More traveling information for visitors to Euskal Herria courtesy of EITb:
Route of oaths
Way of St James in the Basque Country: From Gernika to Bilbao (II)
08/12/2006
Our itinerary will eventually coincide, as we have already said, with the Route of Oaths, where the Spanish king swore the Bizkaians that he would maintain and guard their fuero, or charter.
Before reaching the neighbourhood of Goikolexea in the Basque town of Larrabetzu, we will come to a Renaissance cross signalling the way up to Aretxabalagana. The recently restored temple dedicated to the martyrs of Calahorra (called Calagurris by the Romans), Saint Emeterius and Saint Celedonius stands in the Goikolexea neighbourhood.
Although this building originated in the Roman period, the temple standing today is no older than 1500. It still houses the stone table of the parish, around which debates were held and decisions taken on all kinds of subjects concerning the local community. This building houses one of the most important altarpieces in Bizkaia, Spanish-Flemish in style, in gold-plated polychromed wood, representing the Annunciation, the Nativity scene, the martyrdom of Emerterius and Celedonius, etc.
Larrabetzu is another of the twenty Middle Aged towns existing in Bizkaia, and was founded by Prince John in 1376. The urban layout of the town, still visible, was typical of those lying along the Road to Santiago: the houses were lined up one after the other along a street which was really part of the said road. The church of Santa María, still has a lovely, typically 15th century statue of Our Lady.
Civil architecture
From here we enter the valley of the River Asúa, which is now completely rundown due to its dense population and important industrial activity. Lezama, with its Roadside Shrine of Santa Cruz, dating from 1542, had an adjoining hospital and still contains a mural depicting scenes from the pilgrimage to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
Zamudio offers the interesting church of San Martín, a dedication clearly related to the pilgrimage, and Malpica Tower, an excellent example of Gothic civil architecture, which, it is said, although based on flimsy historical proof, was raised in the 9th century by Galindo Ordoñez, grandson of the King of Navarre, Fortún Garcés.
Seven Streets
San Martín was built in the period of transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic periods, with 15th century Basque Gothic additions. Making our way through Sondika, we come to Artxanda pass, which separates us from Bilbao. The traveller will arrive at the Middle Age Bilbao of three and later seven streets, and the church of Nuestra Sra. de Begoña. The road takes us directly to Artagan hill, topped by the Virgin of Begoña.
This parish was the traveller’s last stop before entering Bilbao; in 1300 Diego López de Haro, the founder of Bilbao, mentioned the temple in a document about the foundation of the town. Outstanding from this period is the beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary, dating from the Romanesque transition (13th-14th century). Nevertheless, the present temple was built in 1519 and enlarged in 1588; Gothic in style with three naves, it has series of beautiful star-shaped groin vaults.
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