As they sailed down the coast Robert Moreau related the history of Hendaye to Barton, telling him how in the past it had been an insignificant fishing village of less than five hundred souls, staring across the Bidassoa River at its heavily fortified Spanish neighbour, Fuentarrabia. The most important events in its history being the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees between France and Spain in 1659 and the contract of marriage between Louis XIV and the Infanta Maria Theresa in 1660. Hendaye then slumbered for another couple of centuries until in the early 19th century it became the scene of a number of battles in the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1864, the industrial revolution belatedly arrived in the form of the first railway line and in the space of a few decades the sleepy town was transformed. The population increased more than six fold as the railway company, customs and frontier controls created many new jobs.
From the end of the 19th century the Basque Coast gradually became a tourist destination bringing a new prosperity to the region with Biarritz becoming a favourite resort for the rich and aristocratic families of Europe until a series of disasters brought its hopes to a grinding halt: WWI, the Spanish Civil War and WWII.
It was not until the 1960s that prosperity really returned to the region, thanks mainly to the generous vacations the French workers enjoyed and the democratisation of the automobile, not forgetting an efficient railway system and subsidised travel, which together gave birth to modern tourism in France.
Hendaye had become a popular seaside resort with its fine sandy beaches, the nearby mountains of the Pyrenees and the almost pristine freshness of the Basque Country. In the sixties and early seventies Spain was still ruled by Franco and very few tourists were tempted to cross the border, travel in the country still posed certain problems: the relative lack of development and the generally repressive regime of the then aging dictator. When Franco finally died at the end of 1975, independentist problems erupted and the very presence of a French car in the sensitive cross the border Basque region was a provocation; few tourists wanted to see their precious vehicle damaged or even worse in flames.
Real estate development did not commence until the late eighties with the construction of the marina complex in the Bay of Txingudi, which was progressively extended to a total of 850 berths with a boat repair yard. The point at the western end of the beach was transformed with the construction of hotels, hundreds of apartments, shops and restaurants in the attractive traditional architectural style of the Basque Country, landscaped with palm trees and gardens.
Spain joined the EU in 1986, but initially very few Spanish visitors ventured across the border into France, preferring their own beach in the picturesque old town of Fuentarrabia just across the Bidassoa River from Hendaye. Customs post and passport control points were not removed until after 1990, when the Schengen Agreement on free movement of EU citizens came into force.
By then Spain’s economic miracle was underway and money from the EU poured in for the modernisation of its infrastructure causing a boom in the construction industry. In the mid-nineties interest rates started to fall precipitating a rush into housing construction. By 2004, interest rates had fallen to a historic low and the Spanish the boom was in full swing with almost 600,000 units built that year.
In the meantime house prices had risen from a national average of around six hundred euros per square metre in 1995 to over two thousand and even higher in the prosperous region of the Basque Country, stimulated by variable by low interest bank loans of around three percent.
Speculation soon became rife as the world in general, and Spain in particular, as the price of property rocketed. Everyone wanted to get in on the act, everyone felt rich as the price of their home rose and money became easy. It was at that point certain Spanish construction firms set their eyes on Hendaye.
The Pyrenées Atlantique, a French department, or county, had a population density of eighty persons per square kilometre compared to that of Guipuzcoa’s three hundred and fifty, had remained untouched by the rapid industrial development of its neighbour. Thus the border area on the French side was an attractive place of residence for those within commuting distance of their work places in and around the conglomeration of San Sebastian and its neighbouring towns.
Promoters rushed to Hendaye buying up land and demolishing large traditional villas to make way for apartment buildings. In 2004 almost three thousand new apartments were planned in Hendaye where the total number of existing residences did not exceed six thousand.
For Spaniards living in nearby provinces, it was a green and refreshing place to have a vacation home compared to the expensive, noisy and densely populated coastal region of the Basque Province, with most of Guipuzcoa’s seven hundred thousand inhabitants living on the coastal strip and in the valleys of the mountainous province, where the population density was the highest in Spain.
Never before in the history of Hendaye had there been such a frenzy of construction, never before in the history of the town had the population grown so fast. Soon the lack of constructible land was posing a serious problem, forcing the local authorities to consider all kinds of extravagant projects in their search for a solution to meet the burgeoning demand.