diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index 22402ad..66c6ac9 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ MVP is functionally complete (core app + docs + tests).
 ## 🎯 Active Tasks — v1.0 Recipe Import
 
 ### Phase 1: URL Import Foundation
-- [ ] Add backend import endpoint: `POST /api/import/url`
+- [x] Add backend import endpoint: `POST /api/import/url`
 - [ ] Implement Schema.org Recipe JSON-LD parser service
 - [ ] Normalize parsed recipe into internal Recipe draft format
 - [ ] Add import endpoint tests (valid recipe page, non-recipe page, malformed JSON-LD)
diff --git a/src/backend/index.ts b/src/backend/index.ts
index 00094dd..8dd9f3a 100644
--- a/src/backend/index.ts
+++ b/src/backend/index.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import express from 'express';
 import { getDatabase, saveDatabase } from './db/database.js';
 import { createRecipeRoutes } from './routes/recipes.js';
 import { createTagRoutes } from './routes/tags.js';
+import { createImportRoutes } from './routes/import.js';
 
 const app = express();
 const port = 3000;
@@ -41,6 +42,7 @@ async function startServer() {
     // Mount API routes
     app.use('/api/recipes', createRecipeRoutes(db));
     app.use('/api/tags', createTagRoutes(db));
+    app.use('/api/import', createImportRoutes());
     
