FUENTERRABIA (formerly sometimes Fontarabia; Lat. Fons Rapidus), a town in northern Spain, province of Guipuzcoa; on the San Sebastian-Bayonne railway; near the Bay of Biscay and on the French frontier. Pop. (193o) 6,181. Fuenterrabia, on the slope of a hill on the left bank of the river Bidassoa, near the point where its estuary begins, became popular towards the close of the i 9th century as a summer resort for visitors from the interior of Spain. Hotels and villas were then built on the lower ground beside the estuary. This large modern suburb stands out in strong contrast to the picturesque old town, with its heavy, ruined ramparts, its steep, narrow streets and gabled houses with overhanging upper stories, its castle and its fine Gothic church. The town has a tiny harbour for fishing vessels and makes cider, fishing tackle and pickles fish.
Fuenterrabia formerly possessed considerable strategic impor tance, and it has frequently been taken and retaken in wars be tween France and Spain. The rout of Charlemagne in 778, asso ciated by Milton (Paradise Lost, i. 587) with Fontarabia, is gen erally understood to have taken place not here but at Ronces valles (q.v.), nearly 4o m. E.S.E. Unsuccessful attempts to seize Fuenterrabia were made by the French troops in 1476 and again in 1513. In 1521 they captured it but it was retaken in 1524. The prince of Conde sustained a severe repulse under its walls in 1638, and the town then received from Philip IV. the rank of city, a privilege which involved some measure of autonomy. In 1719 Fuenterrabia surrendered to the duke of Berwick and his French troops and in 1794 it again fell into the hands of the French, who so dismantled it that it has never since been reckoned by the Spaniards among their fortified places. It was by the ford oppo site Fuenterrabia that the duke of Wellington, on Oct. 8, 1813, successfully forced a passage into France in the face of an oppos ing army commanded by Marshal Soult. Severe fighting also took place here during the Carlist War in