WCW).


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: During his match with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels suffered a severe back injury when he took a back body drop off of the casket, landing on his tailbone on the casket's outer mid-section. He herniated two discs in his back and crushed a third, and the injury forced him to retire from wrestling after WrestleMania. As it transpired, during a one-off match with Triple H at SummerSlam 2002, he realized his back no longer hampered him and made a full-time return to wrestling. His back injury kept him out of all wrestling until the main event at WrestleMania, despite being billed on the card for the next PPV, . His last-minute replacement was Savio Vega, who appeared in the main event eight-man tag team match which saw a number of high-profile feuds converge on the road to WrestleMania.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The New Age Outlaws would go on to take part in the eight-man main event at No Way Out of Texas, sparring opposite Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie ahead of their WrestleMania title match. Their alliance with Triple H in this match saw them join the newly formed DX Army the day after WrestleMania. Legion of Doom went on to suffer a series of losses, ending in another loss against the Outlaws on February 23 after which they had an in-ring brawl and announced the dissolution of their team. They reappeared in a modified form as LOD 2000 in the opening WrestleMania match with Sunny as their valet.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: Rocky Maivia's feud with Ken Shamrock spilled out into a ten-man tag match between the Nation of Domination and Shamrock's team, teaming with Ahmed Johnson and the Disciples of Apocalypse. Shamrock won the match by pinning Rock and faced him at WrestleMania once again for the Intercontinental title. He originally won the match but would not release his ankle lock; thus, Shamrock was disqualified.


title: Royal Rumble (1998)

text: The Undertaker would not return to action until WrestleMania, where he defeated Kane in a singles match. The feud continued with an inferno match at in April. Two months later the two entered a storyline where Undertaker was eventually revealed to be in cahoots with his brother, which concluded with Paul Bearer reuniting with Undertaker and turning on Kane which led to the formation of the Ministry of Darkness at the end of 1998. This also marked the last time he would face Michaels in a singles match until the two met at WrestleMania 25; he would wrestle Michaels once more at WrestleMania XXVI where he won a "streak vs. career" match, forcing Michaels to retire from wrestling for good.


title: Stave church

text: A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts are called "stafr" in Old Norse ("stav" in modern Norwegian). Two related church building types also named for their structural elements, the post church and palisade church, are often called 'stave churches'.


title: Stave church

text: Originally much more widespread, most of the surviving stave churches are in Norway. The only remaining medieval stave churches outside Norway are those of "circa" 1500 Hedared stave church in Sweden and one Norwegian stave church relocated in 1842 to contemporary Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains of Poland (at the time being a part of the Kingdom of Prussia). One other church, the Anglo-Saxon Greensted Church in England, exhibits many similarities with a stave church but is generally considered a palisade church.


title: Stave church

text: Archaeological excavations have shown that stave churches are descended from palisade constructions and from later churches with earth-bound posts.


title: Stave church

text: Similar palisade constructions are known from buildings from the Viking Age. Logs were split in two halves, set or rammed into the earth (generally called post in ground construction) and given a roof. This proved a simple but very strong form of construction. If set in gravel, the wall could last many decades, even centuries. An archaeological excavation in Lund uncovered the postholes of several such churches.


title: Stave church

text: In post churches, the walls were supported by sills, leaving only the posts earth-bound. Such churches are easy to spot at archaeological sites as they leave very distinct holes where the posts were once placed. Occasionally some of the wood remains, making it possible to date the church more accurately using radiocarbon dating or dendrochronology. Under the Urnes Stave Church, remains of two such churches have been found, with Christian graves discovered beneath the oldest church structure.


title: Stave church

text: The next design phase resulted from the observation that earthbound posts were susceptible to humidity, causing them to rot away over time. To prevent this, the posts were placed on top of large stones, significantly increasing their lifespans. The stave church in Røldal is believed to be of this type.


title: Stave church

text: In later churches the posts were set on a raised sill frame resting on stone foundations. This is the stave church in its most mature form.


title: Stave church

text: It is now common to group the churches into two categories: the first, without free-standing posts, often referred to as Type A; and the second, with a raised roof and free-standing internal posts, usually called Type B.


title: Stave church

text: Those with the raised roof, Type B, are often further divided into two subgroups. The first of these, the Kaupanger group, have a whole arcade row of posts and intermediate posts along the sides and details that mimic stone capitals. These churches give an impression of a basilica.


title: Stave church

text: The other subgroup is the Borgund group. In these churches the posts are connected halfway up with one or two horizontal double ″pincer beams″ with semicircular indentations, clasping the row of posts from both sides. Cross-braces are inserted between the posts and the upper and lower pincer beams (or above the single pincer beam), forming a very rigid interconnection, and resembling the triforium of stone basilicas. This design made it possible to omit the freestanding lower part of intermediate posts. In some churches only the four corner posts remain (for example in Lomen Stave Church).


title: Stave church

text: Many stave churches had or still have outer galleries or ambulatories around their whole perimeters, loosely connected to the plank walls. These probably served to protect the church from a harsh climate, and for processions.


title: Stave church

text: At the base of Type A churches, there are four heavy sill beams on a low foundation of stones. These are interconnected in the corner notch, forming a rigid sill frame. The corner posts or staves ("stavene" in Norwegian) are cross-cut at the lower end and fit over the corner notches and cover them, protecting them from moisture.


title: Stave church

text: On top of the sill beam is a groove into which the lower ends of the wall planks ("veggtilene") fit. The last wall plank is wedge-shaped and rammed into place. When the wall is filled in with planks, the frame is completed by a wall plate ("stavlægje") with a groove on the bottom, holding the top ends of the wall planks. The whole structure consists of framesa sill frame resting on the stone foundation, and the four wall frames made up of sills, corner posts and wall plate.


title: Stave church

text: The wall plates support the roof trusses, consisting of a pair of principal rafters and an additional pair of intersecting "scissor rafters". For lateral bracing, additional wooden brackets ("bueknær") are inserted between the rafters.


title: Stave church

text: Every piece is locked into position by other pieces, making for a very rigid construction; yet all points otherwise susceptible to the harsh weather are covered.


title: Stave church

text: Single-nave churches in Norway: Grip, Haltdalen, Undredal, Hedal, Reinli, Eidsborg, Rollag, Uvdal, Nore, Høyjord, Røldal, and Garmo.


title: Stave church

text: The only remaining church of this type outside Norway is the Hedared church in Sweden, which shows similarities with the church at Haltdalen.


title: Stave church

text: On the stone foundation, four huge ground beams ("grunnstokker") are placed like a sign, their ends protruding 1–2 meters from the lap joint where they intersect. The ends of these beams support the sills of the outer walls, forming a separate horizontal frame. The tall internal posts are placed on the internal frame of ground beams, and carry the main roof above the central nave ("skip"). On the outer frame of sills rest the main wall planks ("veggtiler"), carrying the roof over the pentice or aisles ("omgang") surrounding the central space. The roof thus slopes down in two steps, as in a basilica.


title: Stave church

text: The tall internal posts ("staver") are interconnected with brackets ("bueknær"), and also connected to the outer walls with aisle rafters, creating a laterally rigid construction. Closer to the top of the posts ("staver"), shorter sills inserted between them support the upper wall ("tilevegg"). On top of the posts wall plates ("stavlægjer") support the roof trusses, similar to those of the single-nave churches.


title: Stave church

text: This form of a church can also be recognized from the holes which remain from earlier earth-bound post churches built on the same sites. Little is known about what these older churches actually looked like or how they were constructed, as they were all destroyed or replaced many centuries ago.


title: Stave church

text: The oldest technique is often called palisade work and was a self-supporting wall construction with densely placed earthen pillars or planks, which enclosed a room and at the same time carried the roof. Later, split logs were used, which gave the walls a flat inside, and the edges could be leveled or fitted with tongue and groove. Palisade churches have not been found in Norway.


