Bidasoa-Txingudi

The place-name Bidasoa-Txingudi is a recent creation, combining the name of the river

Bidasoa __NOTOC__ The Bidasoa (; ; , ) is a river in the Basque Country of northern Spain and southern France that runs largely south to north. Named as such downstream of the village of Oronoz-Mugairi (municipality of Baztan) in the province of Navar ...

, which here provides a natural frontier between France and Spain in the Basque Country, with that of a bay on the French side of the estuary, the

Bay of Txingudi The Bay of Txingudi (, , ) is a bay in the right or French bank of the estuary of the Bidasoa river, near Hendaye in the département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in south-west France. It faces the town of Hondarribia and the airport of San Sebas ...

. It is formed by the towns of

Irun Irun (, ) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as a Roman- Vasconic town. During the Spanish Civil War, ...

and

Hondarribia Hondarribia (; ; ) is a Spanish town situated on the west shore of the Bidasoa river's estuary, in Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community. The border town is situated on a little promontory facing Hend ...

on the Spanish side of the

France–Spain border The France–Spain border was formally defined in 1659. It separates the two countries from Hendaye and Irun in the west, running through the Pyrenees to Cerbère and Portbou on the Mediterranean Sea. It runs roughly along the drainage divide ...

and the neighbouring town of

Hendaye Hendaye (; Basque: ''Hendaia'',HENDAIA
Bidasoa-Txingudi Mugaz Gaindiko Partzuergoa
in French as ''Consorcio transfrontalier Bidasoa-Txingudi'' and in Spanish as ''Consorcio Transfronterizo Bidasoa-Txingudi''. The French version of the name, using the Spanish word consorcio rather than the French consortium, reflects the fact that it was set up using a Spanish legal vehicle for co-operation between local authorities. One of the first acts of the promoters of cross-frontier cooperation was to create a new name for the area. Prior to the three towns’ cooperation initiative, the name of the river Bidasoa had been used to define the '

comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, mark ...

' (a Spanish territorial type of district), which groups Irun and Hondarribia as the Comarca del Bajo Bidasoa. But there had been no common name covering the broader area also including Hendaia. The name Txingudi, written in accordance with modern Basque orthography, was originally applied to a small marshy bay on the edges of Hendaia. In recent years, it had also come to be applied to a marshy area between Irun and Hondarribia which was made into a nature reserve under the protection of the Basque government in 1998, and by extension to the area around the Bidasoa estuary. By combining this name with the name of the river, the initiators of the cross-border project invented a catchy new name, Bidasoa-Txingudi. The bestowing of a new name for the area of Bidasoa-Txingudi supported efforts to create a sense of common identity among people on either side of the frontier and thus bolster acceptance of cross-frontier cooperation. The fact that the promoters of the cooperation project chose to spell the new name in Basque rather than French (Chingoudy) or Spanish (Chingudi) was both a way of emphasizing the common Basque culture on either side of the frontier and a deliberate ploy to provide a stamp of Basque political correctness on the project. Source: Bray, Zoe 200
Living Boundaries: frontiers and identity in the Basque Country
Brussels: PIE Peter Lang Cross-border regions Geography of Gipuzkoa Geography of Pyrénées-Atlantiques Geography of the Basque Country (greater region) {{France-geo-stub