Legorreta-Ormaiztegi bike line
A bike path that goes from Legorreta to Ormaiztegi, passing through the towns of Itsasondo, Ordizia and Beasain. The tour can be done by bike, on foot, with skates or other tools.
Tag: Ormaiztegi
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Zumalakarregi museum
Zumalakarregi museum
Tourist Office Ormaiztegi
Zumalakarregi museum
Opening time:
• March-October: Tuesday – Saturday and public holidays 10:00 – 14:00 / 16:00 – 19:00 | Sunday 10:00 – 14:00
• November-February: Tuesday – Friday and Sunday 10:00 – 14:00 | Saturday and public holidays 10:00 – 14:00 / 16:00 – 19:00
• Closed: every Monday 1st and 6th of January, 1st of May and 30th of November
Languages: Euskera, Castellano, English, Français
Ticket:
• Normal: 3 €
• Groups (5 or more people): 2 €
• Reduced fare: 1,5 € (students, groups, pensioners, unemployed people, members of Kulturgune Bastero Andoain, members of Nekatur, eusko ikaskuntza and hirukide)
• Guided tour: 1€
• Free: every Thursday.
Address: Caserío Iriarte Erdikoa, Muxika egurastokia 6
Phone: 943 88 99 00
E-mail: mzumalakarregi@gipuzkoa.eus
Web: www.zumalakarregimuseoa.eus
Wifi: no
• March-October: Tuesday – Saturday and public holidays 10:00 – 14:00 / 16:00 – 19:00 | Sunday 10:00 – 14:00
• November-February: Tuesday – Friday and Sunday 10:00 – 14:00 | Saturday and public holidays 10:00 – 14:00 / 16:00 – 19:00
• Closed: every Monday 1st and 6th of January, 1st of May and 30th of November
Languages: Euskera, Castellano, English, Français
Ticket:
• Normal: 3 €
• Groups (5 or more people): 2 €
• Reduced fare: 1,5 € (students, groups, pensioners, unemployed people, members of Kulturgune Bastero Andoain, members of Nekatur, eusko ikaskuntza and hirukide)
• Guided tour: 1€
• Free: every Thursday.
Address: Caserío Iriarte Erdikoa, Muxika egurastokia 6
Phone: 943 88 99 00
E-mail: mzumalakarregi@gipuzkoa.eus
Web: www.zumalakarregimuseoa.eus
Wifi: no
Points of interest
Museums and interpretation centres
Goierri mining park: Mutiloa, Ormaiztegi and Zerain
Goierri mining park
Mutiloa, Ormaiztegi y Zerain
Welcome to Goierri´s mining park and the Greenway
We are in Goierri, in the Basque Highlands of Euskadi, where nature touches the sky and culture and gastronomy form a binomial with origin of denomination. The mining past of the region can be felt in the Goierri´s Mining Park, where we will be able to move to times when mineral extraction was the way of life of many goierritarras (people from the region).
We present Goierri´s Mining Park, formed by various elements, all related to the strong mining industry that, from remote times, has remained until the beginning of the twentieth century. As the main element we have the Green Way between Mutiloa and Ormaiztegi, which runs through the old mining railway used to transport the mineral extracted in the area’s minefields and transport it to Ormaiztegi, from where it was carried by rail to the nearby sea ports. In addition to the Via Verde we have 3 tracks to access and link with the old mining cores.
Now you will be able to enjoy the entire Goierri Mining Park from Ormaiztegi, Mutiloa or Zerain, walk the path through which the mineral was transported by air cable and be able to know the different resources of the area, such as the Zumalakarrangi Museum and the Ormaiztegi railway bridge, the ovens of Aizpitta, the ethnographic area, the hydraulic sawmill in Zerain, and the Barnaola area in the village of Mutiloa, as well as the town itself and the district of Liernia.
AIR CABLE WAY From the Aizpea ovens, the ore was carried by an air cable to Barnaola and from here it was transported by train to Ormaiztegi. We cannot go through the air, and that is why this new road has been created, which links Aizpea with Barnaola mines and allows us to go all the way that the mineral made.
TROI WAY The Troi route is the route to access to Mutiloa mining area. We started this route in the village of Mutiloa, and after a section on the road, near Troi river, to reach Barnaola. The structures of two decantation dikes and the storage and transport of Mutiloa minebox are lifted next to the same name. From here the mining railway linking with Ormaiztegi, now converted in a Grren Way, started. The road follows the signs of GR283.
Gi SL 36
From the village of Zerain a local path to access the Aizpitta furnaces from where we can make all the new journey to Ormaiztegi. This local path is also a circular route.
Mutiloa-Ormaiztegi green way
The Mutiloa-Ormaiztegi Green Way was a mining route of origin. It is attached to the mountainous slopes, above the urban areas to which it refers. Its beauty lies in the panoramic valleys at its feet and the forest mass surrounding it. There is an orientation game suitable for families and children. The map is collected at the tourist office of Ormaiztegi.