title: Stave church

text: To prevent early decay, the posts or planks were tarred, and the lower ends were charred by burning. The palisade rows were often placed in ditches filled with stone. It was long thought that this technique disappeared before the turn of the last millennium, but new research shows that it was in use right up to the 12th century.


title: Stave church

text: The only structure in this technique that has survived into our time is a wall in the middle section of Greensted Church in England. This led to this church being for a long time considered the oldest wooden structure in Europe. A common dating of the church was about the year 845, but modern dendrochronological dating estimates the church's year of construction to the period just after the year 1053 (+10 / −55 years).


title: Stave church

text: By lifting the pole planks up from the ground and placing them on sleepers clamped between more powerful corner or intermediate posts, the risk of rot damage was reduced. Thinner materials could then be used in the complementary parts of the construction. Earthen piles of coarse round timber could stand for a relatively long time before rotting. They may have been scorched at the lower end to avoid premature decay.


title: Stave church

text: Postholes, often with remnants of the former pillars, have been found under or near several stave churches and in places where legends say that there must have been churches. Remains of approximately 25 pillar buildings have been identified in Norway, and indirect traces of 7–8 more. Remains of pillar churches are also found under stone churches such as Mære and Kinsarvik.


title: Stave church

text: Many of the earliest churches in Norway were built using this technique, but no such buildings have survived. It is an open question whether limited life was the reason why they were replaced by real stave churches with sleepers, or whether there were other reasons. Some of the older materials found in several of the stave churches are thought to originate from such early pillar churches, in particular at the Urnes stave church in Luster, where many building parts with wooden sheds in the urn style must have belonged to an older church. It has now been proven that the reused building parts originally belonged to the current church's forerunner, dendrochronologically dated to the period 1070–1080. However, this was not a post church, but a real stave church where corner poles and wall planks stood on sleepers.


title: Stave church

text: Håkon Christie assumed that the post construction fell out of use because the posts rotted from below. Jørgen H. Jensenius believes that archaeological material does not provide unequivocal support for Christie's hypothesis; a change in size or transition to a stone church may also explain why excavated pillars fell out of use. Røldal Stave Church may have had some pillars set in the ground until 1913. In Lom Stave Church, the stone foundations have been laid approximately directly over the refilled postholes. Apart from different foundation methods, Jensenius believes that the pillar churches were essentially similar to stave churches.


title: Stave church

text: Of buildings from the Middle Ages with standing timber in load-bearing structures, only the churches in the last developed method of construction, the stave, have been left standing in our time. By lifting the entire structure up on stone foundations and placing the poles on sleepers, the life of the structure was significantly extended. The technique was developed as early as the 11th century, but it has only been proven in the forerunner of the current stave church. This was also a real stave church, since both the corner stakes and the tiles have stood on sleepers that were reused as foundations for the existing church.


title: Stave church

text: Stone as a base for poles was used as early as Roman times and additional walls in sleepers may have been used from the 400s and 600s.


title: Stave church

text: Lorentz Dietrichson believed that the stave churches were originally small and only later built with larger dimensions. He believed that the background for this was the construction technique. He points out that the youngest churches in the Mør type are the largest. He calculated the ground plan and area for 79 churches, and the nine largest were all in Sunnmøre with Hjørundfjord, Volda and Norddal of over 280 m. This is three times larger than, for example, Urnes and Hopperstad. According to Dietrichson, the large size of the stave churches in Sunnmøre were partly a result of later expansions. He estimated the cross arms of Volda Stave Church at 7.3 × 6 meters. Hjørundfjord Stave Church was a "half-cross church" with only one cross arm measuring 7.9 × 9.1 meters. The first stave church had cross arms of 7.9 × 6.7 meters after expansion. Dietrichson was unsure whether the cross arms in the Møre churches were generally added in the lath construction or whether it was a medieval stave construction. He concluded that several were originally listed as cruciform churches in stakes, including Hareid, Volda, Vatne and Ørsta. For some other churches (Bremsnes and Kornstad on Nordmøre), contemporary sources say that the cross arms were later added to the lumber. According to Håkon Christie, these churches of the Mør type had a simpler construction and were both larger and longer than the other types. Roar Hauglid estimated that most (80–90%) of the medieval Norwegian stave churches were simple single-nave buildings (Type A) and most were relatively small. Hauglid called these "the ordinary Norwegian stave church".


title: Stave church

text: Stave churches were once common in northern Europe. In Norway alone, it was thought about 1000 were built; recent research has increased this estimate and it is now believed there may have been closer to 2000.


title: Stave church

text: Norwegian stave churches older than the 1100s are known only from written sources or from archaeological excavations, but written sources are sparse and difficult to interpret. Only 271 masonry churches were constructed in Norway during the same period, of which 160 still exist, while in Sweden and Denmark there were 900 and 1800 masonry churches respectively. Frostathing Law and Gulating law rules about "corner posts" show that the stave church was the standard church building in Norway, even though the Catholic church preferred stone. All wooden churches in Norway before the reformation were constructed with staves. Log building is younger than stave building in Norway, and was introduced in residential buildings around year 1000. Stave building is not influenced by the log technique. Only 29 stave churches have survived in Norway. Most of these were built between 1150 and 1350.


title: Stave church

text: The word "stave church" is unknown in Old Norse, presumably because there were no other types of wooden churches. When Norway's churches after the Reformation were constructed from logs, there was a need for a separate term for the older churches. In written sources from the Middle Ages, there is a clear distinction between "stafr" (posts) and "þili" or "vægþili" (wall boards). However, in documents from the 1600–1700s, "stave" was also used for wall boards or panels. Emil Eckhoff in his "Svenska stavkyrkor" (1914–1916) also included wood-frame church buildings without posts.


title: Stave church

text: According to Norway's oldest written laws and Old Norwegian Homily Book, the consecration of the church was valid as long as the four corner posts were standing. One of the sermons in the old homily book is known as the "stave church sermon". The sermon dates from around 1100 and was presumably performed at consecrations, or on their anniversaries. The sermon text is a theological interpretation of the building elements in the church. It names most of the building elements in the stave church, and can be a source of terminology and technique. For instance, the sermon says: "The four corner posts of the church are a symbol for the four gospels, because their teachings are the strongest supports within the whole of Christianity."


title: Stave church

text: Church building was mentioned in the "Gulatingsloven" (Gulating Law), which was written down in the 1000s. In the chapter on Christianity, the 12th article states:


title: Stave church

text: In Norway, stave churches were gradually replaced; many survived until the 19th century when a substantial number were destroyed. Today, 28 historical stave churches remain standing in Norway. Stave churches were particularly common in less populated areas in high valleys and forest land, and in fishermen's villages on islands and minor villages along fjords. By about 1800, 322 stave churches were still known in Norway, most of them in sparsely populated areas. If the main church was masonry, the annex church could be a stave church. Masonry churches were mostly built in towns, along the coast, and in rich agricultural areas in Trøndelag and eastern Norway, as well as in the larger parishes in fjord districts in western Norway. No new churches were built in Norway during the 1400s and 1500s. Norway's stave churches largely disappeared until 1700 and were replaced by log buildings. Several stave churches were redesigned or enlarged using different techniques during 1600–1700; for instance, Flesberg Stave Church was converted into a cruciform church partly in log construction. According to Dietrichson, most stave churches were dismantled to make room for a new church, partly because the old church had become too small for the congregation, and partly because the stave church was in poor condition. Fire, storm, avalanche and decay were other reasons. In 1650 there were about 270 stave churches left in Norway, and in the next hundred years 136 of these disappeared. There were still 95 stave churches in 1800, while over 200 former stave churches were still known by name or in written sources. From 1850 to 1885, 32 stave churches disappeared; since then only the Fantoft Stave Church has been lost.


