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A
Guided Tour of the Village
We
invite you to walk through our village and to pause at places of interest, you
will find the places listed from 1 to 25, see
attached map, we advise you to follow them in order to gain a better understanding
of the village.
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It
is situated in the flat part of a glacial trough. The Ossau glacier was
300 to 500 metres thick at the level of Bielle. The ridges that you notice
to the west, above Bilhères, are moraines (ie glacial deposits).
The village is cut in two by the Arriu-Mage , the largest stream. Along
it you will see bridges, watering places, fountains, and washing areas.
In olden times ten or more watermills bordered this river. The other important
axis around which the village is organised is the road. Today it is a main
national road, previously it was an imperial one , and even earlier a pilgrim
route to St Jacques de Compostelle.
The
old post office and town hall is now residential, it has a front door with
a rounded arch in which the keystone is sculptured marble. The craftsman
is expressing a wish for prosperity and fertility, at the base of the stone
he has engraved a semicircle which represents the earth , above this there
are branches of plants indicating the prosperity and fertility of the ground.
The sculptor has placed this over the doorway so that as the family pass
through the wish is invoked. In several places in the village you can see
the same theme, always over a door which was seen as being a strongly symbolic
passageway.
They
believed in God and expressed this belief on their houses. On the keystone
of this door there is a snake in the form of a basket handle , it is interlaced
with three vertical bars, representing the Christian symbol IHS which means
‘Jesus Saviour of Men’. In the neighbouring villages of Béost
and Louvie Soubiron there are phrases like ‘God bless this house’
which confirms the faith of the inhabitants.
Again
it is a religious theme which decorates the two main windows, the stones
which jut out from the facade serve as supports for an awning. The window
frames with mullions are not always the original ones from that house, those
with angels carrying coats of arms or phylactery were recuperated from an
earlier building.
This
is a plaque which ties in with the building theme. Dated 1773 you can see
a square on the left and a builder’s level on the right, a skittle
topped by a crown represents King Salomon, one of the three founders of
the builders’ guild. The stone masons moved from place to place to
improve their skills and to learn new ones. At this point the builders’
guild had the monopoly on stone cutting. You can see the sculptured marks
of passage which the guild obliged its builders to put onto the keystones,
lintels and onto the plaques which you find on Ossalois house facades.
Above
the plaque a head identifies that this is a house for ‘cagots’.
People used to consider the cagots as former lepers, but this is false.
Others think they were the descendants of the visigoth and ostrogoth invaders,
and that the name cagot is derived from ‘chien de goths’. Originally
they were excluded from worshipping and mixing with the villagers but after
a papal bull they were able to gain access to churches and live in segregated
areas as they did in the Aspe Valley. They were forbidden to use stone lintels
and, as in Jurançon, they were obliged to put a little stone figure
of a man over the door. You see this ignominious sign on a dozen or so houses
in the valley.
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