History of mining areas
In Mutiloa the iron ore, extracted in Caminza, Ollargain, Gezurmuño or Aizpuru was, since medieval times, the main supplier of the active ferrerías of the upper basins of the valleys of the Urola and Oria River. At the end of the 19th century The Mining Company of Mutiloa S.A imposed a more organized and systematic exploitation. To achieve this, it built up the necessary infrastructure to meet the requirements of the new production system: the mining railway that travelled the border from the vicinity of the Barnaola dwelling to the Ormaiztegi station, the inclined planes, the mineral washers and the decantation rafts… that together with the school, the canteens and the office occupied and substantially altered the slopes of the Ergoena neighborhood.
The iron ore fed the great English and French foundries such as Les Forges del Adour de Boucou in Baiona. In 1927 they shipped the last mineral load. During the Second World War a German company took a specific interest in this area and in the 1950s the company of Legazpi Patricio Echeverria S.A extracted the iron ore sufficient to supply the newly built sponge ovens. In the 1970s, the Canadian company Exminesa discovered the Trojan Mine’s rich lead filon which was active until 1993.
It was the last episode of a mining tradition rooted for centuries in both Mutiloa and the Basque Country. Also in Zerain a mining operation has been unequivocal since the Middle Ages. The most intense activity began in the middle of the 19th century and at the end of the 19th century foreign capital companies, English, Dutch, German companies reorganized the coto and began to work in a systematic way with the installation of new technological elements: internal mining railways, calcination furnaces, air cables…
This mineral was highly demanded by European steel companies. Market fluctuations and international war mainly meant that extractive activity was not continued. The last work of the cutoff took place in the 1950s when the company Patricio Echeverria S.A. from Legazpi was interested in iron films in view of the cyclical shortage of scrap which fed the furnaces of his steel industry. This activity has left us an interesting landscape and cultural heritage where the calcination workshop with its three impressive furnaces that receive us next to the Interpretation Centre of Aizpitta stands out.
Greenway Mutiloa-Ormaiztegi
The Green Way is another good hike for families. It has a didactic game of a route that combines orienteering, hiking and a lot of fun.
This route is a circular trail (8 km), also suitable for the Nordic walking technique. You and your kids will get the map and a pencil from the tourist office in Ormaiztegi, which is inside the Zumalacarregui Museum. To complete the game, you need to answer questions about the 10 marks in the circuit correctly. The questions are about nature, the environment, and mining.
Historical figures: Barandiaran & Zumalacárregui
Historical figures
Barandiaran and Zumalakarregi
Aita Barandiaran
THE FATHER OF BASQUE CULTURE Who is the Olentzero? Who is eguzkilore? Why bats live at night? It all started here, in Goierri, in Ataun’s neighbourhood of San Gregorio, when on December 31st 1889, José Miguel Barandiaran was born. We are at the foot of Sierra de Aralar, an area loaded with magical memories and myths, and one of the main dwellings of witches, giants and some other Basque heroic characters. The Barandiaran Museum is a cultural treasure, yet undiscovered by tourists. Aita -euskera for father- Barandiaran collected tales, myths, stories, proverbs and his own knowledge of traditional Basque culture that, otherwise, would have gotten lost in time. Barandiaran changed dramatically the understanding of Basque prehistory and got back Euskadi’s mythology.
José Miguel Barandiaran was a priest, living for 102 years and publishing 575 works about the Basque people. More than ten thousand pages of books, articles and collaborations. He used to say I’d go to hell if I were to discourse upon the Basque culture. The study of this intangible heritage that he linked to other fields, particularly the Archaeology, allows to consider him the founder of Basque ethnography. Thanks to Barandiaran, we know the age-old past of Euskal Herria. During Barandiaran’s childhood, Euskera was the only language spoken in his town -Ataun-.
His parents were truly concerned about culture but did not have the chance to learn how to write or read. José Miguel de Barandiaran was able to speak six languages: Euskera, Spanish, Latin, English, French and German. Being 100 years old, he could still recite Spanish verses from Don Quixote learnt as a kid, by heart. Since those verses were in Spanish, he did not really understand them until he was older. Barandiaran’s first archaeological finding happened by chance, when he was trying to find the exact place where gentiles lived (giant pagans from Basque mythology).
Myths narrated by Barandiaran
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The Olentzero, the end of a period and the start of an era:
Gentiles were playing in the mount when they saw a bright cloud coming from the East. According to an old gentile, that was Christ -in their words, Kixmi the monkey- and he would bring the end of the world and the beginning of a new era, so he asked them to push him down the slope. The rest of the gentiles fell down a dolmen -Jentilarri-. Only one was still alive, Olentzero, a collier that each December 24th comes down from the woods to the valley to announce Christ is born. This myth of an idyllic world that comes to an end, presaged by an old man reacting to an atmospheric phenomenon never seen before, and the later descent to the valley, is very popular in the Alps and the Pyrenees, and it seems to be B.C.
