make blades and knives in a typical Pyrenean style. Lames de Sames, an artisanal workshop founded by designer and craftsman Christophe Lauduique, has a shop at the nearby seaside resort of Anglet. History Settlement Artifacts discovered in Sames (such as a set of 3rd-century Roman bronze coins found in the recess of a wall) indicate that some type of settlement, probably agricultural, existed at the hilltop site of Le Bourg in ancient times. The local church—built in a simple Roman style, which was all that a very rural parish could afford—has been dated back to the early 14th century. The first documents mentioning the commune by its current name are from 1255; several minor mentions can be found from throughout the 13th and 14th centuries. The history of the commune is closely tied to the Order of Malta, which, around 1445, built a hostel and hospital on the bank of the Bidouze to supplement facilities in the nearby port city of Bayonne. They named the site after the Order's patron saint, John (in French, Saint Jean), and the neighbourhood was known as Saint-Jean-d'Etchart until the Order left in the late 18th century. ("Etchart" is most likely of Basque origin; a nearby swampy area is still known as "Etchouette".) The Order also established a chapel that served as a secondary church for locals, and they sustained their right to be buried there until a royal decree in 1668 forbade it. Several buildings from that period, dating to the early 1600s, are still standing. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a few wealthy landowners built mansions in the village: three on the hilltop (the first around 1775; the other two, more lavish and surrounded by parks and gardens, around 1850) and one in 1807 on the site of the old Order of Malta establishment. Political control While Sames itself held no strategic interest, being devoid of any military stronghold, the area at large was in constant turmoil because of rivalries between the powers that ruled the Aquitaine region and northern Spain. Until the late 12th century, the area was part of the province of Labourd, ruled from Bayonne and included in the dukedom of Aquitaine, and hence the realm of France. The local powers were the lords of Guiche, 1.5 km away across the Bidouze, and the Abbey of Arthous 2 km away on the other side of the hills,