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Château d'Abbadia (Domaine d'Abbadia)
The Abbadia estate stretches along the Basque coast, at Hendaye, about six kilometres from Saint-Jean-de-Luz. It includes a neo-Gothic castle commissioned by the explorer and scholar Antoine d'Abbadie, who bequeathed it to the Academy of Sciences in 1897. The castle was designed between 1864 and 1879 by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, then by Edmond Duthoit, who played the main role.
The building is also an observatory. It houses in particular a meridian telescope with decimal graduation built by W. Eichens. The interior mixes neo-Gothic decoration and Oriental influences, inspired by Abbadie's journeys in Ethiopia and Egypt; inscriptions can be read in Basque, Irish, Ge'ez, Arabic, Latin, English and German. The castle has been a listed historic monument since 1984 and has carried the Maison des Illustres label since 2012.
The 84-hectare natural estate, managed by the Conservatoire du littoral, offers views over the ocean and the hinterland. There are cliffs, meadows and coastal heath, rare Mediterranean flora and migratory birds.
