Artix (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.
Geography
Artix is located some 12 km north-west of Lescar and 14 km south-east of Orthez. Access to the commune is by main road D817 from Lacq in the north-west passing through the commune and south of the town and continuing south-east to Denguin. Access to the town from the D817 is on the D280 which links the two ends of the bypass. There are also the D263 road going north to Urdès, the D663 going north-east to Serres-Sainte-Marie, the D32 going east to Cescau, and the D281 going south-east to join the D33 north-west of Noguères. The A64 autoroute also passes through the north-eastern corner with Exit 9 exiting to the D817 in the commune.Google Maps
The SNCF Toulouse-Bayonne railway line also passes through the commune with Artix station just south of the town centre. The Interurban network of Pyrénées-Atlantiques busline has two routes passing through the commune: Route 801 (Orthez-Pau) and Route 802 (Artix-Pau).
Apart from the town there are the villages of Cap de Lalanne and Le Plateau. Some 40% of the commune is residential with the balance farmland with patches of forest.
The Gave de Pau flows north-west past the southern border of the commune with some branches touching the border. The Ruisseau Laulouze flows from the east through the south of the commune and joins Le Ruisseau which flows north-west parallel to the Gave de Pau until it joins the river west of the commune just south of Lacq. The Agle also flows west through the northern corner of the commune to join the Gave de Pau south of Lacq.
Places and Hamlets
Près l'Agle Auta Les Baigts Baradat Bernata Cabille Cambayou Camous Campagnolle Candaus La Castanhère (château) Le Castérot Cité Cortigue Cuyala (Cor de) Les Esquirous Geil Les Grabes Labourdette Cap de Lalanne Larrecq Larrieu-Lôme Lauguère Laviecave Lavignasse Lavigne Le Moulin Pendix Le Plateau Pondix Pont Mayou Porte Neuve Poumetche Rémy Rey Saligot Sarrailla Taulat Toch
Géoportail, IGN, consulted on 15 April 2012
Toponymy The name Artix appears in the forms: Artits (1286Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, Paul Raymond, Imprimerie nationale, 1863, Digitised from Lyon Public Library 15 June 2011, p. 14 ), Artics (13th century, Fors de BéarnManuscript from the 14th century - Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques ), Artidz (1350, Notaries of PardiesNotaries of Pardies - Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques ), Artitz (1385, Census of Béarn), Arthitz (1440, Census of Bastide-MonréjauManuscript of 1440 - Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques ), Artixs (1538, Reformation of BéarnManuscript from the 16th to 18th centuries - Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques ), Artix in 1583, in the Reformation of Béarn, and on the Cassini Map of 1750.Michel Grosclaude, Toponymic Dictionary of communes, Béarn, Edicions reclams & Édition Cairn - 2006, 416 pages, Cassini Map 1750 - Artix
Its name in béarnais is Artics. Michel Grosclaude indicated that the name Artix possibly was formed from the mediterranean radical arte ("green oak" then "undergrowth") and the collective and locative basque suffix -itz. He proposed them in the sense "Vegetation of the undergrowth".
Laviecave is a hamlet mentioned in 1863Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, p. 97 but Paul Raymond recommended the spelling La Vie-Cave, meaning the sunken way or path: la via cava.
History The commune once had a Lay Abbey, vassal of the Viscounts of Béarn. In 1385 Artix was a small village under the bailiwick of Pau with only 10 fires grouped around the church. In 1880 the old church was demolished. The new church was opened in 1899.
The village became a city after the creation of the Royal Road under Henri IV which then became Imperial Route 117, then the Route nationale 117. This opening up allowed the market at Artix to flourish and the city to grow in importance.Brigitte Jobbé-Duval, Dictionary of place names - Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 2009, Archives and Culture,
Heraldry
Administration
List of Successive MayorsList of Mayors of France From To Name Party Position 1960 1989 Maurice Plantier RPR Councillor, MP 1989 2001 Raymond Elissonde PS 2001 2008 Jean-Paul Hau-Palé 2008 2026 Jean-Marie Bergeret-Tercq PS
Inter-communality The commune is part of five inter-communal structures:Intercommunality of Pyrénées-Atlantiques , Cellule informatique préfecture 64, consulted on 20 March 2012 the Communauté de communes de Lacq-Orthez; the SIVU for the Agle and the Lacq; the association for water and sanitation of Trois Cantons; the Energy association of Pyrénées-Atlantiques; the inter-communal association for defence against flooding of the Gave de Pau;
Twinning Artix has twinning associations with:National Commission for Decentralised cooperation Sacedón (Spain) since 1992. Song-naaba (Burkina Faso) since 1995.
Demography The inhabitants of the commune are known as Artisiens or Artisiennes in French.Pyrénées-Atlantiques, habitants.fr
Economy Artix has a prevention plan for technological risks due to some chemical establishments in the commune, similar to Bésingrand, Os-Marsillon, Noguères, Mourenx, and Pardies.
The Groupe Olano has a site in Artix specialising in the storage and transport of chocolate.
Culture and heritage
Religious heritage
The Parish Church of Saint-Pierre (19th century) is registered as an historical monument.Ministry of Culture, Mérimée
Cultural and environmental heritage The Béarnais polyphonic group Los Pagalhós, created in the 1970s, was born in Artix.
Villages in Béarn are permitted to display street signs in Occitan. Artix was the first commune in France of more than 3,000 inhabitants to implement bilingual signs throughout the commune in Occitan (Gascon Béarnais) and French. Consequently, its signs show its name as "Artics", since the letter X is little used in the Bearnais dialect.
Artix also has an Occitan language school or Calandreta.
Facilities
Education Artix has two elementary schools (Moulin and Sarrailh), one college (College Jean Moulin),Jean Moulin College website and one calandreta with a childcare nursery and a primary school.
Sports and associations Artix Basketball Club.Artix Basketball website
Notable people linked to the commune Maurice Plantier, born in 1921 at Biarritz and died in 2006 at Paris, was a French politician. He was mayor of Artix from 1960 to 1989. Ramesh Kumar Nibhoria, born in Chandigarh, India, inventor of many biomass energy equipment for space heating and cooking. He is winner of many awards including Ashden Awards and has applied 16 patents. Since June, 2017, he started living here to explore bioenergy technologies business in France and Africa.
See also Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department
References
External links
Artix official website Artix on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website Artix on the 1750 Cassini Map