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Why the bat lives at night
After a war between birds and land animals, peace finally came they decided to divide up the universe. Half of them would get sky and trees, the other half, the ground. But the bat, that couldn’t decide to which half he wanted to belong to, was left apart and condemned to live in caves, leaving his cave only at night.
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The shepherd and the snake
A shepherd fed a snake with milk until he left the place with his flock of sheep looking for new ground. When he came back the year after, the snake had amazingly grown, choking the shepherd to death. One of the interpretations of this myth is, those who practice grazing, when leaving a place for a while, lose any kind of previous rights against those who settle and do farming.
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The strength of the Christian
A big, strong, cocky gentile came down from the mountain, challenging a Christian who was working in Beasain’s foundry. This one, with his tools, pulls up his nose. This reveals the superiority of an industry that, from late Middle Ages until 19th century, marked Guipúzcoa’s economy.
Throughout his long life he never stopped digging megaliths and caves, studying them and publishing breakthroughs. His work created a whole tradition towards Archaeology. He founded the Etniker groups, that today still work in the Basque Country’s Geographic Atlas, and they are a source of information on old Basques’ nutrition, funeral rites, grazing and children games. Barandiaran founded the intellectual threesome specialised in Basque prehistory. Together with two other scientists -Enrique de Eguren and Telesforo de Aranzadi (Unamuno’s cousin)- they were known as “the three musketeers” or “the three sad troglodytes”. Some shepherds that went with them through Basque mountains as workers in caves or dolmens explorations couldn’t believe that these three gentlemen “wasted time in recovering bones, stones and broken vessels” and that they actually thought they were going after “treasures hidden by gentiles in the past”, according to Luis, one of Barandiaran nephews. *Source: Barandiaran Museum. Book: Jose Miguel de Barandiaran, by Luis de Barandiaran Irizar.
Zumalacárregui, the brave general
What were Basque fueros? And Carlist Wars? A battle against two worlds!
Tomás de Zumalacárregui was a powerful historical figure, one of those who never back down. He was born in 1788 in Ormaiztegi, being the next-to-last in a ton of 14 brothers and sisters. His dad was a scribe in Idiazabal -yes, the town of the famous cheese!- and he was also going to become a scribe. The Napoleonic invasion changed his fate and nothing was quite the same after it!
You can visit Iriarte-Erdikoa House, nowadays Zumalakarregi Museum, in Ormaiztegi. You will find a traditional caserío from the 18th century where Tomás de Zumalacárregui lived. Currenty, it helds the tourist office. You will be shocked with some of the events of the beginning of Modernity and the end of the Ancient Regime!
Tomás de Zumalacárregi became the Carlist General, Victoria’s Duke and Count of Zumalacárregui -known as the wolf of Amezcoas-, building an army from nothing, with no base of operations, weapons or money. He saved the Carlist revolt, compacting it and making it stronger. He finally got the help of 22 infantry battalions and three cavalry squadrons. His career path was short because he got hurt in Bilbao in 1835, coming back to Goierri to die.
At the end of the 18th century started the confrontation between those who defended the Ancient Regime and those leaning towards Liberalism. That confrontation lasts all Zumalacárregui lifetime. Carlism brings to Liberalism the novelties of the French Revolution and speaks out in favour of Religion, the Church and the defense of fueros.
The Zumalacárregui family belong to the establishment of noblemen, very common in the Basque Country. They would give their daughters a generous dowry and send their sons to serve in Church or the Military. Miguel Zumalacárregui, the oldest brother, became a jurist and an active liberal, while Tomás became the Field Commander of Carlist troops. Both brothers were a good example of two opposite views of the world.
Source: Zumalakarregi Museum. Book: “La España del siglo XIX”, Vicente Palacio Atard.
Zumalacárregui Museum is always surprising. One of its treasures is a watercolour painted 360º landscape of San Sebastián, attributed to Mayor Thomas Staunton St. Clair.
Zumalacárregui Museum is always surprising. One of its treasures is a watercolour painted 360º landscape of San Sebastián, attributed to Mayor Thomas Staunton St. Clair.
Ormaiztegi
Goierri
Villages
Ormaiztegi
The population of Ormaiztegi stands at about 1350. It hosts the Zumalacárregui Museum, where you can get to know a piece of history while enjoying caseríos, the church of San Andrés, and one of the oldest baptismal fonts in Gipuzkoa, kept inside.
The town’s iconic laminated steel viaduct was opened in 1864 and weighs 18,000 tonnes. There is a difference in vault levels of 34 metres, and it’s 289 metres long in total. Its location imbued it with strategic value: the railway joining Irún and Madrid crossed this viaduct, so it became a connecting point between the port of Pasaia, Aragón and Castilla. It operated until July of 1995, when it was replaced by a concrete structure placed parallel to the viaduct.
Points of interest
Museums and interpretation centres
Accommodation & where to eat
