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Origin and history

The Prison des Évêques, located on Rue de la Citadelle in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, is a rectangular building built in beautiful stoneware apparatus. Its street façade features a chamfered door in the middle, a rectangular window on the ground floor and a door window on the first floor, topped by the date 1584. Inside, a guard corps leads to disciplinary cells, while a straight staircase serves a vaulted room in the basement, illuminated by a sigh. Sealed chains on walls and necklaces recall a prison vocation, albeit brief and late.

The origin of the building remains uncertain: its underground room, arched in broken arch, could serve as a warehouse for a stock market, chapel, or even city hall. The remains of an adjacent wall, dating from the late 13th century, suggest a partially reused earlier construction. The western part, the oldest, would go back to the 13th-14th century, while major restorations took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. The name Prison of Bishops, which appeared in the 20th century, refers to the great schism of the West (1383-1418), when Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port housed three successive bishops. Yet this name is considered a historical heresy by some experts, the building being only briefly used as a prison.

An architectural report from 1997 reveals that the building was once built on an older building, now extinct, replaced by a garden since the 17th century. Ranked a Historic Monument in 2012, the building now houses a museum open to the public. Its basement, accessible by a hatch, preserves traces of dungeons and restraint systems, testimonies of a temporary repressive use. However, the original function of the building – commercial, religious or civil – remains a mystery, fuelled by the absence of contemporary written sources.

The construction is distinguished by its architectural homogeneity, despite its successive phases. The long-paned roof, covered with hollow tiles, and the floor bar windows evoke a defensive or administrative vocation. The six rooms on the floor, served by a wide clearance, still served as police rooms during the occupation of the nearby citadel. The sigh of the basement, overlooking the gardens below the ramparts, highlights the integration of the building into the defensive system of the upper city.

The hypothesis of a link with the bishops of schism (1383-1417) rests on the vaulted room, perhaps built on their order. However, there is no document confirming their direct involvement. The current name, popularized in the mid-20th century, reflects a local legend more than a proven historical reality. Today, the monument illustrates the overlays of use – commercial, prison, museum – typical of medieval buildings reinvested in modern times.

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