Today I spent the day at Kortezubi in the vicinity of Gernika, this note I present to you was published by EITb:
Route of oaths
Way of St. James in the Basque Country: From Gernika to Bilbao (I)
08/11/2006
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.
We leave Gernika-Lumo and continue on our way towards Bilbao along the so-called Route of Oaths. The parish church of Muxika, San Vicente, is one of the few still to contain Romanesque remains on our territory. These remains take the shape of a double, round-arched window on the north wall, and a tympanum containing a window in the shape of a cross. The mullion is fluted.
The Gerekiz or Morga Pass was once used by the Romans, a fact which wouldseem to have been proved by findings of different gravestones dating from this period in the hermitage of San Esteban. This area is found on the watershed of the Oca and Butrón valleys.
Well worth a mention in the church of San Martín de Morga, although somewhat out of the way, is the sculpture of Andra Mari, dating from the 14th century, and the Saint James at the Battle of Clavijo on the altarpiece. It is said that this church was founded in the 10th century, and that it shelters the remains of Lord Manso López, who died in 920 at the hands of his son, whom he had besieged.
Our route continues towards the hermitage of San Salvador, in Aretxabalagana. This is a simple temple which nevertheless contains one of the most important artistic elements in Bizkaia, a monolithic stone window, with one square and two circular perforations divided by a small mullion-like column which stylistically corresponds to the first moments of Bizkaian Christian architecture, closely related to the Mozarabic style; it dates from before the 11th century, possibly the 10th.
Our itinerary will eventually coincide, as we have already said, with the Route of Oaths. This event was celebrated for the second time, after Bilbao, in San Emeterio and San Celedonio. The claimant had to kneel before a priest and swear to the Bizkaians that he would maintain and guard their fuero, or charter. From here, in the opposite direction from the one we are following, they would climb up to Aretxabalagana where, at the top of the hill, they would be kissed on the hand by the noblemen of Biscay who would accompany them to Gernika. The last known king to have carried out this ritual was Ferdinand the Catholic, in 1478.
.... ... .
No comments:
Post a Comment