title: Stave church

text: Heddal stave church was the first stave church described in a scholarly publication, when Johannes Flintoe wrote an essay in "Samlinger til det Norske Folks Sprog og Historie" (Christiania, 1834). The book also printed Flintoe's drawings of the facade, the ground floor and the floor plan – the first known architectural drawing of a stave church.


title: Stave church

text: The number of stave churches constructed in Iceland and the rest of Europe is unknown. Some believe they were the first type of church to be constructed in Scandinavia; however, the post churches are an older type, although the difference between the two is slight. A stave church has a lower construction set on a frame, whereas a post church has earth-bound posts.


title: Stave church

text: In Sweden, the stave churches were considered obsolete in the Middle Ages and were replaced. In Denmark, traces of post churches have been found at several locations, and there are also parts still in existence from some of them. A plank of one such church was found in Jutland. The plank is now on display at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen and an attempt at reconstructing the church is a featured display at the Moesgård Museum near Aarhus. Marks created by several old post churches have also been found at the old stone church in Jelling.


title: Stave church

text: In Sweden, the medieval Hedared stave church was constructed c. 1500 at the same location as a previous stave church. Other notable places are Maria Minor church in Lund, with its traces of a post church with palisades, and some old parts of Hemse stave church on Gotland. In Skåne alone there were around 300 such churches when Adam of Bremen visited Denmark in the first half of the 11th century, but how many of those were stave churches or post churches is unknown.


title: Stave church

text: In England, there is one similar church of Saxon origin, with much debate as to whether it is a stave church or predates them. This is the Greensted Church in Essex. General consensus categorizes it as Saxon Type A. Another church bears similarities to stave churches, the medieval stone church of St. Mary in Kilpeck in Herefordshire. It features a number of dragon heads.


title: Stave church

text: In Germany, there is one stone church with a motif depicting a dragon similar to those often seen on Norwegian stave churches and on surviving artifacts from Denmark and Gotland. Whether this decoration can be attributed to cultural similarities or whether it indicates similar construction methods in Germany has sparked controversy.


title: Stave church

text: Between 1950 and 1970, postholes from older buildings were discovered under Lom stave church as well as under masonry churches such as Kinsarvik Church, and this discovery was an important contribution to understanding the origin of stave churches. Postholes were first identified during excavations in Urnes stave church.


title: Stave church

text: Lorentz Dietrichson in his book "De norske Stavkirker" ("The Norwegian Stave Churches") (1892) claimed that the stave church is "a brilliant translation of the Romanesque basilica from stone to wood" (""En genial oversettelse fra sten til tre av den romanske basilika""). Dietrichson claimed that Type B displays an influence from early Christian and Roman basilicas. The style was assumed to be transferred via Anglo-Saxon and Irish architecture, where only the particular roof construction was local. Dietrichson emphasized the clerestory, arcades and capitals. The "basilica theory" was introduced by N. Nicolaysen in "Mindesmærker af Middelalderens Kunst i Norge" (1854). Nicolaysen wrote: "Our stave churches are now the only remaining of its kind, and according to the sparse records and known circumstances, it appears that nothing similar existed except perhaps in Britain and Ireland." (""Vore stavkirker er nu de eneste i sit slags, og saavidt sparsomme beretninger og andre omstændigheder lader formode, synes de heller ikke tidligere at have havt noget sidestykke med undtagelse af maaske i Storbritannien og Irland".") Nicolaysen further claimed that the layout and design may have been inspired by Byzantine architecture. Nicolaysen wrote: "All facts suggest that the stave churches like the masonry churches and all medieval architecture in Western Europe originated from the Roman basilica." (""Alt synes at henpege paa, at forbilledet til vore stavkirker ligesom til stenkirkerne og overhovedet til hele den vesteuropæiske arkitektur i middelalderen er udgaaet fra den romerske basilika."") This theory was further developed by Anders Bugge and Roar Hauglid. Peter Anker believed that the influence from foreign masonry architecture was primarily in decorative details.


title: Stave church

text: Per Jonas Nordhagen does not reject the basilica theory, but suggests development along two paths and that the basilical was a development towards larger and technically more sophisticated churches. The main, progressive path according to Nordhagen lead to Torpo and Borgund.


title: Stave church

text: Folklore and circumstantial evidence seem to suggest that stave churches were built upon old indigenous Norse worship sites, the "hof". Dietrichson believed that the stave churches were closely connected to the hof and the "hof theory" attracted interest in the 1930s and 1940s. The theory assumed that the hofs had a square, raised roof supported by four columns. During Christianization of Norway local chiefs were forced to either dismantle the hofs or to convert hofs into churches. Bugge and Norberg-Schultz accordingly claimed that "there is no reason to believe that the last hofs and the first churches had any major differences" (""og da er det liten grunn til å tro at de siste hov har skilt seg synderlig fra de første kirker""). This assumption has been rejected by archeological evidence several times, in the case of Iceland by Åge Roussel. Olaf Olsen described the hof merely as function related to ordinary buildings on major farms. If the hof was a particular building they remain to be identified, according to Olsen. Olsen rejected the hof theory. Nicolay Nicolaysen also concluded that there is not a single known case of a hof that was converted to a church.


title: Stave church

text: Lack of historical evidence for hofs as buildings undermines the hof theory. Nicolaysen also introduced the community centre hypothesis which argued that hofs were destroyed and churches constructed on the same convenient location for the local community. Location near a previous hof would then be a coincidence, according to Nicolaysen. Pope Gregory I encouraged (year 601) Augustine of Canterbury to reuse pre-Christian temples, but this had little relevance for Norway according to Nicolaysen. Jan Brendalsmo in his dissertation concluded that churches were often established on major farms or farms of local chiefs and close to feasting halls or graveyards.


title: Stave church

text: Stave churches sometimes appear to have built upon or used materials from old pagan worship sites and are considered to be the best evidence for the existence of Norse Pagan temples and the best guide as to what they looked like. The layout of the churches is believed to have mimicked old Pagan temples in design and was possibly designed in order to adhere to old Norse cosmological beliefs, especially as some churches were built around a central point like a world tree. Stave churches were also often located near or in the sight of large natural formations which also had a significant role in Norse Paganism, thus also suggesting a form of continuity through placement and symbolism. Furthermore, dragons' heads and other clear mythological symbolism suggests the cultural blending of Norse mythological beliefs and Christianity in a non-contradictory synthesis. Owing to this evidence newer research has suggested that Christianity was introduced into Norway much earlier than was previously assumed.


title: Stave church

text: Even though the wooden churches had structural differences, they give a recognizable general impression. Formal differences may hide common features of their planning, while apparently similar buildings may turn out to have their structural elements organized completely differently. Despite this, certain basic principles must have been common to all types of building.


title: Stave church

text: Basic geometrical figures, numbers that were easy to work with, one or just a few length units and simple ratios, and perhaps proportions, were among the theoretical aids all builders inherited. The specialist was the man who knew a particular type of building so well that he could systematise its elements in a slightly different way from previous building designs, thus carrying developments a stage further.


title: Stave church

text: "Exposing the timber frame on the interior and/or exterior of the structures is seen to release its matrix of timber members and its capacity to contribute architectural expression to buildings. The matrix, forming ‘lines’ in space, has an expressive potential that includes the capacity to delineate proportion, direct eye-movement, suggest spatial enclosure, create patterning, permit transparency and establish continuity with landscape."


title: Stave church

text: Portals or parts of them from about 140 stave churches have been preserved. There are roughly three portal types: the simple profile portal, the column portal and the beam portal.


