Hondarribia

Ibi in Basque designates a natural ford —⁠the low point of a river where the water is crossed on foot or horseback without need of a bridge. Basque toponymy preserves dozens: Zubieta (place of the bridge), Ibarra (meadow), Bideko (of the road), Hondarribia. Hondar adds the sandy quality of the bottom: the Hondarribia ford was a sandbank at the Bidasoa estuary, passable at low tide. For centuries it was the only obligatory crossing between Castile and France along the coast, until the bridge over Behobia (18th century) made it dispensable. The Castilianisation Fuenterrabía —⁠'fountain of the river of would-have', nonsensical⁠— is from the 16th century and exemplifies the folk etymology that reinterprets the opaque looking for known words. The original Basque toponym recovered its official status in 1980. The town preserves intact its Renaissance walls and the walled centre, one of the best preserved on the Cantabrian coast.