Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Bidart, Parish church in Bidart, France

The Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption in Bidart has a long white-rendered wall under a red clay tiled roof, with a dark square tower at the left holding a white-faced clock. Three tall round-arched windows with gray grid glazing and a smaller rectangular window line the wall, and an arched doorway with gray doors sits below a niche, flanked by gray stone buttresses. Inside, a raised wooden altar platform holds a tall dark wooden altarpiece with painted figures in gilded frames, flanked by two smaller side retables; wooden steps with a patterned carpet lead up to the altar.

The present building was built or rebuilt in the 16th century with thick defensive walls. A 1578 document records a donation by Monseigneur de Sossiondo to the parish, and a carved stone lintel on the north wall bears the names of churchwardens Bertran de Lafargue and Simon de Larregui and the date 1610. The south wall was later demolished and rebuilt, the west gable raised, and the apse added; the church was pillaged and used as a food store during the Revolution.

The church stands on Sauveur Atxoarena square beside the town hall and the village pelota court, so it sits within the everyday round of Basque village life. Its name honours the Assumption of Mary, and the building is listed as a monument historique since 3 August 2001.

The church stands on Sauveur Atxoarena square in the village centre, beside the town hall and the Bidart pelota court. The entrance porch is paved with old tombstones and topped by a chapter room that once held parish archives.

The baptismal font, made in 1902, is a Byzantine-style triptych designed by Princess Ghika, sister of Queen Nathalie of Serbia, who took refuge in Bidart. Its central panel shows baptismal grace, flanked by Joan of Arc and Saint Louis; the border depicts a baptismal procession and the ages of life.