title: Stave church

text: The simple profile portal is a doorway framed by simple profiles or pilasters. These portals are mostly used on cord doors. About 20 such doors have been preserved.


title: Stave church

text: The column portal is derived from stone architecture. It has full or half columns that carry a curved archivolt. The columns have bases and chapters. They are richly decorated and were used both on front doors and inside cross-sections. About 40 such portals are known.


title: Stave church

text: The beam (or magnificent) portal consists of two portal planks and a top piece with continuous decoration. The upper part has two to five horizontal planks that are folded into each other with tongue and groove. This is supported by the standing wall planks that flank the doorway. 75 more or less complete portals of this type have been preserved. In some beam portals, the column motif is also incorporated together with the surface decorations, with or without archivolt.


title: Stave church

text: Most of the preserved material comes from Sogn-Hardanger and from the mountain villages in eastern Norway. The main part of the portals is Romanesque and lacks Gothic features.


title: Stave church

text: It is possible that the portals may have been painted, but this has been difficult to determine with certainty. The paint on the few that are painted today seems to be newer.


title: Stave church

text: Most portals show dragons, "lions" and vines that do not refer to specific biblical or other Christian stories. One of the exceptions is the Christian motifs found on the west portal from the torn Hemsedal stave church, which shows St. Olav's martyrdom and status as a Christlike saint.


title: Stave church

text: A research problem has been the portal's iconography. As for the Urnes style portals, the idea that it should have a pagan content is rejected. The large animal has been interpreted as a lion. The lion can represent Christ who fights with and wins over evil.


title: Stave church

text: Common features of most portals are that they are monumental and that they have fighting dragons, which may be symbolic of magic to avert pain. Bugge believes that this may be a pagan iconography in Christian interpretation. In the Sogn-Valdres portals the lion is replaced by a vine, which also represents Christianity. in reference to Joh. 15.5: "I am the vine, you are the branches." Hohler opposes this interpretation. She believes that the portals cannot have a religious content, but is a picture of the client's or builder's intention, a ruling motif. There are many portals in Europe that are pure ornaments. She refers to Bernhard of Clairvaux, who opposed the use of animals in the Christian context.


title: Stave church

text: She therefore believes that animal motifs in Romanesque art have little religious significance, and the portals can be pure ruler symbols.


title: Stave church

text: Hoftun believes that many of the so-called pagan portal motifs have a clear Christian message, believing that in principle the Norwegian stave church motifs do not differ from many of the motifs found in other Romanesque church art, such as on Romanesque church portals and stone baptismal fonts in Sweden and Denmark.


title: Stave church

text: Other researchers believe that the portals are inspired by English art. The background may be manuscripts and stone sculpture. Some of these manuscripts are animal books with a Christian allegorical content, often referred to as bestiaries. The origin of these is the "Physiologus", a collection of allegories about animals with Christian interpretations, which are said to have originated in Alexandria in the 2nd century. This basic text was in Greek, and throughout the Middle Ages the text was translated into a number of languages. These stories are also the background for all the bestiaries that are preserved in various libraries and collections. The sources of the "Physiologus" are Indian, Hebrew and Egyptian animal stories and various classical texts written by, among others, Aristotle and Pliny the Elder. No early Greek text has survived; the oldest preserved are in Latin, but these must be very close to the Greek original. Gradually, it became common to illustrate the texts, but there is a leap in development, and a number of texts with illustrations have been lost.


title: Stave church

text: Lindkvist refers to the "Physiologus" as a background for animal depictions in portals on Gotland. These stone churches were often built after the stave churches in the same places had become too small. Unfortunately, most of the wooden churches have disappeared, so it is not possible to study the decor. But it is not unreasonable to assume that they have had the same decor as Norwegian stave churches, and that these motifs may then have been continued in the stone portals. Background and origin would then be approximately the same.


title: Stave church

text: Stave churches can be dated in various ways: by historical records or inscriptions, by stylistic means using construction details or ornaments, or by dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating. Often historical records or inscriptions will point to a year when the church is known to have existed. Archaeological excavations can yield finds that provide relative dating for the structure, whereas absolute dating methods such as radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology can provide a more exact date. One drawback of dendrochronology is that it tends to overlook the possibility that the wood could have been reused from an older structure, or felled and left for many years before use.


title: Stave church

text: An important problem in dating the churches is that the solid ground sills are the construction elements most likely to have the outer parts of the log still preserved. Yet they are the most susceptible to humidity, and as people back then reused building parts, the church may have been rebuilt several times. If so, a dendrochronological dating may be based upon a log from a later reconstruction.


title: Stave church

text: Results from studies with the photodendrome method published in 2019 have come with adjusted estimates for age of the timber used. The churches at Urnes, Kaupanger and Hopperstad were examined particularly thoroughly.


title: Stave church

text: The poor condition of the stave churches led the National Heritage Board to start the Stave Churches Program in 2001. The program was to create positive ripple effects in the form of greater local activity with traditional ways of using materials and resources.


title: Stave church

text: The results of the program with the details of what has been done at the individual churches was documented in a report in 2008.


title: Stave church

text: Most stave churches are in Norway, but they can also be found in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Stave churches are quite popular phenomenon and several have been built or rebuilt around the world. The two most copied are Borgund and Hedared, with some variations, and sometimes with adaptations to add elements from known stave churches from the area. In other places they are of a freer form and built for display.


title: Stave church

text: Note: Several sections of this article have been translated from its Norwegian version. For complete detailed references in Norwegian, see the original version at .


title: Hot rod

text: Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made to go much faster." However, there is no definition of the term that is universally accepted and the term is attached to a wide range of vehicles. Most often they are individually designed and constructed using components from many makes of old or new cars, and are most prevalent in the United States and Canada. Many are intended for exhibition rather than for racing or everyday driving.


title: Hot rod

text: The origin of the term "hot rod" is unclear. For example, some say that the term "hot" refers to the vehicle's being stolen. Other origin stories include replacing the engine's camshaft or "rod" with a higher performance version. According to the Hot Rod Industry Alliance (HRIA) the term changes in meaning over the years, but "hot rodding has less to do with the vehicle and more to do with an attitude and lifestyle." For example, hot rods were favorites for greasers.


title: Hot rod

text: The term has broadened to apply to other items that are modified for a particular purpose, such as "hot-rodded amplifier".


title: Hot rod

text: There are various theories about the origin of the term "hot rod". The common theme is that "hot" related to "hotting up" a car, which means modifying it for greater performance. One theory is that "rod" means roadster, a lightweight 2-door car which was often used as the basis for early hot rods. Another theory is that "rod" refers to camshaft, a part of the engine which was often upgraded in order to increase power output.


title: Hot rod

text: In the early days, a car modified for increased performance was called a "gow job". This term morphed into the hot rod in the early to middle 1950s.


title: Hot rod

text: The term "hot rod" has had various uses in relation to performance cars. For example, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in its vehicle emissions regulations refers to a hot rod as any motorized vehicle that has a replacement engine differing from the factory original.


title: Hot rod

text: The predecessors to the hotrod were the modified cars used in the Prohibition era by bootleggers to evade revenue agents and other law enforcement.


title: Hot rod

text: Hot rods first appeared in the late 1930s in southern California, where people raced modified cars on dry lake beds northeast of Los Angeles, under the rules of the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), among other groups. This gained popularity after World War II, particularly in California, because many returning soldiers had received technical training. The first hot rods were old cars (most often Fords, typically 1910s-1920s Model Ts, 1928–31 Model As, or 1932-34 Model Bs), modified to reduce weight. Engine swaps often involved fitting the Ford flathead V8 engine (known as the "flatty") into a different car, for example, the common practice in the 1940s of installing the "60 horse" version into a Jeep chassis.


