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The Basque Country

The Basque Country (País Vasco)
Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya and Alava form the Basque provinces, to the east of the Cantabrian Mountains. The economy of this fertile region is based on agriculture, despite having been highly industrialized in the 19th century. The Basques are an ancient pre-Indo-European race and the origins of their language have baffled etymologists for centuries. An independence movement started to make headway around the turn of the 20th century and the separatists still have a following in parts of the region.

The Spanish constitution allows the Basques a degree of autonomy, but Nationalist politicians are demanding a greater say in their own affairs.
A large though declining port, Bilbao is the main city of the region. The city was founded in the early 14th century and the Old Town is quite extensive with a Gothic Cathedral and an attractive Town Hall. Bilbao’s pre-eminent attraction is Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, hailed as a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. The vast exhibition spaces are given over to rotating exhibitions of modern art in all its forms. The Palacio Euskalduna is Bilbao’s new congress and music center.

Map of the Basque country


The provincial capital of San Sebastián, situated very close to the French frontier, is one of the most fashionable and popular Spanish seaside resorts. Just 7km (4 miles) west of the town is Monte Ulia, which offers superb views across the countryside and the Bay of Biscay. The art treasures found in the 13th-century Castle of Butron, near Bilbao, are also worthy of note. The third provincial capital of the Basque region, and also the regional capital, is Vitoria, famous as being the site of a British victory during the Peninsula War, an event commemorated in various places in the city. Vitoria is remarkable for having two cathedrals; one was completed in the 15th century, whilst the other, on which work commenced in 1907, has yet to be finished.

Saint Sebastian, Vasc Country, Spain

La Concha, San Sebastian

Time in Bilbao may soon need to be identified as BG or AG (Before Guggenheim, After Guggenheim). Never has a single monument of art and architecture so radically changed a city -- or, for that matter, a nation, and in this case two: Spain and the semiautonomous region of Spain known as the Basque Country or by its official name, Euskadi. Architect Frank Gehry's stunning Museo Guggenheim, Norman Foster's sleek subway system, and the glass Santiago Calatrava footbridge, which allows pedestrians to all but walk on water, have all helped foment a cultural revolution in Bilbao, the Basque Country's commercial capital.

Just southwest of the southern border of France and bathed by the Bay of Biscay, the Basque Country is made up of three main provinces: Vizcaya (which includes Bilbao); Guipuzcoa (which includes San Sebastián); and Alava, where the Basque capital, Vitoria, lies. Navarre, east of Euskadi and part Basque in its upper reaches, and La Rioja, south of Euskadi and the premier Spanish wine country, are closely linked neighbors.

Guggenheim museum - Bilbao

With its steady drizzle (poetically called the sirimiri), damp verdant landscape, and rugged coastline, the Basque Country is a distinct national and cultural entity within the Spanish state, and it has a linguistically mysterious, non-Indo-European language of its own: Euskera. In contrast to the traditionally individualistic and passionate Latin peoples who have been their neighbors, the Basques have often been seen as more collective-minded and practical. They are also known to love competition -- it has been said that Basques will bet on anything that has numbers on it and moves.

The entire region is packed with pleasures and treasures. Bilbao and the Basque Country, along with part-Basque Navarre and La Rioja, offer a great deal of urban variety. From the industrial muscle and newfound artistic power of Bilbao to the grace and lightness of San Sebastián, from the classical sweep of Pamplona to Vitoria's weathered stone or Logroño's streets looking out on the fruited plains of the Ebro valley, the five main cities have distinct characters to savor. In addition, the geographical gamut run from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pyrenees or the Sierra de la Demanda peaks means that surfing, sailing, skiing, and mountain hiking are all within a 100-mile radius.

Getxo, Vizcaya

French Basque Country

France's three Basque provinces are in the south-western corner of the country, near the Spanish border, steeped in folklore and ancient customs. Unlike their Spanish counterparts, the French Basque people do not harbour radical separatist views, but they do cling to their identity, their local unique languages and traditional way of life, offering an interesting diversion for tourists who visit the area. Men can still be seen in the traditional costume of a beret and cummerbund, towns and villages all have concrete courts for the playing of the national ball-game, pelota, and bull fighting is a popular spectator sport. Most visitors head for the Atlantic coast to the popular resort towns of Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz, or to explore the Basque capital, Bayonne. Hikers and nature lovers are drawn to the grand Pyrenees mountains to fish for fat trout, wander the trails, dunk in warm mineral pools, marvel at the glaciers or climb challenging peaks. Another great attraction in the Bigorre region, close to Basque country, is the Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a peasant girl in the mid-19th century. Millions of believers have since made a pilgrimage to the Lourdes grotto in the hope of miracle cures for ailments and afflictions.