The physical territory.

Gipuzkoa today occupies the extreme eastern Cantabrian slope, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.  It comprises barely 2000 km², limited by the rugged coast of the Cantabrian sea in the north and the Aitzgorri sierra and its foothills to the south, which separate it from the Alavés Llanada. Three  longitudinal valleys run across the territory from the sierra to the sea:  to the west is the Deba valley, the Urola in the centre and the Oria to the east. From their headlands in Navarra, running southeast-northwest, the main tributaries of the Oria, such as the rivers Urumea and Bidasoa, flow in to the territory, in the last 10 km of the north-eastern limits of the region. The Oiartzun, a valley that is only 15 km long, runs in the same direction, entirely within Gipuzkoa, between the Urumea and the Bidasoa.


If there’s one thing that characterizes the Gipuzkoa region and has influenced its historical development, it’s its division into valleys: short narrow and steep valleys, with fast-flowing rivers that end in more or less  wide estuaries. A region, in short, with many valleys and numerous mountains, although none of them very high (the highest peak, in the Aitzgorri sierra, barely reaches 1,500m) and a few small plains. More than its geology (granite in Aiako Harria, above the Oiartzun and the Bidasoa; sandstone on the coast, and limestone in Aralar, Aizkorri, Ernio, Izarraitz…), it is the valleys and the warm and rainy climate that have defined the landscape. And of course, the human presence, dating back at least  180,000 years.