Orthez

Orthez grew on the Gave de Pau beneath the castle of the viscounts of Béarn. Gaston VII made it his capital in 1242; in the following century Gaston Fébus ruled Béarn from a court renowned for its splendour. The town later became a centre of Protestant learning. In 1566 Jeanne d'Albret founded the Academy of Orthez on the model of Calvin's Geneva, giving the Reformed faith a place of study in her lands.