This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (December 2008) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation like Deepl or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Espelette}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Basque. (December 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Basque article. Machine translation like Deepl or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|eu|Ezpeleta}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Espelette
Commune
The church of Saint-Étienne
Coat of arms
Location of Espelette
Espelette Show map of France Espelette Show map of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Coordinates: 43°20′29″N 1°26′47″W / 43.3414°N 1.4464°W / 43.3414; -1.4464Coordinates: 43°20′29″N 1°26′47″W / 43.3414°N 1.4464°W / 43.3414; -1.4464
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Arrondissement	Bayonne
Canton	Baïgura et Mondarrain
Intercommunality	CA Pays Basque
Government
• Mayor .mw-parser-output .nobold{font-weight:normal} (2006–2008)	Florence Gracie
Area 1	26.85 km2 (10.37 sq mi)
Population (2006)2	1,987
• Density	74/km2 (190/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	64213 /64250
Elevation	33–749 m (108–2,457 ft) (avg. 77 m or 253 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Espelette (Basque: Ezpeleta, Occitan: Espeleta) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

It lies in the traditional Basque province of Labourd.

Sights[edit]

The town is attractive with traditional Labourd houses and a castle. The protected sixteenth century church, Saint-Etienne, has a Baroque altarpiece and its graveyard has many traditional Basque discoidal tombstones. There is also the grave of local woman Agnès Souret the first woman ever chosen as Miss France in 1920. She died in Argentina aged 26 in 1928 and her body was repatriated to Espelette by her mother who sold most of her possessions to provide a resting place for her daughter.

Red peppers[edit]

Espelette is known for its dried red peppers, used whole or ground to a hot powder, used in the production of Bayonne ham. The peppers are designated as Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée and are hung to dry outside many of the houses and shops in the village during the summer. The peppers are sold in the town's Wednesday covered market and are honoured in a festival on the last Sunday in October.

See also[edit]

• Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

References[edit]

• INSEE commune file

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Espelette.

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  (in Spanish) Ezpeleta in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa — Auñamendi Encyclopedia (Euskomedia Fundazioa)
  


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  (in French) Piment d'Espelette, site dedicated to the pepper

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  Traditional Espelette house with peppers drying on the walls
  

  
  

  
  


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  Piments d'Espelette, Espelette peppers
  

  
  

  
  


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  Plaque of WWF in front of Father Armand David's birth house, inaugurated by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray in Espelette.
  

  
  

  
  

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