     // Save database periodically (every 5 seconds)
     setInterval(() => {
@@ -82,6 +84,8 @@ async function startServer() {
       console.log(`    GET    /api/tags/recipes/:id/tags     - Get recipe tags`);
       console.log(`    POST   /api/tags/recipes/:id/tags     - Assign tag`);
       console.log(`    DELETE /api/tags/recipes/:id/tags/:id - Remove tag`);
+      console.log(`  Import:`);
+      console.log(`    POST   /api/import/url                - Import recipe foundation data from URL`);
     });
   } catch (error) {
     console.error('Failed to start server:', error);
diff --git a/src/backend/routes/import.ts b/src/backend/routes/import.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d14032c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/backend/routes/import.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+import { Router } from 'express';
+import { z } from 'zod';
+import { UrlImportService } from '../services/UrlImportService.js';
+
+const importUrlSchema = z.object({
+  url: z.string().url('A valid URL is required'),
+});
+
+export function createImportRoutes(): Router {
+  const router = Router();
+  const urlImportService = new UrlImportService();
+
+  /**
+   * POST /api/import/url
+   * Fetch an external recipe page and return URL import foundation data.
+   */
+  router.post('/url', async (req, res) => {
+    try {
+      const { url } = importUrlSchema.parse(req.body);
+      const result = await urlImportService.fetchFromUrl(url);
+
+      res.status(200).json({
+        success: true,
+        data: result,
+        error: null,
+      });
+    } catch (error) {
+      if (error instanceof z.ZodError) {
+        res.status(400).json({
+          success: false,
+          data: null,
+          error: error.errors,
+        });
+        return;
+      }
+
+      if (error instanceof Error) {
+        const status = error.message.includes('timed out') ? 504 : 400;
+        res.status(status).json({
+          success: false,
+          data: null,
+          error: error.message,
+        });
+        return;
+      }
+
+      res.status(500).json({
+        success: false,
+        data: null,
+        error: 'Internal server error',
+      });
+    }
+  });
+
+  return router;
+}
diff --git a/src/backend/services/UrlImportService.ts b/src/backend/services/UrlImportService.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e42f969
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/backend/services/UrlImportService.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+export interface UrlImportFetchResult {
+  source_url: string;
+  html: string;
+  json_ld_blocks: string[];
+}
+
+/**
+ * Foundation service for importing recipe content from public URLs.
+ */
+export class UrlImportService {
+  private static readonly DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS = 10000;
+
+  async fetchFromUrl(url: string): Promise<UrlImportFetchResult> {
+    const html = await this.fetchHtml(url);
+    const jsonLdBlocks = this.extractJsonLdBlocks(html);
+
+    return {
+      source_url: url,
+      html,
+      json_ld_blocks: jsonLdBlocks,
+    };
+  }
+
+  private async fetchHtml(url: string): Promise<string> {
+    const controller = new AbortController();
+    const timeout = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), UrlImportService.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS);
+
+    try {
+      const response = await fetch(url, {
+        method: 'GET',
+        signal: controller.signal,
+        headers: {
+          'User-Agent': 'RecipeManagerBot/1.0 (+https://recipes.paje.ca)',
+          Accept: 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml',
+        },
+      });
+
+      if (!response.ok) {
+        throw new Error(`Failed to fetch URL: HTTP ${response.status}`);
+      }
+
+      const contentType = response.headers.get('content-type') ?? '';
+      if (!contentType.includes('text/html')) {
+        throw new Error('URL did not return an HTML document');
+      }
+
+      return await response.text();
+    } catch (error) {
+      if (error instanceof Error && error.name === 'AbortError') {
+        throw new Error('Import request timed out while fetching URL');
+      }
+
+      if (error instanceof Error) {
+        throw error;
+      }
+
+      throw new Error('Unknown error while fetching URL');
+    } finally {
+      clearTimeout(timeout);
+    }
+  }
+
+  private extractJsonLdBlocks(html: string): string[] {
+    const scriptTagPattern = /<script[^>]*type=["']application\/ld\+json["'][^>]*>([\s\S]*?)<\/script>/gi;
+    const blocks: string[] = [];
+
+    let match = scriptTagPattern.exec(html);
+    while (match) {
+      const content = match[1]?.trim();
+      if (content) {
+        blocks.push(content);
+      }
+      match = scriptTagPattern.exec(html);
+    }
+
+    return blocks;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/backend/tests/import.test.ts b/src/backend/tests/import.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9e3ccc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/backend/tests/import.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach, vi } from 'vitest';
+import express from 'express';
+import request from 'supertest';
+import { createImportRoutes } from '../routes/import.js';
+
+describe('Import API', () => {
+  let app: express.Application;
+
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    app = express();
+    app.use(express.json());
+    app.use('/api/import', createImportRoutes());
+  });
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+  });
+
+  it('should validate URL request payload', async () => {
+    const response = await request(app)
+      .post('/api/import/url')
+      .send({ url: 'not-a-url' })
+      .expect(400);
+
+    expect(response.body.success).toBe(false);
+    expect(response.body.error).toBeDefined();
+  });
+
+  it('should return imported foundation data for valid HTML', async () => {
+    const html = `
+      <html>
+        <head>
+          <script type="application/ld+json">{"@type":"Recipe","name":"Pancakes"}</script>
+        </head>
+        <body>Hello</body>
+      </html>
+    `;
+
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, 'fetch').mockResolvedValue({
+      ok: true,
+      status: 200,
+      headers: new Headers({ 'content-type': 'text/html; charset=utf-8' }),
+      text: async () => html,
+    } as Response);
+
+    const response = await request(app)
+      .post('/api/import/url')
+      .send({ url: 'https://example.com/recipe' })
+      .expect(200);
+
+    expect(response.body.success).toBe(true);
+    expect(response.body.data.source_url).toBe('https://example.com/recipe');
+    expect(response.body.data.json_ld_blocks).toEqual([
+      '{"@type":"Recipe","name":"Pancakes"}',
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('should return an error for non-HTML responses', async () => {
+    vi.spyOn(globalThis, 'fetch').mockResolvedValue({
+      ok: true,
+      status: 200,
+      headers: new Headers({ 'content-type': 'application/json' }),
+      text: async () => '{"ok":true}',
+    } as Response);
+
+    const response = await request(app)
+      .post('/api/import/url')
+      .send({ url: 'https://example.com/data.json' })
+      .expect(400);
+
+    expect(response.body.success).toBe(false);
+    expect(response.body.error).toContain('HTML');
+  });
+});