This edifice, undated as yet and used to do one’s laundry before running water started arriving from 1955 onwards, is built in pink sandstone from Arradoy, a local stone often used in door and window frames of dwellings or for the whole building.
The water (two inlets) comes from a spring tapped just above it.
In the form of a double cross, this wash house features eight washing stones. The basin receiving the water was used to rinse one’s linen, the other ones to wash it with soap.
The social role of these meeting places cannot be gainsaid.
From 1928 to 1938, the soap used was locally handcrafted. The village’s MAYTÉ soap factory made one tonne per month, supplying it to groceries from Mauléon to Urepel. Production finally ended during the Second World War.
Now roofless, this wash house used to have a tiled roof on a wooden frame supported by wooden posts, the supports of which are still clearly visible.