The Izpegi Pass (French: Col d'Ispeguy, Basque: Izpegiko Lepoa, Spanish: Puerto de Izpegui) is a 672 m high Pyreneanmountain pass located right on the border between Spain and France, linking the Baztan and Baigorri valleys in the Basque Country. The river Bidasoa, called Baztan on its upper stage, rises close by on the western side of the Iparla mountain range stretching out north to south. The name Izpegi applies also to a stream running on its eastern slopes.
The population nuclei closest to the saddle are the village of Erratzu (west) and Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry (east, Baigorri in Basque). A sinuous narrow road that bears witness to a couple of Tour de France stages descends east to Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry, cutting its way through a spectacular grassy and giddy landscape.
The pass is frequented by hikers in order to gain access to the neighbouring mountain Hautza (1,306 m / 4,285ft, waymarking all along) and other mounts of the ridgeline (Mount Iparla). Since the mid-2000s, a modest txalaparta festival is held at the spot on the first Sunday of September, which has become a meeting point for the instrument's players, especially locals. Money raised at the food stall arranged was destined in 2009 to helping the Basque language school of the neighbouring small town of Baigorri.
History
A battle was fought at this location during the War of the Pyrenees on 3 June 1794. A 2,300-strong republican French brigade led by General of Brigade Lavictoire attacked the 1,000 Spanish and French royalist troops and drove them from the pass. The defenders, one battalion of the Spanish Zamora Infantry Regiment, three companies of the Aldudes Rifles, and the Légion Royal French Émigré battalion, lost 94 killed and wounded, plus 307 captured. The French brigade, part of Jean Mauco's division of the Army of the western Pyrenees, suffered an unknown number of casualties.[1]
Footnotes
↑ Smith, p 83. Smith calls the action "Casa Fuorte".
Lower Navarre is a traditional region of the present-day French département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It corresponds to the northernmost merindad of the Kingdom of Navarre during the Middle Ages. After the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre (1512–24), this merindad was restored to the rule of the native king, Henry II. Its capitals were Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Saint-Palais. In the extreme north there was the little sovereign Principality of Bidache, with an area of 1,284 km2 (496 sq mi) and a decreasing population of 44,450, 25,356.
The War of the Pyrenees, also known as War of Roussillon or War of the Convention, was the Pyrenean front of the First Coalition's war against the First French Republic. It pitted Revolutionary France against the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal from March 1793 to July 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars.
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The Army of the Western Pyrenees was one of the Republican French armies of the French Revolutionary Wars. From April 1793 until 12 October 1795, the army fought in the Basque Country and in Navarre during the War of the Pyrenees. After indecisive fighting during the first year of its existence, the army seized the Spanish port of San Sebastián in August 1794. By the time the Peace of Basel was signed on 22 July 1795, the Army of the Western Pyrenees held a significant portion of northeastern Spain.
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The Battle of Orbaizeta was fought from 15 to 17 October 1794 during the War of the Pyrenees, between the French Army of the western Pyrenees led by Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey and Spanish forces under the command of Pedro Téllez-Girón, 9th Duke of Osuna. Part of the wider French Revolutionary Wars, this engagement was fought over a wide area to the northwest and northeast of Pamplona in Navarre and ended in a French victory. The Spanish defenders gave up territory to the north of Pamplona, including a number of strategic locations.
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Augustin de Lespinasse commanded French artillery during the French Revolutionary Wars. After fighting in the Seven Years' War he switched to the artillery branch. He advanced in rank to major by 1788 and was attached to the Army of the Rhine in 1791. After transferring to the Army of the Western Pyrenees as chief of artillery, he coolly directed the successful defence of the Sans Culottes Camp in February 1794. He was soon promoted to general of division but the Minister of War blocked his continued employment.
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