Basque MOUNTAINS, OCEAN & SANCTUARY of LOYOLA - Private Cultural Adventure

Bidania

In Euskadi there are few straight roads. We’ll take one of them to Bidania to familiarize ourselves with the Basque inland landscape: lonely hamlets, small towns, forests, menacing mountains and latxa sheep grazing peacefully in green meadows. We we’ll stop at a fronton (almost all Basque towns have one…the same happens with churches) to play Basque pelota, the most popular sport in Euskadi until the arrival of football. When you hit the (hard) ball with your hand you’ll understand why we Basques have a reputation as brutes.

From Bidania, we’ll drive along the typical Basque road (wet, steep, narrow and curvy) until we reach the area of Mount Ernio, called "the balcony of Gipuzkoa". After a short stop and a walk (to get the best views of the valley, the mountains and the ocean) we’ll start the descent by car towards Azpeitia, passing through the idyllic town of Errezil.

Santuario de Loyola

The Sanctuary of Loyola is many things: a baroque branch of Rome (no kidding!) between mountains, a basilica with a dome so large that the faithful of the 16th century were afraid to enter (they were right to be afraid - a few decades ago, the dome had to be repaired for fear that it would collapse) and the place where the most universal Basque saint was born: Saint Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. It will take us half an hour to learn the secrets of this place that surrounds (literally) the medieval birthplace of San Ignacio.