top of page

History

Early Basques:

In the ancient period, the Basques were a group of different tribes bound together by their geographical location rather than by culture. It is believed that those tribes were the last remnants of the Paleolithic peoples, and they already lived in the Basque region when the Romans arrived t the Iberian peninsula.

 

Middle-Ages and Modern Age:

Later, during the Middle Ages and the Reconquista, the Basque Country was mainly split between the Crown of Castille and the Kingdom of Navarre. In 1512, the Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon, under the reign of the Catholic Kings, invaded and annexed Navarre. However, the Basque people were given special laws and rights, called the Fueros (which had to be sworn loyalty by the King of Castille under the sacred Oak of Gernika), and remained autonomous inside Spain.

 

These laws were eventually abolished in the 19th century, and after the oppression suffered during the Franco dictatorship, the Basque Country got back an important part of the self-governing in 1979.

 

History of the City of Gernika:

The Ville of Gernika was founded by Don Tello, the Lord of Biscay, in the 28th of April of 1366, apparently for commercial reasons. The city was especially important, because it was host to the House of Assembly, the medieval parliament of the Lordship of Biscay. Gernika became a symbol of the Basque Country and the most important symbol was the Oak of Gernika, a very old and sacred oak which represents the union of the Basque people, since it was the place where the old representatives gathered to create new laws.

 

The bombing of Gernika:

Gernika became sadly famous the 26th of April of 1937 during the Spanish Civil War when the city was bombed by Nazi airplanes as an experiment of a new military tactic: the Blitzkrieg. Hundreds were killed and injured, and the old city was completely destroyed.

 

The bombing appeared in many newspapers around the world, and the famous artist Pablo Picasso painted the Guernica, a painting that has become, along with the city, an international call for peace.

bottom of page