As noted when referring to its ports, and as the reader can verify in the historical section of this article, Hondarribia developed economically as a port located at a strategic point three different economic communities: Aquitaine, Gipuzkoa, and Navarre. Beyond its commercial activity, Hondarribia was also significant in fishing, especially whaling. In the 18th century, a report published in Brittany mentions, referring to the boom in sardine fishing, that “a fisherman from Fuenterrabia invented, at the beginning of the 18th century, a type of net and a set of maneuvers that allowed abundant fishing.”
No one has better chronicled the succession of Hondarribia’s port projects than Ciriquiain-Gaiztarro. We extract here the passages dedicated to the topic from his book Los Puertos Marítimos Vascongados.
The Outer Port
“At the port of Asturiaga, there seems to have been no stone construction until the 18th century, neither for wave or current protection nor as a pier, making it a completely natural shelter. D. Serapio Múgica transcribes the City Council minutes of 25 January 1609, in which the councilors lament that the port had once been equipped with a wooden platform and capstans, but was now completely ruined.”
Consequently, they agreed that “a wooden platform should be built, cross-laid and fastened with wooden pegs, with stone slabs to prevent movement by the sea, allowing any boat to dock at low or high tide, with capstans placed at suitable points to handle the boats.”
Previously, there had been a wooden platform and some capstans, but at that time, even those were gone. From this, we understand that the platform was a tongue of wood where chaloupes could dock even at low tide, with capstans to lift goods or fishing gear. The concept used by Fuenterrabía councilors likely remained unchanged, relying on vertical logs reinforced at the bottom, crossed to form a sturdy structure, stabilized with stone slabs.
The second part of the project represented a desired improvement: closing the gap the islet (now gone) and the mainland to prevent the “tiraña” from disturbing the anchored boats, and building a covered area on land for fishermen and their gear.
Although it is unclear whether this project was completed, in 1659 the locals brought two French master masons (who had worked on Socoa) to remove dangerous rocks in the cove. Still, no permanent quay was built in the 18th century, as shipping activity decreased and the port lost its original importance.
The law of 30 December 1912 officially recognized Fuenterrabía as a port. The final project was built at Gurutz-Aundi, overseen by D. Javier de Ugarte in 1914. The port was simple, intended to shelter small fishing boats, with a quay, counter-quay, ramps, and mooring points, safely outside the sandbar. After destruction in 1919, the final plan by D. Pedro Gaytán de Ayala in 1933 reinforced the port with cement and concrete, including artificial blocks up to 100 tons.
La Marina
Before reaching Puntal Port, there was a small landing for fishing chaloupes in the Marina neighborhood. As early as the 16th century, documents mention these landings and “acequias de molinos,” where larger ships could shelter. In the 18th century, protective walls and quays were built, funded by the fishermen’s guild and subsidized by the province.
With the rise of tourism in the 19th century, a new quay was built in 1859 under engineer D. Mariano José de Lascurain, uted quickly to visitors. Later, reclamation projects at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries altered the Marina but preserved its character through municipal efforts.
Puntal
The old Puntal port was transformed by the second urban expansion. Sources from the 17th and 18th centuries that the port already had docks and natural channels, used to shelter ships and connect to the Casa-Lonja. Royal permission to levy taxes on goods in 1560 helped fund quay construction. 19th-century engravings and military maps confirm the existence of a sandbank and natural channels, crucial for navigation and ship safety in the estuary.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the main occupation of the neighborhood was commerce and fishing, both at sea and on the Bidasoa, where large quantities of high-quality salmon were caught. The harbor was shallow, so it could only accommodate fishing boats and a few small vessels. Larger ships sometimes anchored under the protection of Cape Higuer. Apples were harvested abundantly, but wheat, corn, and beans were insufficient. Flax was produced for the local looms.
One hundred and twenty years later, agriculture had progressed, having reclaimed marshland for cultivation. Corn, apples, and fodder were collected. About three hundred fishermen engaged in tuna, anchovy, and sardine fishing on steamers and traditional fishing boats. Fishing steamers and equipment, especially hooks, were being built. There were factories for pickling and salting. Tourism was developing rapidly, exceeding 1,500 summer visitors.
However, large-scale commerce disappeared due to the closure of the fish market following the fall of the foral regime, the small size of the port relative to large ships, the distance from the railway, and the selection of Irún as the hub on the Madrid–Hendaye axis.
Aurora Lezcano, a veteran summer visitor in the now very crowded city, reminded us in the press of the charming Fuenterrabía she had known as a child:
“Finally, we arrived. My father had written to the French gardener — Monsieur Dominique — to arrange the geraniums on the terrace ‘all in bright red of the same tone,’ and there they were, welcoming us in the cheerful little house by the sea. At that time, there were twenty or thirty families spending the summer there, and the fishing village had about six thousand inhabitants, almost all fishermen. Francisco de Sagarzazu, an intelligent and artistic man, was the mayor under the dictatorship, and he did it very well, beautifying the town day by day. Fuenterrabía retained its charming fishermen’s houses, its old streets from the 12th to the 18th century in the old town, and its half-ruined castle of Charles V; below, in the Marina and on the beach, were small chalets and very simple holiday homes, of Basque style, and some in French style under the influence of the neighboring beaches.
