Aramits

Aramits is located in part of the Barétous valley, the westernmost of the three main valleys of Béarn crossing the Pyrenees. It is located some 15 km south-west of Oloron-Sainte-Marie and 3 km north of Arette.

Access is by the D919 road from Ance in the north-east to the village then continuing to Lanne-en-Baretous in the south-west. There are also the minor roads D659 from the village north to join the D159 on the northern border and the D133 which goes south from the village to Arette.^[3]

Bus route 848 of the Inter-urban network of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, which connects La Pierre Saint-Martin (a ski resort in Arette) to Oloron-Sainte-Marie, has a stop in Aramits.

Located in the drainage basin of the Adour, the commune is bisected from south-west to north-east by : Le Vert a tributary of the Gave d'Oloron which gathers many tributaries of its own in the commune including the Aurone, the Lancy, the Littos, the Talou Gros, and also by the arrècs of Bugalaran, Bitole (as well its tributary the Rachet), Ibarcis, and Labaigt (and by its tributary the Audore).

The tributaries of the Joos: the Arriou de Sulu and the Bouhatéko erreka (with the Dragon) also flow through the commune.

 

^[5]

The commune name in béarnais is Aràmits (according to classical norm of Occitan). For Brigitte Jobbé-Duval,^[6] the origin of the name is from the Basque aran ("valley") and -itz (a locative and collective suffix) giving "place of valleys" or "confluence".^[7] It would also indicate that the inhabitants were once nicknamed grenouilles (frogs) - a name for the inhabitants of wetlands).

The following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune.

Sources:

• Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. (in French)^[4]
• Grosclaude: Toponymic Dictionary of communes, Béarn, 2006 (in French)^[7]
• Cassini: Cassini Map from 1750^[9]

Origins:

• Ossau: Titles of the Ossau Valley^[10]
• Luntz:^[11]
• Insinuations: Insinuations of the Diocese of Oloron^[12]
• Aspe: Titles of the Aspe Valley^[13]
• Census: Census of Béarn^[14]
• Cour Majour: Regulations of the Cour Majour^[15]
• Military: Military Inspection of Béarn^[16]

Paul Raymond on page 7 of his 1863 dictionary that Aramits is the former capital of the Barétous valley and that there were two Lay Abbeys, vassals of the Viscounts of Béarn: The Abadie-Susan and Abadie-Jusan.

He further noted that in 1385 there were 52 fires at Aramits and it depended on the bailiwick of Oloron.^[4]

Shortly before (in 1375), the priest of Aramits played the role of mediator in conflicts between the Navarrese and the Bearnese which gave birth to the treaty called the Junta de Roncal, leading to the yearly tribute of the three cows paid by Aramits to Isaba (Spain).

In 1790, the Canton of Aramits also included Esquiule.

On 13 March 2000 Aramits was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 4.2.

Blazon: Vert, two swords Argent saltirewise points to base surmounted by a musketeer's hat of Sable feathered in Argent.

List of Successive Mayors^[17]

Aramits is part of five inter-communal structures:

• The Communauté de communes du Haut Béarn;
• The SIVU for Tourism in Haute-Soule and Barétous;
• The SIVU La Verna;
• The Energy Association for Pyrénées-Atlantiques;
• The Intercommunal association for study and management of the watershed of Le Vert and its tributaries.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Aramitsiens or Aramitsiennes in French.^[18][6]

The economy of the town is primarily oriented toward agriculture and livestock (cattle and sheep). It is part of the Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) zone designation of Ossau-iraty.

 

 

The Parish church of Saint-Vincent (17th century)  is registered as an historical monument. It was a former Lay Abbey with the remains of a portal from the 17th century but the old church was demolished in 1880. The new Romanesque-Byzantine style church was built from 1884 to 1886.^[21]

• The Sommet de Souek is 623 metres high^[5]
• The Soum d'Unars is 604 metres^[5]
• The Barrat de Sottou is 556 metres.^[5]

The commune has a primary school.

Rugby Union: the Entente Aramits plays in Fédérale 2. Pierre Capdevielle played there from 1985 to 1994.

• Henri d'Aramitz lived in the commune. He was the son of Charles Aramitz and a sergeant in the company of musketeers who was the inspiration for Aramis in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas.

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

• Aramits Official web site (in French)
• Aramits on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (in French)
• Aramits on the 1750 Cassini Map

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aramits.