Basque Country (Pais Vasco)

The Basque Country (Euskadi in the local language) is made up of three provinces:

• Alava
• Guipuzcoa
• Vizcaya

This zone, occupying the eastern sector of the Cantabrian Mountain Range, is one of the most industrialised in Spain.

Its inhabitants have managed to preserve through the centuries an age-old autoctonous culture whose most valuable jewel is its language, Euskera, a pre-Indoeuropean tongue whose mysterious origin has never been established.

Bilbao, founded at the beginning of the 14th century, is the largest city in the region. It has a beautiful Old Quarter that boasts a Gothic cathedral and its City Hall building. It is an industrial and financial centre.

San Sebastian-Donostia, the capital of Guipuzcoa, located near France, was in the last century one of the summer places most frequented by the Spanish aristocracy thanks to its beauty and the quality of its beaches. It has preserved a rare cosmopolitan and distinguished air.

Vitoria-Gasteiz, is currently the capital of Euskadi. Its old Quarter enjoys wide renown. The city has two cathedrals, one in the Gothic Style that was finished in the 15th century and another begun this century that has yet to be completed