This island is between Hendaye and Irun, just off the main Basque crossing (1-2 k) between France and Spain. Well worth a visit, I stop and rest on my annual journey to my wife's home town of Seville from England. This year, I shall stay in the Camplanile hotel that views it from the French side and try to obtain more photos to post on the site.There are other nearby and larger islands, but I do not believe that these are shared.

The island was also used for Royal marriages and for these international events, was split down the middle 1/2 each to France and Spain, the rule being that the King of Spain was unable to ever leave Spain. Does anyone have any more information/ photos on this subject???????????????

Not far away is Hendaye railway station (next bridge down the river(1-2 k) where Hitler meet Franco. Hitler said that he would rather draw teeth than have another such meeting!

-----Original Message-----
From: quadernet [mailto:quadernet@...]
Sent: 02 February 2003 15:42
To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Condominium Island

"In Basque Country, in the middle of the Bidassoa river, the tiny "Konpantzia" (in basque), "le de lhpital" or "le-des-Faisans" (in french), "Isla de los Faisanes" (in spanish) --pheasant island-- is the smallest condominium in the world: it belongs for six months to France and six months to Spain. It was there that the Pyrenees treaty was signed in 1659 by the very young Louis XIV under the tutelage of Mazarin, and Philippe IV of Spain. This treaty defined the border separating the two kingdoms.

Negotiations were lengthy, particularly over Cerdanya. The border was often the subject of dispute and there were aberrations such as Llvia, the Spanish enclave in Cerdanya. Two centuries past before three Border Treaties were signed (1853, 1862, 1866), defining a border that was generally accepted in the following years. 602 numbered milestones marked the definitive border between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean"

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