Euskadi, País Vasco, the Basque Country; few places in Europe are quite as mysterious as this little region in northern Spain. The ancient language, Euskera, has nothing in common with any other European language, and rather than the flamboyant arts of flamenco and bullfighting, the Basque ‘rural sports’ of choice include wood chopping, anvil lifting, churn carrying and bale tossing – a nod to the region’s fishermen and farmers, and responsible for the Basques’ somewhat rugged reputation.
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The Basque Country is to Spain what the Scottish Isles are to the UK: wild and wet, with a unique language, culture and craggy coastline – and plenty of sheep.
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Indeed, it takes a tough mind – and muscles – to take on these furrowed landscapes, dominated by the Atlantic Coast and steep mountain ranges. It took a tough mind, too, to survive the decades of oppression in Franco’s Spain, when the autonomy of this “traitor province” was denied, its language forbidden. But the Basques concealed their cultural secrets between these impenetrable limestone massifs, in gastronomy societies, baserri stone houses and public storytelling and today they proudly display their identity with their characteristic boina berets.
Read on in our Basque Country travel guide.
