Soule
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Soule Xiberoa or Zuberoa |
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 Location of Soule within the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departement and the Northern Basque Country. |
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| Country | France | ||
| Largest settlements |
List
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| Area | |||
| • Total | 785 km2 (303 sq mi) | ||
| Population (1999) | |||
| • Total | 15,535 | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
Soule (Basque: Zuberoa; Zuberoan Basque: Xiberoa or Xiberua; Gascon: Sola) is a former viscounty and French province and part of the present day Pyrénées-Atlantiques département. It is divided into two cantons of the arrondissement (district) of Oloron-Sainte-Marie (Mauleon-Licharre and Tardets-Sorholus), and a part of the canton of Saint Palais (arrondissement of Bayonne).
Its provincial capital is Mauléon, which fused with Licharre in 1841 to form "Mauléon-Licharre", but today is often known as "Mauléon-Soule". Historically, Soule is the smallest province of the Basque Country (785 km2.). Its population has been decreasing (23,803 in 1901; 16,006 in 1990; 15,535 in 1999).
The territory is named Xiberoa in Souletin Basque, Zuberoa in standard Basque, Sola in Gascon and Soule in French; all of them derivate from Subola, previous name of the region attested for the first time in the year 635 in the diaries of a Franco-Burgundian expedition led by Duke Arnebert against the Basques. Subola comes from the name the Romans gave to the Aquitani tribe that inhabited the region by the time of their arrival, the Suburates, also called Sibusates by Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico and Sybillates by Pliny the Elder.
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