Аскайн: Францияның Баск елді мекенінің сипаттамасы

Ascain (askɛ̃; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region of south western France. The commune has been awarded three flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.

Ascain is part of the urban area of Bayonne in the traditional Basque province of Labourd 13 km east of Irun and south of Saint Jean de Luz and the Atlantic Ocean in the western foothills of the Pyrenees. The southern tip of the commune touches the border with Spain at the peak of Larrun mountain. Access to the commune is by the D4 road from Urrugne in the north west coming into the commune from the west then passing through the town and continuing south east to Sare. The D918 also comes from Saint Jean de Luz in the north and passes through the north of the commune between two urban areas and continuing east to Saint Pée sur Nivelle. Some 30% of the commune is residential with some small forests in the north and farmland mostly in the south with some farms in the north. The summit of Larrun, a mountain iconic of the Basque country, is situated approximately south of the town at the southern tip of the commune on the border with Spain. The summit can be reached by the Petit train de la Rhune, which commences from the Col de Saint Ignace, to the east of the town outside the commune on the D4 road to Sare. The Interurban Network of Pyrénées Atlantiques bus line has two stops in the commune: one for Route 863 which runs from Hasparren to Saint Jean de Luz; and Route 858 between Sare and Saint Jean de Luz. The Nivelle river flows through the north of the commune flowing towards the west parallel to the D918 on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. Several tributaries rise in the south of the commune and flow north, gathering many more tributaries, into the Nivelle. These streams include the Aniberreko Erreka, the Galardiko Erreka, and the Arraioko Erreka. The Larrunko Erreka forms the south western border of the commune as it flows north then west to join the Intsolako Erreka which continues north to join the Aniberreko Erreka.

In 1609 Councillor Pierre de Lancre intervened in French Basque Country at the head of a commission of inquiry demanded by Henri IV. The commission was to "purge the country of all sorcerers and sorceresses under the influence of demons". The priest of Ascain was degraded then burned. The Bishop of Bayonne, Jean VI de Sossiondo, built a large house called "Askunda" here during the middle of the 16th century, which can still be seen. In 1794, at the height of The Terror and after the desertion of 47 young people from Itxassou, the Committee of Public Safety (Decree of 13 Ventôse Year II 3 March 1794) arrested and deported some of the men, women, and children from Ainhoa, Ascain, Espelette, Itxassou, Sare, and Souraïde; and declared the commune, as for other communes near the Spanish border, a "Notorious commune". This measure was also extended to Biriatou, Cambo, Larressore, Louhossoa, Mendionde, and Macaye. The inhabitants were: "gathered in various national houses or in the District of Ustaritz or in those of the Grande Redoubt, such as Jean Jacques Rousseau". In reality they were gathered in the churches then deported in very precarious conditions to Bayonne, Capbreton, Saint Vincent de Tyrosse, and Ondres. Departments where people from the communes were interned were Lot, Lot et Garonne, Gers, Landes, Basses Pyrénées (the Béarnais part), and Hautes Pyrénées. The return of the exiles and the recovery of their properties were determined by a series of decrees issued on 29 September and 1 October 1794 driven in this direction by the Director of Ustaritz: "The former communes of Sare, Itxassou, Ascain, Biriatou, and Serres, whose inhabitants have been interned for eight months as a measure of general security people have not been able to farm. The people who wish to obtain freedom to retire to their homes are clamouring for food without us being able to provide them with the means to fulfil this first human need, hunger". The recovery of property was not done without difficulty: their properties had been sequestered but were not registered and so were looted: "Movable and immovable property of the inhabitants of Sare, were neither legally recognized nor disclosed; all our furniture and household effects were removed and brought confusedly to neighbouring communes. Instead of putting them in safe places, some were sold at auction or to any other party without auction".

These arms were registered for the first time on 5 July 1405 by Juan Martinez de Agorreta y Ascain, Lord of Agorreta and Ascain, who married Princess Leonor Tocco de Acciaioli, from the Florence House of Acciaioli.

In 1670 the commune had 300 fires and in 1718 1,560 inhabitants. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Azkaindar.

Economic activity is mainly agricultural and also tourism. There is a sandstone quarry in the commune. Ascain is part of the Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) zone of Ossau iraty. There are two breweries (Akerbeltz and Oldarki) in the commune.

According to the Map of the Seven Basque Provinces edited in 1863 by Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, the basque dialect spoken in Ascain is Labourdin. The film La Danseuse Orchidée by Léonce Perret was partly filmed in Ascain in 1928 with Chiquito de Cambo.

The Church of the Assumption has some medieval remains. It was enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries and was inaugurated under Louis XIII in 1626. In 1605 Monseigneur Bertrand d'Etchaux, Bishop of Bayonne, visited the parish of Ascain and permitted "the said parishioners of the said parish to sell or dispose of the tombs that seem good in favour of the proceeds of the sale" (be used for) "the keeping, repair, and completion of the work on the church". Inside the church is a Statue of the Virgin and Child which is a cast of a statue from the 14th century: the original in marble, called the Virgin of Longchamp, is preserved in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages) in Paris. Tombstones in pink sandstone from Larrun cover the grounds. The Chapel of Serres, dedicated to Saint Jacques and recently restored was, in the Middle Ages, a waystation on the Way of St. James.