page_title: Anglet
section_title: 19th century, the transformation of Anglet, a rural area in an urban space
hierarchical_section_title: Anglet / History / 19th century, the transformation of Anglet, a rural area in an urban space
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Ecole Anglet Place Lamothe
context_page_description: Anglet is a French commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.
  Anglet lies in the traditional province of Labourd of the Northern Basque Country while its inhabitants have traditionally spoken Gascon.
  The inhabitants of the commune are known as Angloys or Angloyes.
context_section_description: In 1838/39, Father Cestac acquired the property Châteauneuf to install the institution of Our Lady of refuge and create a community of servants of Mary away from the city and the critics (they collected young prostitutes wishing to exit). This property now has the last agricultural land between Chiberta forest and the Boulevard BAB. Father Cestac did not have much money which forced him to work the land with his community who were unaccustomed to working the land. The nuns founded a school, cultivated and cleared most of the land surrounding the Refuge, which grew considerably. Beyond the corn fields, near the forest, there are greenhouses where they still maintain today decorative flowers and gardens (on the other side of the Avenue de Montbrun). Some of them wanted to go further in their work of prayer and meditation, namely absolute silence. These were the Bernardines who settled in the area about a kilometre from the Refuge near the greenhouses. Next to the Bernardine convent is the cemetery for Bernardines and the Servants of Mary with more than 300 graves in sand - all symmetrically aligned and decorated with a shell cross. This site is unique in France. Each year, they are rebuilt during the season of Lent because the weather erodes them. Nearby there is also a chapel of straw with a sand floor (Our Lady of Solitude), symbol of the greatest austerity of their religious faith.
  Early in 1870 it was decided to build a racetrack on the sands of Chiberta to develop a new area of recreation and tourism on the current site of La Barre like its neighbour biarrot. This racecourse included fifty hectares of land previously used for the cultivation of vines and some market gardening, while crystallizing a divide between tourism development then reserved for the elite and the peasants, still rooted in the rural world. Its creation was due to a cousin of the mayor of Bayonne, Felix Labat, supported by an Englishman, Lord Howden, a former Spanish ambassador and owner of the Château de Caradoc in Bayonne. The racecourse and shopping places became the most fashionable distraction on the Basque coast. This was the rendezvous of all the "elite" of the time who came to show themselves in the elegant galleries.
  In 1877 the BAB (Bayonne Anglet Biarritz) railway line of "American railway" (steam tram) type was inaugurated. It served Anglet through the "Five Cantons" halt near the Villa Marie Antoinette. However, it was critical that the new railway crossed rural roads in the commune by unmanned level crossings (causing many accidents) while avoiding the administrative centre of Saint John. The concern was not to serve the people of Anglet but to link Bayonne to Biarritz.
  It was not until 1888 that a new line (BLB) connected Bayonne to Biarritz along the National Route N10 and strengthened the intersection located in the Saint John district. BLB quickly became more attractive than the BAB, especially because of its coverage of Saint John - the administrative district - and the Marracq High School stop in Bayonne where many students were enrolled from Anglet.
  In 1884–1885, the first bathing establishment opened its doors on the House of Love beach wishing to compete with the baths in Biarritz. Swimmers had at their disposal: seventy-five cabins, a wide assortment of bathing suits, and a swimming coach who personally watched over them.
  On 9 January 1924 the town was hit by a "tsunami" that destroyed the racetrack (it never succeeded in recovering from this disaster). The bathing establishment, also hit hard, was rebuilt 30 metres (98 feet) away.
  It was not until the mid 1920s that the company BALF (Biarritz-Anglet-Forest) acquired 150 new hectares to create the Chiberta Golf Course (1927). In 1928 a second bathhouse was created at the House of Love, with a saltwater pool, a dozen "cabanas" (cabins with private bathrooms), and a large hall (the whole occupies 15,000 m2). Its art deco style is signed Anatole Durruty. This property attracted the biggest names in high society of the time (the Baroness de Rothschild, the Maharajah of Jasdan, t
caption: The Jules Ferry School at Anglet. In the foreground the school was built in neo-Basque style with additions on both sides with openings that reveal a more contemporary architecture. At the right is the rear side of the pediment, today in the courtyard of the school. Made of Bidache stone, it dates from 1899 and Chiquito de Cambo played there.
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