Artziniega

People have lived in the Artziniega area for a very long time. Prehistoric human remains have been found in the Cueva de la Iglesia at Retes de Tudela, and a Latin inscription stone discovered in the nearby district of Gordeliz — possibly dedicated to a local marine deity — points to a Roman presence. Excavations at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of La Encina have turned up Roman-period material dating from between two centuries, and a burial stele from that era stood in the sanctuary garden until the mid-1990s.

The town's recorded history begins in 1272, when Alfonso X of Castile granted Artziniega its founding charter. The king's aim was to establish a town midway between Orduña and Balmaseda as a counterweight to those towns, which were under the lords of Vizcaya. The plan quickly became redundant when the Castilian kings themselves became lords of Vizcaya, and Artziniega settled into a secondary commercial role. The town was governed by the Fuero of Vizcaya for most matters and the Fuero of Vitoria for taxes.

It belonged to the Lordship of Vizcaya until the death of Don Tello in 1370, who passed it to his brother King Enrique II; a year later it was granted to Pedro López de Ayala, the Chancellor, along with the valleys of Orozco and Llodio. The counts of Ayala — and later the dukes of Veragua, Berwick, and Liria — held the right to appoint mayors until 1817, though in practice the town governed itself through open council.

Through the Middle Ages the town sat on a commercially important route between the Castilian plateau and the sea. A few families of some wealth — the Bengoa, Ortiz de Molinillo y Velasco, and Monteano among them — were active here, but most people farmed and raised livestock. Artziniega was a notable producer of txakoli wine. The weekly market was significant, and the September fairs at La Encina could last fifteen days. Inter-clan violence was a fact of life: in 1366 the town was besieged, and in 1491 the local ironworkers petitioned the Catholic Monarchs for protection against the abuses of the Largacha de Iratzagorría clan. A set of town ordinances from a later period records the everyday economy of the time: wheat, vines, livestock, mills, and urban trades such as weavers, innkeepers, and bakers.

Artziniega's medieval core is considered one of the best-preserved historic ensembles in the Basque Country. The original layout sits on a hill and consists of three parallel streets connected by two short cross-lanes. That structure survives almost intact — an ironic consequence of the town never growing into the role it was founded to play.

Settlement within the walls began at the top of the hill, around the parish church of La Asunción, which acted as the town's organizing centre, and gradually extended down toward the middle street. The lower part of the old town remained largely empty in the early centuries, which meant that from a later period onwards, larger townhouses and manor houses could be built there on more generous plots. The oldest buildings sit in the upper part and date from an early period, even if most have been modified over time.

The town walls, in truth, were never heavily relied upon for defence, and by a fairly early date had already lost much of their substance. The two gateways — one at what is still known as the Puerta de la Villa, another at the western end near the public area called Campo de Abajo — no longer exist. Visible traces of the wall itself survive in the lower sections of some houses at the bottom of the historic quarter, and more clearly in the raised walkway that runs behind the parish church at the top of the old town.

The main monuments are the parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Encina (which holds an important altarpiece), the Convent of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Augustinian nuns), the tower and palace of Ortiz de Molinillo de Velasco, and an Ethnographic Museum.