title: Hot rod

text: Typical modifications were removal of convertible tops, hoods, bumpers, windshields, and/or fenders; channeling the body; and modifying the engine by tuning and/or replacing with a more powerful type. Wheels and tires were changed for improved traction and handling. Hot rods built before 1945 commonly used '35 Ford wire-spoke wheels.


title: Hot rod

text: After World War II, many small military airports throughout the country were either abandoned or rarely used, allowing hot rodders across the country to race on marked courses. Originally, drag racing had tracks as long as or more, and included up to four lanes of racing simultaneously. As some hot rodders also raced on the street, a need arose for an organization to promote safety, and to provide venues for safe racing. The National Hot Rod Association was founded in 1951, to take drag racing off the streets and into controlled environments.


title: Hot rod

text: In the '50s and '60s, the Ford flathead V8 was supplanted by the Chrysler FirePower engine (known as the "early hemi"). Many hot rods would upgrade the brakes from mechanical to hydraulic ("juice") and headlights from bulb to sealed-beam. A typical mid-1950s to early 1960s custom Deuce was fenderless and steeply chopped, powered by a Ford or Mercury flathead, with an Edelbrock intake manifold, Harman and Collins magneto, and Halibrand quick-change differential. Front suspension hairpins were adapted from sprint cars, such as the Kurtis Krafts.


title: Hot rod

text: As hot rodding became more popular, magazines and associations catering to hot rodders were started, such as the magazine "Hot Rod", founded in 1948.


title: Hot rod

text: As automobiles offered by the major automakers began increasing performance, the lure of hot rods began to wane. With the advent of the muscle car, it was now possible to purchase a high-performance car straight from the showroom.


title: Hot rod

text: However, the 1973 Oil Crisis caused car manufacturers to focus on fuel efficiency over performance, which led to a resurgence of interest in hot rodding. As the focus shifted away from racing, the modified cars became known as "street rods". The National Street Rod Association (NSRA) was formed and began hosting events.


title: Hot rod

text: By the 1970s, the small-block Chevy V8 was the most common choice of engine for hot rods. Another popular engine choice is the Ford Windsor engine. During the 1980s, many car manufacturers were reducing the displacements of their engines, thus making it harder for hot rod builders to obtain large displacement engines. Instead, engine builders had to modify the smaller engines (such as using non-standard crankshafts and pistons) to obtain larger displacement. While current production V8s tended to be the most frequent candidates, this also applied to others. In the mid-1980s, as stock engine sizes diminished, rodders discovered the aluminum-block Buick or Oldsmobile V8 could be modified for substantially greater displacement, with mainly wrecking yard parts. This trend was not limited to American cars; Volkswagen enthusiasts similarly stretched stock 1600cc engines to over two liters.


title: Hot rod

text: There is still a vibrant hot rod culture worldwide, especially in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden. The hot rod community has now been subdivided into two main groups: street rodders and hot rodders.


title: Hot rod

text: There is a contemporary movement of traditional hot rod builders, car clubs and artists who have returned to the roots of hot rodding as a lifestyle. This includes a new breed of traditional hot rod builders, artists, and styles, as well as classic style car clubs. Events like GreaseOrama feature traditional hot rods and the greaser lifestyle. Magazines like "Ol' Skool Rodz", "Gears and Gals", and "Rat-Rods and Rust Queens" cover events and people.


title: Hot rod

text: Author Tom Wolfe was one of the first to recognize the importance of hot rodding in popular culture and brought it to mainstream attention in his book "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby".


title: Hot rod

text: There are magazines that feature traditional hot rods, including "Hot Rod", "Car Craft", "Rod and Custom", and "Popular Hot Rodding". There are also television shows such as "My Classic Car", "Horsepower TV", "American Hot Rod"," Fast and Loud", and "Chop Cut Rebuild".


title: Hot rod

text: Particularly during the early 1960s, a genre of "hot rod music" rose to mainstream popularity. Hot rod music was largely a product of a number of surf music groups running out of ideas for new surfing songs and simultaneously shifting their lyrical focus toward hot rods. Hot rod music would prove to be the second phase in a progression known as the California Sound, which would mature into more complex topics as the decade passed. Hot rods were used as the theme of Lightning Rod, a Rocky Mountain Construction roller coaster at Dollywood.


title: Hot rod

text: Locals in these countries, influenced by American culture, have created a local hot rod culture which is vibrant in Sweden and Finland where enthusiasts gather at meetings such as Power Big Meet and clubs like Wheels and Wings in Varberg, Sweden have established themselves in Hot Rod culture. Since there is very little "vintage tin" the hot rods in Sweden are generally made with a home made chassis (usually a Model T or A replica), with a Jaguar (or Volvo 240) rear axle, a small-block V8, and fiberglass tub, but some have been built using for instance a Volvo Duett chassis. Because the Swedish regulations required a crash test even for custom-built passenger cars between 1969 and 1982, the Duett option was preferred, since it was considered a rebodied Duett rather than a new vehicle.


title: Hot rod

text: Some 1950s and 1960s cars are also hot rodded, like Morris Minor, Ford Anglia, Volvo Amazon, Ford Cortina, '57 Chevy, to name but a few. These are known as custom cars (sometimes spelled Kustom).


title: Hot rod

text: Some terms have an additional, different meaning among customizers than among rodders: NOS, for instance, is a reference to new old stock, rather than nitrous oxide.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau (, ) is a commune overlooking the Pyrenees, and prefecture of the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: 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 from the Atlantic Ocean and from Spain. This position gives it a striking panorama across the mountain range of the Pyrenees, especially from its landmark "Boulevard des Pyrénées", as well as the hillsides of Jurançon. According to Alphonse de Lamartine, "Pau has the world's most beautiful view of the earth just as Naples has the most beautiful view of the sea."


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: 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 ("pau" in Béarnese) which surrounded the original castle.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau became the capital of Béarn in 1464 and the seat of the Kings of Navarre in 1512 after the capture of Pamplona by the Kingdom of Castile. Pau became a leading political and intellectual centre under the reign of Henry d'Albret. 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 during the Revolution, when it was dismantled to create the Department of Basses-Pyrénées. The Belle Époque marked a resurgence for the Béarnaise capital with a massive influx of wealthy foreign tourists, who came to spend the winter to take advantage of the benefits of Pau's climate. 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.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: With the decline of tourism during the 20th century, Pau's economy gradually shifted towards the aviation industry and then to petrochemicals with the discovery of the Lacq gas field in 1951. 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. 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.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The name of its people is "Palois" in French, and "paulin" in Occitan. The motto of Pau is in Latin: "Urbis palladium et gentis" ("protective of the city and its people").


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau is from the Atlantic Ocean and from the border with Spain on the Pyrenees. The frontier is crossed by the col du Somport () and the col du Pourtalet (). Access to the crossings partly accounts for Pau's strategic importance.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau is located west of Toulouse, from Tarbes and Lourdes, from Oloron. The conglomeration of Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz is at , Bordeaux .


