La Bastide-Clairence, a Basque bastide classified as one of the “Most Beautiful Monuments in France”, is home to a Jewish cemetery.
The town was home to a large community of Sephardic Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal, who settled in Bayonne at the end of the 16th century, before moving on to La Bastide-Clairence, Bidache and Peyrehorade.
They were known as the “Portuguese”.
In the 17th century, La Bastide-Clairence was home to around 70 to 80 families, referred to as the “Jewish Nation” in the registers of the Corps de Ville.
They also benefited from a separate cemetery from the Christian one.
From 1962 to 1964, Professor Nahon studied this cemetery, which contained 62 tombs.
His studies revealed that the oldest tomb dates from 1620, the most recent from 1785.
In 18 of them, the date of death is given in the Hebrew calendar.
By 1659, all the first names of the deceased were inspired by the Bible: Jacob, Isaac, Benjamin, Rebecca, Sarah, Esther.
The number of families declined, and by 1798, only six remained.
La Bastide-Clairence Jewish Cemetery
64240 La Bastide-Clairence
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