Banca is part of Pays Quint (Kintoa in Basque or Quinto Real in Spanish),[5] an area of pasture area which belongs to Spain but is cultivated by French farmers.
Geography
Banca is located in the Aldudes valley on the banks of the Nive des Aldudes some 15 km south-west of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. The western and eastern borders of the commune are the national frontier between France and Spain. Access to the commune is by the D948 road from Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry in the north which passes through the commune and the village and continues south-west to Aldudes. There are no crossing points in the commune to Spain. The commune is mainly rugged alpine pastures.[6]
Hydrography
The Nive des Aldudes flows from Aldudes in the south-west, gathering tributaries such as the Antchignoko Erreka, the Ruisseau d'Hayra, the Latcharrako Erreka, and the Belechiko Erreka on the northern border, and continues north-east to join the Nive south of Saint-Martin-d'Arrossa. The Ruisseau d'Hayra rises in the south of the commune and flows north gathering tributaries such as the Lehaltzarteko Erreka, the Caminarteko Erreka, and the Legarzuko Erreka to join the Nive des Aldudes near the village.[6]
For John-Baptiste Orpustan, the origin of the name Banca can have two interpretations: one lent from the Spanish banco designating the bench on which money was exchanged (which gave the French word banque which gave the English bank) or two from bancs de pierre (stone benches).
The following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune.
Banca owes its origin to the revival in the 18th century of the copper mines which had operated in ancient times. Banca was known as Le Fonderie (The Foundry) until the 19th century" and, under the Ancien Régime, it was a hamlet or district under the parish of Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry. It was not made a commune until 1793 under the same name, then in 1874 it was renamed "Banca". The remains of a large forge, a steel foundry started in 1828 on the site of the former copper smelter, stands at the entrance of the village on the banks of the Nive des Aldudes. The most visible element is a blast furnace in good condition.
The first armed action by Iparretarrak took place in Banca on 11 December 1973.
the inter-communal association for the development and management of the slaughterhouse in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port;
the association to support Basque culture.
the joint association for the drainage basin of the Nive;
Demography
The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bankars.[18][14]
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1793
803
—
1800
590
−4.31%
1806
999
+9.17%
1821
1,068
+0.45%
1831
1,419
+2.88%
1836
1,280
−2.04%
1841
1,429
+2.23%
1846
1,309
−1.74%
1851
1,327
+0.27%
1856
1,064
−4.32%
1861
1,069
+0.09%
1866
1,020
−0.93%
1872
1,020
+0.00%
1876
1,027
+0.17%
1881
952
−1.51%
1886
944
−0.17%
1891
872
−1.57%
1896
828
−1.03%
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1901
829
+0.02%
1906
833
+0.10%
1911
815
−0.44%
1921
800
−0.19%
1926
770
−0.76%
1931
780
+0.26%
1936
748
−0.83%
1946
735
−0.18%
1954
799
+1.05%
1962
672
−2.14%
1968
634
−0.97%
1975
524
−2.69%
1982
450
−2.15%
1990
426
−0.68%
1999
373
−1.47%
2007
348
−0.86%
2012
332
−0.94%
2017
346
+0.83%
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The copper/silver mines and the associated smelter reached their peak in the middle of the 18th century and the forge, with its blast furnace, was in operation from 1828 to 1861.
The commune has a number of buildings and structures that are registered as historical monuments:
The Banca Mine on D948 (19th century).[21] These remains are at the northern entrance of the village including a blast furnace. The supply canal is fed by the waters of the Nive captured upstream and turn a wheel of a blower machine which injected air at the base of the blast furnace through two nozzles. The adjacent building, still dominated by the canal, housed the forge fires and hammers to make cast iron and a splitting mill for splitting iron bars.
Mines and Metallurgical Establishments of Banca, dir. P. Machot, J&D, Biarritz, Izpegi, Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry, 1995, 306 p. (in French)
Pierre Machot and Gilles Parent, "Mines and Metallurgy in the Valley of Baïgorry", in The Valley of Baïgorry, Éditions Izpegi, reprinted in 2002 (in French)
Gilles Parent, "The handiwork of the Copper Foundry of Banca in the 18th century" in Revue d'Histoire Industrielle des Pyrénées Occidentales, No. 2, 2007, p. 143–222, Éditions Izpegi (in French)
^"Banca (64)"(PDF). Fiche Climatologique: Statistiques 1981–2010 et records (in French). Meteo France. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