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau is served by the Pau Pyrénées Airport away. Limited scheduled flights serve Amsterdam, London, Southampton, Dublin, Lyon and Paris.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: A TGV rail line runs to Paris and from Bayonne to Toulouse. The A64 autoroute goes to the east. The A65 autoroute was opened in December 2010, linking Pau with Bordeaux and the Dordogne. The city is connected to Spain through the Somport tunnel and the Col du Pourtalet.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The city, located at an average altitude of , is crossed by the Gave de Pau, where a ford gave passage to the Pyrenees. "Gave" is the name given to a torrent in the Pyrenees. The Gave de Pau, which becomes a torrent when mountain snow melts, takes its source in the Cirque de Gavarnie and is the main tributary of the Adour, into which it empties after . The crossing was used for pasturage for sheep in the high meadows. The old route is now a hiking path, GR 65, that runs south to the border.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The lands of the commune are also watered by the Luy de Béarn, a tributary the Luy, and by its tributaries, the Aïgue Longue and the Uzan, as well as the Soust, the Herrère, the Ousse and the Ousse des Bois, tributaries of the Gave de Pau. The Aygue Longue is in turn joined the territory of Pau by the Bruscos and the Lata streams, just as the Ousse is joined by the Merdé stream. The Lau Creek that feeds the Canal du Moulin, meanwhile is also present in the municipality.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau features wet mild winters, with warm, mild summers that are drier. Its geographical location, not far from the Pyrenees, gives the city a contrasting, warm oceanic climate. Temperatures colder than are rare and those below are exceptional. Temperatures reached lows of in February 1956 and in January 1985. Snow falls about 3 days per year ( in 1987), from November to March.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In summer, the maximum temperatures are of the order of , and temperatures above are reached very rarely. During some days of winter, the foehn, a warm wind, can raise the temperature over . As soon as the wind stops, snow can fall.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Rainfall is high, of the order of per year (compared to in Paris, in Bordeaux, and in Toulouse). Sunshine averages around 1850 hours per year, or a little less than its neighbour of the Hautes-Pyrénées, Tarbes, which averages 1940 hours of sunshine per year. Fog is infrequent and does not persist much beyond noon. The lack of wind especially characterizes the climate of the Pau region. Strong winds are very rare, in general, winds are very low or zero.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: This climate has helped Pau to become, at the end of the 19th century, a winter resort spot popular with the English, Russian and Brazilian bourgeoisie. In 1842 a British doctor, Alexander Taylor, attributed healing 'sedative' virtues to the Pau climate.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: This mild and rather wet climate, is also an enhancement to the gardens, parks and public spaces of the city, and for plants from more exotic regions such as Chinese windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), originating in the Chinese mountains, but also for giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and laurel magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) of American origin.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The origin of the name is uncertain. One tradition suggests it is a derivation of "pal" (fr. "pieu"), from the palisade around the original château. Another is that the name refers to a ford across the river administered by the church, the pious. According to Michel Grosclaude and other onomasticians, more recent research suggests the pre-Indo-European root for a rockface was "*pal" or "*bal", and that the name refers to Pau's position at the foot of the mountains. The palisade or pal, from the Latin "palum", also has the same ancient basis but it is not under this meaning that formed the name of Pau, this can be compared to the Col de Pau in the Aspe Valley (, Lescun) which has nothing to do with the city. Its name in the Béarnese dialect is "Pau".


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The name of the town was recorded in the 12th century. The inhabitants of the city are known as "paulins" in Occitan, and "palois" in French. Their motto is "Urbis palladium et gentis".


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Before the 10th century, there are no traces to date of occupation of the site on which the city is now built. The city was built on a site with very special qualities. The Gave de Pau, which descends from the Pyrenees, was a river which was fairly difficult to cross, and for a distance of approximately , only three fords existed: from Nay to the east, from Orthez to the west and that of Pau, strategically located between the two. The northern extremity of a plateau, formed to a point, overlooks this ford of almost . In summary, it is an ideal natural location to control the passage and the arrivals from the Pyrenees, and a small monitoring station was built around the year 1000, a fort surrounded by a simple palisade.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The site was fortified in the 11th century to control the ford across the Gave de Pau. It was built on the north bank, equidistant from Lescar, seat of the bishops, and from Morlaàs.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Until the 12th century, this fort was consolidated and some houses were combined there, together, in a small hamlet. The lords of Béarn then granted the status of viguerie (a small administrative district in the Middle Ages) to this new village which continued to expand gently. In Bearnese, the palisade was called Paü. Historians agree to this being the origin of the name of the city.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In the 13th century, new recognition of the importance and the expansion of Pau, which had become the town of Castelnau, with a bailli appointed by the viscounts of Béarn. At this time, the English settled in the southwest, while the sovereignty of Béarn passed to the powerful family of the counts of Foix. The allegiance of these going, according to the political interests of the moment, to the King of England and the Kingdom of France.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Gaston Fébus (descendant of the counts of Foix and one of the first iconic figures of Béarn), who was very attached to the independence of his small country. He began his major work to reinforce the strongholds of Béarn, including the Château of Pau where he finally settled.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau was made the capital of Béarn in 1464, instead of Orthez. During the early 16th century, the Château de Pau became the residence of the Kings of Navarre, who were also viscounts of Béarn.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau is the only city in Europe in which two founders of royal dynasties were born: Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, born in 1553, and Charles XIV John of Sweden of the House of Bernadotte, born in 1763.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau was a castelnau founded at an unknown date, in the second half of the 11th or the very beginning of the 12th century, to control a fording of the Gave de Pau which was used for the passage of the shepherds in transhumance between the mountains of Ossau and pasture of the plain of the Pont-Long. A castle was built, overlooking the north bank, at equal distance from Lescar, seat of the bishops, and from Morlaàs, capital of the Viscounts of Béarn.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 1188, Gaston VI assembled his "" there, predecessor of the "conseil souverain" and roughly equivalent to the House of Lords. Gaston VII added a third tower in the 13th century. Gaston Fébus (Gaston III of Foix and Gaston X of Béarn) added a brick donjon (keep), known as "la tour Billère" [the Tower of Billère].


