The adventurers of the South

Antoine was born in 1810 in Dublin, from a Basque father, who emigrated to the island…

Antoine was born in 1810 in Dublin, to a Basque father, who emigrated to the island to avoid the consequences of the Revolution, and to an Irish mother. Very young, “he put his nose in all areas of knowledge: he will continue to do so throughout his life”, comments the academician Jean Dercourt. This thirst for learning and the spirit of adventure led him on trips to England, Scotland, and even Brazil in 1836, for a twelve-month scientific mission on the Earth’s magnetic field. Geodesist and astronomer, he is interested in questions of vertical variation, microseismicity, or celestial cartography.

Sources of the Nile

Antoine d’Abbadie has a dream: to leave for Ethiopia with his brother, to discover the source of the Nile. They prepare for it for a long time, physically and spiritually, by getting used to living rough in nature, by training to swim, by also practicing languages, ethnology and geography.

“It was a very dangerous country, plagued with disease, embroiled in turf wars and closed to Europeans for a long time, which fuels the desire of the two brothers to explore it,” writes Viviane Delpech, author of a very complete thesis “Abbadia, the ideal monument of Antoine d’Abbadie”. They explored Ethiopia from 1837 to 1848. They came back with a harvest of data from ethnology, anthropology, astronomy, geodesy and geography (Antoine produced the first cartography of the country). They also come back convinced of having drunk at the source of the Nile and their exploit is greatly celebrated in France. But it will take them several years to realize that they have in fact only seen the source of the Blue Nile.


Illustration on the work of Antoine d’Abbadia in Ethiopia.

Venus in front of the sun

Antoine d’Abbadie married Virginie Vincent de Saint-Bonnet in 1859, he was 49, she was 31. “He associated her with his projects, and did not confine her to her simple ”domestic duties”. Because she has great intellectual qualities, erudition and audacity, d’Abbadie really trusts her. From the moment they are married They travel together. It starts with their honeymoon in Germany. They will cover a large part of Europe. They also go to Algeria, ”says Céline Davadan.

“They enjoy it, they savor it. But each country corresponds to a news item on the scientific work of d’Abbadie. When, in 1881, they settled in Haiti for a few months, there was interest in visiting these regions, but it was also because Antoine d’Abbadie financed a scientific mission on the occasion of a great astronomical event: the transit of Venus in front of the sun. When Virginie travels with Antoine, she is not only his wife, she is also his secretary, and a collaborator in her own right. »

Virginie d'Abbadie and an anonymous Ethiopian in front of Abbadia's porch, in the 1890s.


Virginie d’Abbadie and an anonymous Ethiopian in front of Abbadia’s porch, in the 1890s.

Abbadia-Academy of Sciences

An organic mansion

Their complicity leads them on another great adventure: the construction of the Abbadia observatory castle, in the Basque Country, of which Antoine is an ardent defender of his language and culture. He entrusts the project management to Virginie. In 1864, five years after the beginning of their union, without descendants, they laid the first stone of this Irish-style mansion, on the cornice.

“The absence of children helps to understand why they put everything in the castle. All the financial means at their disposal, but also their body, their spirit and their soul. Abbadia is really an organic work in the sense of the theories of Viollet-le-Duc, and we can concretely see in it a body and limbs, which carry in a functional way the actions which presided over their life”, details the curator.

The construction of the estate, between 1864 and 1870, according to the plans of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, testifies to the personality of Antoine d’Abbadie, to his great explorations, including that of the celestial vault which he is extremely fond of. The moldings and architectural details narrate the life of the multi-talented scholar who left a legacy of astronomer, geologist, meteorologist, metrologist, linguist, ethnologist, archaeologist and geographer. “Abbadia is a book of stone”, according to the expression of Jean Dercourt.

The neo-Gothic Abbadia castle has obtained the Maison des Illustres label, indicating the cultural importance of the place.


The neo-Gothic Abbadia castle has obtained the Maison des Illustres label, indicating the cultural importance of the place.

Nicolas Mollo/ “SOUTH WEST”

The Arab Smokehouse.


The Arab Smokehouse.

Nicolas Mollo/SOUTHWEST

In the Ohartzea observatory, a meridian telescope placed in front of a window, made it possible to observe the sky.


In the Ohartzea observatory, a meridian telescope placed in front of a window, made it possible to observe the sky.

Nicolas Mollo/SOUTHWEST

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Pilgrim’s Spirit

The three functional members of the observatory castle, in the three wings, which are perfectly oriented, one to the east, the other to the south, and the third to the northwest, respond to the three mottos that have guided the existence by Antoine d’Abbadie. They are inscribed on his tombstone, in the crypt he had built under the choir of the estate’s chapel, and where they are both buried.

The chapel, like a celestial vault.


The chapel, like a celestial vault.

Nicolas Mollo/ “SOUTH WEST”

“Among these, ”My faith and my right”, the law of the divine and the law of men is materialized in the east wing, that of the chapel and the room of honor for travelers in search of hospitality and spirituality, on the way to Santiago de Compostela. If we want to be faithful to the state of mind of Antoine d’Abbadie, he is a traveler in the pilgrim sense, in a dimension where he experiences his body, through adventure, his intellect, through his activity as a geographer, but also his soul. It is really in the spirit of the pilgrim” comments Céline Davadan.

The adventurers of the South-West: Antoine d’Abbadie, “savanturier” of the Basque Country