The Basque Country (Euskadi in Basque, País Vasco in Castilian) is an autonomous community in northern Spain, facing the Bay of Biscay, on the border with France, where the French Basque provinces lie. It consists of three provinces, the territorios históricos: Álava (Araba), with the capital Vitoria-Gasteiz; Biscay (Bizkaia), with Bilbao; and Gipuzkoa, with San Sebastián. It is a green, mountainous, densely populated region, among Spain's richest and most industrialised.
A people and a language
The Basques are one of Europe's oldest peoples, and their language, Euskera, is unrelated to any other known language: it is probably the only survivor of the languages spoken in western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans. Persecuted under Franco, it is now co-official with Castilian and spoken by about a third of the population, especially in Gipuzkoa. The Basques have always defended their traditional liberties, the fueros, and the community still collects its own taxes under the concierto económico (see administrative divisions).
Basque nationalism was born at the end of the nineteenth century. During the civil war, on 26 April 1937, the German air force bombed the town of Guernica, symbol of Basque liberties, inspiring Picasso's famous painting (see Pablo Picasso). From 1968 to 2010 the terrorist group ETA killed over 850 people; in 2011 it announced the end of its armed struggle and in 2018 it dissolved, and today the region lives in peace (see politics in Spain).
The cities
- Bilbao, a former industrial city transformed by Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum, with its Casco Viejo, the ría and the UNESCO-listed Vizcaya Bridge.
- San Sebastián (Donostia), one of Europe's most elegant cities, with La Concha beach, the pintxo bars of the Parte Vieja and the film festival.
- Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital, with its almond-shaped medieval centre, Santa María cathedral and a green belt that earned it the title of European Green Capital.
The coast and inland
The Basque coast alternates surf beaches, such as Mundaka and Zarautz, and fishing villages such as Getaria, birthplace of navigator Elcano and couturier Balenciaga, Lekeitio and Bermeo. The spectacular hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, on an islet reached by a stairway, became famous as a Game of Thrones location. The coast between Zumaia and Deba is a geopark with spectacular flysch cliffs. On the French border, Hondarribia has a fortified old town. Inland, Rioja Alavesa produces excellent wines around Laguardia, and the Marqués de Riscal winery at Elciego has a hotel designed by Gehry.
Food
The Basque Country is a world capital of gastronomy: San Sebastián and its surroundings have one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. But Basque cooking is also found in bars, with pintxos, small bites on bread, and in the sociedades gastronómicas, cooking clubs. Typical dishes include cod al pil-pil, kokotxas, txangurro, txuleta steak, Idiazábal cheese, white txakoli wine and cider (see eating in San Sebastián).
Getting there
Bilbao has an international airport; San Sebastián and Vitoria have smaller airports, and Biarritz in France is nearby. Below you will find a map of our guides and the municipalities by province.
Destinations on the map
Guides to the community
Bilbao
From a city of steel and shipyards to a capital of contemporary architecture: Bilbao is the symbol of how a city can reinvent itself.
Hondarribia
A fortified town with wooden balconies and coats of arms, a fishermen's quarter in bright colours and France across the bay.
Laguardia
A walled village on a hill among vineyards, honeycombed with hundreds of underground cellars: Laguardia is the heart of Basque Rioja.
San Sebastián
A shell-shaped bay, an elegant Belle Époque city and the best pintxos in the world: San Sebastián is the pearl of the Basque coast.
Vitoria-Gasteiz
A human-scale city surrounded by a ring of parks, with a medieval centre and a cathedral you visit "open for restoration": Vitoria is…