It was only at the end of the 19th century, after the Barre district of Saint-Jean-de-Luz was engulfed by several storms and most of the inhabitants left, that Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Ciboure saw the building of the dykes of Socoa, the Artha area and Sainte-Barbe, thanks to the support of the French emperor Napoleon III. From 1864 until 1898, a series of huge building works took place to create on the rocky seabed artificial reefs topped by masonry walls. Since the creation of the artificial reefs, every year there is an operation called the “wetting of the blocks” which consists in the immersion of about 30 fifteen tonne concrete blocks at the feet of the dykes, whose surfaces are really put to the test during the winter storms. The blocks are made on site by the Council for the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, then transported by a special pontoon, as they have been since the 19th century. This spectacular process takes place during the summer, at a date which depends on the tidal coefficients and the winds.