On the promenade, the old fishermen watched the sea, women mended the nets, and we young holidaymakers went on afternoon excursions with sandwiches and soda, while in the mornings we enjoyed the beach and sea bathing. There were famous lifeguards — Urbano and Perico — who looked after us in the water and taught us to swim. One of them is still alive. Older people played cards or went by car to Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz for tea and shopping. Ladies wore hats and gloves, and the gentlemen were also very well dressed.
There was a tennis club where my father taught me to practice before the morning bath, and where intense matches were played: M. Borotra, Asís Alonso, the Linares brothers, Pepa Chávarri, Lily Alvarez. We children watched these matches, fascinated. There were also some automobile ‘gymkhanas.’ Life was very peaceful. Young people had no cars or motorcycles — not even the older ones — and at most some bicycles for excursions to the lighthouse, Guadalupe, or on the road to Navarre. We were quite happy. Sometimes my parents took me to Biarritz, which bored me terribly despite the snacks at “Dodin” and the fact that they usually bought me a dress for 100 old francs at “Biarritz Bonheur,” which, given the peseta during the dictatorship, was equivalent to 10 pesetas.
In Fuenterrabía, we wore espadrilles all summer, and only on the days we went for a walk in France, when we were forced to wear a hat, were we a little more comfortable (…) To have a drink, there was only “La Muela” in front of the beach, which still exists, where the elegant adults gathered around one in the afternoon, and in the village, “Olegario,” the best inn at the time — today the Jáuregui Hotel. The food there was excellent. Then came the Concha and Francia Hotels. That was all.
At that time, a very sought-after young man among marriageable girls was Javier Valera — Javier Villasinda — Marquis of Bogaraya, a young diplomat with green eyes, returning from a post in Chile and playing the ukulele. He was the grandson of two great writers: D. Juan Valera and great-grandson of the Duke of Ribas. A quiet man, he occasionally told a witty joke, but being handsome and a marquis, this song was written about him to the tune of the popular tango: “Buenos Aires la Reina del Plata”:
Bogaraya is the young man in fashion
among the girls of Fuenterrabía
listen to the song
that is sung all day long…
In the mornings at “Olegario,”
we all went to watch,
and from afar admire
the handsome boy of the neighborhood…
Bogaraya, behind your marquisate,
you take them even swimming,
and if you go to Warsaw
they run after you.
Ivan Quirós, son of the Marquis of Quirós, very young, followed by his dog, sails in his little sailboat on the choppy Cantabrian Sea. He speaks Basque and is friends with the fishermen. Years later, he would teach me to row and sail.”
Ref. Diario Vasco, 20-IX-1967.
A mixed mode of production continues to exist, to which is added the spectacular rise of tourism, which was already strongly emerging before the war. Atlantic crops — corn, apple trees, potatoes, beans, vegetable gardens — are outpaced by forage crops. Livestock is predominantly cattle: nearly 1,500 heads, among which there are notable specimens of the Pyrenean breed. Sheep farming, once very important, has almost disappeared.
The total agricultural area amounts to approximately 2,184.80 hectares, distributed as follows:
- Forest: 1,418.80 ha
- Arable: 193.20 ha
- Uncultivated: 444.70 ha
- Vegetables: 19.00 ha
- Fallow and stubble: 3.90 ha
- Unproductive: 105.20 ha
According to the 1962 agricultural census, this municipality had 411 agricultural holdings: one minimal, 23 under 0.1 ha, 171 from 0.1 to 1 ha, 168 from 1 to 5 ha, 40 from 5 to 20 ha, 7 from 20 to 100 ha, and 1 over 100 ha.
Land tenure is as follows:
- Owned: 912
- Leased: 252
- Sharecropping: 5
- Other: 1,281
From a commercial standpoint, Fuenterrabía belongs to the San Sebastián commercial area, Irún sub-area, and has 100 commercial licenses of its own (1963). A distinctive feature is its antique shops and art galleries.
In 1979, there were 61 artisanal vessels with 275 sailors and 26 surface ships with a crew of 302. The landed catch amounted to 4,930.3 tons, valued at 627.3 million. Tuna and bonito fishing stood out in particular.
As for artisanal fishing, mainly based on hake, it experienced the sharpest contraction of all fishing in the area, due to the draconian restrictions imposed by the French authorities on the exploitation of the fishing grounds known as the Capbreton Trench. During the 1978–1979 period, the catch volume fell from 592,900 to 317,000 kg.
The famous French coast guard ship “Ancelle” seized 38 Ondarribia vessels on July 6, 1979, which were acquitted at a trial held in Bayonne the following October. After the San Juan de Luz fishermen’s union appealed, the Pau Court of Appeal again acquitted the Guipuzcoans in March 1980.
However, the application of the French 188-mile law threatens the traditional rights of Fuenterrabía fishermen, as the fishing grounds border the dividing line and French administrative authorities defy the rulings of their own judiciary.
There is a total of 139 companies, of which 11 are dedicated to the food sector, 3 to textiles, 21 to wood and cork, 2 to chemicals, 62 to construction, and 27 to metal.