is a town of southwestern
France , ''
Préfecture '' (capital) of the
Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''
Département ''.
Pau was the capital of the former
Province of
Béarn . The site, on a slight elevation overlooking the valley of the mountain river called the
Gave De Pau , where it was crossed by a ford, controlled access to an easy passage into the
Pyrenees , used annually for the seasonal pasturage of flocks of sheep in the high meadows (now represented by a hiking footpath GR65 that runs about 60 km south to the Spanish border). Access to the pass partly accounts for Pau's strategic importance.
The site was fortified by the 11th century— "pau" means "palissade" in
Occitan — the seat of the
Viscounts Of Béarn . Pau was made the capital of
Béarn Province in 1464. In the early 16th century the (''illustration, right''), made more habitable by
Gaston Fébus, Count Of Foix , became the residence of the
Kings Of Navarre , who were also counts of Béarn, and so it was the birthplace of
Henry IV Of France (
1553 -
1610 ), though his mother, the redoubtable Jeanne d'Albret, had to cross the whole of France to ensure that her son was born at Pau. The baby's lips were moistened with the local wine and rubbed with garlic in his first moments.
Charles XIV Of Sweden was also born at the château, in
1763 . The château now contains a museum of
Tapestry .
When Henri IV left Pau to become King of France, he remarked to the local notables that he was not giving Béarn to France, he was giving France to Béarn. The English discovered the charms of Pau and its mineral springs and left a decided imprint, before the French themselves did, partly because
Wellington left a garrison at Pau on his way into Spain. The vacationing British, arriving before the railroad did, established the scenic promenade, the ''Boulevard des Pyrenées,'' the first full 18-hole
Golf Course in Europe (laid out in 1856/1860, and still in existence), and a
Real Tennis court (since converted into a
Trinquet ).
Napoleon III refurbished the château, while Pau added streets of Belle Époque architecture, before fashion transferred to
Biarritz . Pau is still a major centre for winter sports and for equestrian events, with a famous
Steeplechase .
From the 1950s to the 1990s Pau depended on the production of
Natural Gas and sulphur dioxide which were discovered nearby at
Lacq . Today the mainstays of the Béarn area are the oil business, the aerospace industry (Turbomeca), tourism and agriculture. Pau was the birthplace of
Elf Aquitaine , which has now become a part of
Total .
The
University Of Pau (founded in 1972) is also in the town.
Pau was the birthplace of:
Pau is twinned with:
- Zaragoza , Spain , since 1970
- Mobile , Alabama , United States , since 1975
- Pistoia , Italy , since 1975
- Kofu , Japan , since 1977
- Setúbal , Portugal , since 1981
- Swansea , Wales , since 1982
- Göttingen , Germany , since 1983
- Daloa , Côte D'Ivoire , since 1984
- Xi'an , China , since 1986