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 1464, Gaston IV of Foix-Béarn, after he married the Infanta Eleanor of Aragon, transferred his Court of Orthez to Pau. Pau thus became the fourth historic capital of Béarn, after Lescar, Morlaàs and Orthez. The city had a municipal charter; fairs took place, like the Béarn states. He transformed the curtain walls of his castle home.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 1512, it became the capital of the Kings of Navarre, who were refugees north of the Pyrenees, after the capture of Pamplona by the Spaniards. In 1520, it had a sovereign council and a chamber of accounts.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 1527, Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre and sovereign viscountcy of Béarn, married Marguerite of Angoulême, sister of Francis I of France: She transformed the château in the Renaissance style and created its gardens.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 1553, his daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, gave birth to Henry III of Navarre by singing a song of Béarn to the Virgin Mary, so that the future Henry IV was "neither fearful nor balked." She had crossed into France to ensure her son would be born there. The baby's lips were moistened with the local Jurançon wine and rubbed with garlic shortly after birth. When Henry IV left Pau to become King of France, he remarked to local notables that he was not giving Béarn to France, but giving France to Béarn.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The troops of Charles IX took the city, but d'Albret took over in 1569. Catherine of Bourbon, sister of Henri IV, governed Béarn in his place.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 1619, Pau revolted. Louis XIII occupied it and, after receiving the submission of the fortified town of Navarrenx, pronounced the attachment of Béarn and Navarre to France by the edict of 20 October 1620. It thus transformed the sovereign Council of Béarn in the Parliament of Navarre, joining the future courses of Pau and Saint-Palais.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: On 14 October 1790, it was declared, after Navarrenx, the new capital of the Department of Basses-Pyrénées. This status was removed on 11 October 1795 in favor of Oloron, then made permanent on 5 March 1796.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Napoleon expressed his interest and helped to save the château, which became a prison for a time. In 1838, Louis-Philippe did boldly restore it, to highlight the medieval and Renaissance character. Napoleon III added a double tower framing a false entry, to the West. He also added streets of Belle Époque architecture, before the fashion transferred to Biarritz.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: After the July Monarchy, Pau became, between 1830 and 1914, had the most famous climate and sports resort in Western Europe. In 1842, the Scottish physician Alexander Taylor (1802–1879) advocated Pau for a winter cure. The success of his work was important and Pau became a holiday resort for the British. In 1876, there were 28,908 inhabitants of Pau. The English settled there and took advantage of the first golf on the continent, of fox hunting (Pau fox hunt), and held races at the Pont-Long Racecourse. From the 1870s the "Boulevard du Midi" was gradually extended to the east and west to form the current "Boulevard des Pyrénées", the lavish Winter Palace – with a palmarium; and internationally renowned hotels, the Gassion and the France, which offered a majestic and luxurious setting for concerts and receptions to take place.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: From 1894, Pau was served by a network of horse tramways. A few years later, electric traction was commissioned by the Béarnaise Society of Urban Streetcars. The network consisted of three lines, with a length of . It disappeared in 1931. The town of Pau was also served by the Pau-Oloron-Mauléon railway (POM), whose main station was found at the "Place de la République". Three lines served Monein, Pontacq and Lembeye. Steam traction was used on the network, which disappeared in December 1931.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: While the upper town thrived because of the coming of the rich European tourists, the lower city specialised in industry. Many small structures gradually developed at the foot of the château, the production focused on textiles and the food industry. Many of them marked this industrial fabric, such as Courriades dyes, the Heïd flour mill and the tram factory.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of the American president, also lived in Pau for several years in the late 1870s.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, Pau was still a resort town where European nobility spent the winter. Good English, American, Russian, Spanish or Prussian society met in the Béarnaise city. Many public amenities were from this period, including the Pau Funicular to connect the station to the upper town. Next to these public amenities, wealthy foreign visitors were building villas to improve the conditions of their stay. First built in the centre of town, these residences spread out more and more to enjoy the great outdoors and views of the Pyrenees. Between 1850 and 1910, many residences were thus built and still evoke the splendour of this period, today. This golden period of climate tourism in Pau stopped abruptly at the outbreak of World War I.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The first balloon flights took place in Pau in 1844 and the first flights by plane, from 1909, the year in which the Wright brothers transferred to Pau (on the moor of Pont-Long, in commune of Lescar). They had originally initiated a first aviation school at Le Mans (Sarthe Department), formed of three student pilots, who they were committed to train in France. Pau alone hosted seven global aircraft manufacturers until 1914 and became the world capital of aviation. The military aviation school, which trained the flying aces of World War I, then the fighter school of France, settled there. French aviators Thénault, Simon, Paul Codos, Georges Bellenger Bellenger, Garros, Nungesser, Guynemer, and the Béarnais aviators Artigau and Mace, among many others, and finally the American aviators Lufbery, Thaw, Chapman, Prince and the McConnell brothers, were among those who flew there.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau hosted the 18th régiment d'infanterie, 1st and 18th Parachute Chasseur Regimen (parachute regiment) who were stationed in the town. All participated in the various conflicts of the 20th century. The 18th RCP was dissolved in 1961, due to having contributed to the putsch of the generals of Algiers. It had previously participated in the May 1958 crisis which had ended the Fourth Republic. The 1st RCP remained in barracks in 1983 in Idron camp when one of its elements was struck in Beirut by the attack of the Drakkar building, which had 58 victims among its troops.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: During World War II, the Continental Hotel collected many refugees, including Jews hounded by Vichy and the Nazis, even when the soldiers of the Wehrmacht requisitioned two floors of the hotel.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: From 1947, during the four mandates of Mayor Louis Sallenave, the town of Pau experienced strong growth. In 1957, exploitation of the Lacq gas field, discovered in 1951, gave new momentum to the region with the industrial development of Béarn and the Lacq area (SNPA, EDF, Pechiney and Rhône-Poulenc being the most important employers), the population of the town doubled in 20 years. Major infrastructure projects were carried out, such as the construction of several schools representing more than 100 classes, creation of the Pau-Uzein airport in 1955 (now the Pau Pyrénées Airport) to modernise the old Pau-Pont-Long airfield (in the commune of Lescar), creation of social housing (all of the "Ousse des Bois" in 1961, and Dufau Terrace from 1962), creation of the exhibition centre, the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour and construction of a second bridge over the River Gave in Jurançon. A vast town planning scheme allowed the extension of the commune to the north through the "coulée verte" [green corridor]. The configuration of the city shortly moved from the end of the 1960s. The fame and prestige of the city increased thanks to the conference of the Indochinese States from June to November 1950, visits of Heads of State such as president Charles de Gaulle in February 1959 and the first Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, travelling in Lacq in 1960.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: André Labarrère, mayor from 1971 to 2006, worked towards a first step of the beautification of the city. Within its recent mandates, on the outskirts, the university was expanding and the Pau-Pyrénées was one of the first in France to develop a fibre-optic network, infrastructure offering a very high-speed internet access both to individuals and companies. New facilities were created, including sports, such as the Zénith de Pau}, the Palais des Sports, the Jaï Alaï, and the artificial whitewater arena. The city acquired an important centre of health. The racecourse and the airport (depending on CCI) were renovated. The centre of town also saw significant upheavals with the rehabilitation of the Palais Beaumont and the construction of a new private commercial centre named "Centre Bosquet". Pau finally embarked on the pedestrianisation of its centre with the reconfiguration of its bus network, the renovation of the Place Clemenceau, the central square of Pau, and the modernisation of the "Palais des Pyrénées", a shopping centre in the city centre, near to the "Place Clemenceau". New underground parking compensated for the removal of 400 parking spaces on the surface; also two underground car parks gained redesigned access. Finally, a media library was created in 2012 in the Les Halles quarter.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 2008, at the end of a bitter political struggle, which included François Bayrou, Martine Lignières-Cassou became mayor of Pau. During this term, she included the rebuilding of the water stadium and making the "Rue Joffre" pedestrian. She also allowed the realisation of the City of the Pyrénées which brought different associations related to Pyreneeism into one place.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 2014, François Bayrou became mayor, after standing against David Habib in the election. Bayrou was clearly ahead in the second round of voting.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Fourth city in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (after Bordeaux, Limoges and Poitiers), Pau is the prefecture of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the chief town of four cantons:


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: André Labarrère died of cancer on 16 May 2006. He was succeeded by Yves Urieta, elected by the municipal council on 30 May 2006. In the meantime, the interim was ensured by Martine Lignières-Cassou, First Assistant and Deputy of the First Constituency of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The communal population of Pau amounts to 81,166 inhabitants, according to the 2010 census (legal populations of 1 January 2013). The Communauté d 'agglomération of Pau Béarn Pyrénées has about 170,000 inhabitants.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The towns of Billère, Lons and Lescar are the first three communes in the agglomeration after Pau (they have approximately 35,000 inhabitants combined).


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The had 197,611 inhabitants in 2010 and 240,898 inhabitants in 2011. Pau is the most populous city of the Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and the fourth of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region after Bordeaux, Limoges and Poitiers.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The city of Pau has a long academic tradition, as a university was established in Pau in 1722. Pau now has the second largest student population in Aquitaine. The city has 17,000 students and 3,900 researchers. It has a multidisciplinary university (law, economics, sciences, social sciences and humanities), an , an , several engineering schools, business schools and art schools.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour (UPPA) had 11,200 students, in May 2012, spread across five sites: Pau, Anglet, Bayonne, Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) and Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées). Its location exceeds the strict framework of the Academy of Bordeaux and overlaps somewhat with that of the Academy of Toulouse. The University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour had 25 laboratories and 650 researchers in 2007.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The university group and Pyrénées Oceanes Research Campus unites the Groupe ESC Pau, five schools of engineers (ENIT Tarbes, ENSGTI, CY Tech, ESTIA Bidart-Bayonne, ISA BTP), the (IAE) and the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour (UPPA), with 15,000 students. The Pyrénées Oceanes Campus takes a European dimension and will soon join the University of Aragon, the University of Pamplona and several Spanish business and engineering schools. Philippe Lafontaine, Director of the ESC Pau is the University President.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The university has 34 teams of research including 11 teams associated with the CNRS and INRA team. Some groups of public or private research teams:


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The centre is the home of master students of private law, and doctoral students in private law in partnership with the graduate school SSH 481.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The Centre Hospitalier de Pau has contributed to the establishment of an important centre of health by enabling the consolidation of different private institutions close to the hospital area:


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The Marzet Polyclinic, situated on "Boulevard Alsace-Lorraine", was bought by the Polyclinic of Navarre in 2013. The new arrangement has 400 beds and employs nearly 700 people.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau, became the historic capital of Béarn in 1464, offering the gastronomic specialities of the southwest and typical Béarnese or Palois dishes:


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau has more than 160 restaurants, found in the historic city center (Château, Hédas), and beyond. The Béarnaise capital has several quarters which are particularly animated at night, including the quarters of the triangle, the "Boulevard des Pyrénées" and also "Rue des Orphelines".


