Fronton (court)

A Fronton (Spanish: frontón; Basque: frontoi or pilotaleku; French: fronton) is a two-walled or single-walled court used as a playing area for Basque pelota.

The front wall of the first frontons in villages was usually the wall of a church. Because the games being played close by, several priests would play pelota along with the villagers and got to be well-known players and often served as referees in provincial or town competitions but were out of the picture when it turned into a commercialized sport. Because of the increasing popularity of the game, many churches put up signs forbidding pelota games on their porches. The game were also played in town halls, but when the game turned into a highly popular entertainment in the region, towns started to build special frontons in open-air or closed courts.

A fronton is made up of a rectangular floor and three vertical walls, named frontis; the front wall is the main one, where the hits are directed according to the rules. That wall has a line at a determined height named Bajo Chapa (Lower Zone). Perpendicular to the front wall is attached another longer wall, with marks for the distance to the main wall. The number of marks depends on the type of fronton used. Perpendicular to the side wall is the back wall. The height of the three walls must be the same for professional courts. Often, in common rural open-air courts, the place where the back wall should be is delimited by a line on the floor. A free wall sideline is delimited to make watching the game easier for an audience or other players. In every kind of fronton, the sidelines are 4.5 m apart.

This kind of court is 30 m long and is used professionally only for frontenis and paleta-rubber variants.

This 36 m court is used professionally for hand-pelota, paleta-leather and short bat variants.

This 54 m court is used professionally for long bat, remonte and basket variants.

This 28.5 m court has a somewhat different shape than the others: with an inclined roof all along the left wall. It allows the variants of handball, paleta-rubber, paleta-leather and xare. It is used almost exclusively in the Northern Basque Country, but also in some places of León and Castilla.

This 100 m open-air court is used for playing Grand Chistera in France and has no side walls, the limit for play is at 80 m from the fronton. This court is not recognised by the International Federation of Basque Pelota and cannot be used for international competitions.

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Wikipedia