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The town of Pau is marked by a strong cultural identity, with the presence of a French-Occitan bilingual school (calandreta "Paulina") (90 students) in Pau and one in the metropolitan area in Lescar (60 students), by a living practice of Béarnese and the success of the Occitan cultural groups. The city has, however, received foreign influences of major importance (English, Spanish, Russian, Brazilian) and remains very open to the outside with a large English student community, along with the presence of Dutch, Portuguese, Spaniards and Moroccans. Near Dax, Bayonne and Biarritz, the Pau people have a love of city ferias. The bandas, bodegas (drinking places with typical animation) and Béarnese singing groups are numerous including "Nadau", "Lo Cèu de Pau" and "Balaguera". Since 2005, the city hosts the festival Hestiv'oc which is the grand festival of Occitania. The University of Pau, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, also often hosts concerts and cultural events.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The Association of the Palois and Béarnese in Paris, "La Garbure", was founded around 1890 by a Béarnese pharmacist who went to the capital to open a shop on Boulevard Haussmann. The history of this association, which has never had official status, is transmitted only orally. However, the original spirit remains the same. The "expatriates" meet two or three times a year in a friendly atmosphere to speak of the country around a good meal. Without issue, and without political dimension, although politicians like Louis Barthou, François Bayrou and others have never neglected this "sounding board" which also brings together celebrities from entertainment, from information and from gastronomy.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The Béarnese state language, before 1789, was a Gascon dialect of Occitan. For the anecdote, there is an English-Béarnese dictionary for the use of the British who were vacationing in Pau. One theory of the origin of the word "caddie" was that it was formed at Pau Golf Club (Billère) from the Béarnese "capdèth".


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: For amateur joggers the Gave de Pau river bank footpath is a most valued itinerary, which starts near the castle and passes along Pau's golf course heading west. Another spot is Pont-Long wood north of the town.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Since 1930, Pau has become a mainstay of the Tour de France cycling race, thanks both to its geographical location and to its marvelous infrastructure. Pau hosted its 63rd stage in 2010, and only one other city besides Paris has done better. The 2010 Tour visited Pau on three occasions: First as a passing town, second time as a finish, and the third time as a departure town on the way to the Col du Tourmalet. Pau is behind Bordeaux as the town of the province to have had most stages in the history of the Tour. Pau will receive the Tour for the 67th time in 2015.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Perhaps the highest-profile sporting event is the Étoiles de Pau ("Stars of Pau"). Held annually in October, it is one of only six annual competitions in eventing that receive the highest rating of CCI**** from equestrianism's world governing body, the FEI. It's also the only event of this level in France.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: In 2008, between 11–23 August, Pau hosted the 83rd French Chess Championship. The men's event was won by Étienne Bacrot, on tie-break from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, while the women's event resulted in a victory for Sophie Milliet. Thirty-six players took part. Pau was previously the Championship venue in 1943 and 1969.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau held the first race to be called a Grand Prix in 1901. After that the 1928 French Grand Prix was held in nearby Saint-Gaudens, Pau also wanted to arrange the race and in 1930 the French Grand Prix was held on a Le Mans-type track outside the city with Philippe Étancelin winning for Bugatti. Pau returned to the calendar in 1933 with a track in the town centre inspired by Monaco.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The track, long, is winding and has remained largely unchanged. The first curve is the station hairpin. After that the road climbs on the Avenue Léon Say, alongside the stone viaduct that carries the Boulevard de Pyrenées, to Pont Oscar. A tunnel is followed by the narrow hairpin at the Louis Barthou high school that leads the track into the demanding Parc Beaumont section at the top of the town. After the Casino garden and another hairpin, the track winds back to the start along the Avenue Lacoste.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau traditionally opened the season but mid-February for the 1933 GP meant the race took place in a snowstorm with slush. After a one-year pause the race was back in 1935 with Tazio Nuvolari dominating in an Alfa Romeo P3 entered by Scuderia Ferrari. The 1936 race saw the only major victory for the Maserati V8-R1, driven by Ètancelin. In 1937 the race was part of the French sports car series with Jean-Pierre Wimille dominating, running three to four seconds a lap faster than the rest of the field. GP racing was back in 1938 and Pau became a test track for Mercedes-Benz before the Grandes Epreuves.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The 1938 race saw René Dreyfus' Delahaye sensationally beating the Mercedes-Benz team. In 1939 Mercedes wasn't to be taken by surprise, Hermann Lang leading the team to a double victory. After World War II Pau continued as a non-championship Formula One race until 1963. Thereafter the race was run to Formula Two rules until 1985, and thereafter by its replacement, Formula 3000. In 1999, the event again changed, with Formula Three cars racing. Finally, in 2007, the race became a round of the World Touring Car Championship.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: The "Grand Prix de Pau Historique" is organized on the Circuit de Pau-Ville once a year, a week before or after the modern Grand Prix, this event brings together vehicles with animated racing of the past.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: From the 1950s to the 1990s Pau depended on the production of natural gas and sulphur which were discovered nearby at Lacq. In the 21st century, the mainstays of the Béarn area are the oil business, the aerospace industry through the helicopter turboshaft engines manufacturer Turbomeca, tourism and agriculture. Pau was the birthplace of Elf Aquitaine, which has now become a part of TotalEnergies. Halliburton has an office in Pau.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau is the second economic hub of Aquitaine, after Bordeaux. A university city, it has concentrated several industrial centres and centres of important research in the fields of petroleum engineering and geosciences, petrochemistry and chemistry, food, automotive, aeronautics and computer science.


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau benefits from its central location in the region of the "Pays de l'Adour" and its location between two major areas of population: Bayonne/Anglet/Biarritz (160,000 inhabitants) and the area of Tarbes/Lourdes (110,000 inhabitants) and secondary, more diffuse, areas: South of Landes/Dax (90,000 inhabitants) and the areas of Auch (40,000 inhabitants), Orthez/Lacq (30,000 inhabitants) and Oloron (20,000 inhabitants).


title: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

text: Pau experienced an important economic boom based on the discovery of the giant deposit of natural gas in Lacq. Discovered in the 1950s (by engineer Jean Féger), it was then the largest terrestrial deposit of gas in Europe and helped France to be self-sufficient in gas for almost thirty years. The "Société Nationale des Pétroles d'Aquitaine" (SNPA) was born at Lacq in 1941, after merger with ELF in 1976 it became part of the Elf Aquitaine group, then Total during its integration into the Group TotalFinaElf (in Lacq, known now the SNEAP, Société Nationale Elf Aquitaine Production). Oil and focussed businesses (Total Exploration Production France, TotalEnergies, Total infrastructure Gaz France (TIGF), Schlumberger, Halliburton) and chemical (Arkema, Air Liquide) settled in Pau or the surrounding area (in Lacq at the Chemparc chemical park but also in Pardies and Artix).