Air-raid shelters
The air-raid shelters bear witness to what happened in Gernika on the day of the bombing. Step inside one of them and experience it for yourself.
What to see in Gernika
All the places you simply must not miss.
The Casa de Juntas (Assembly House) and the Tree of Gernika
The Casa de Juntas (Assembly House) and the Tree of Gernika: living symbols of the history of the Basque People.
The seat of the historical parliament of Vizcaya, down through the centuries, the Gernika Assembly House has been where the people of this region have met.
La Casa de Juntas (The Assembly House)
The Assembly House stands next to the so-called ‘foral’ or “charter” oak tree, a meeting point for all the territories of Euskal Herria, united in a single cultural and ethnographic tradition that transcends any manner of political division. Today it is the venue for such important ceremonies as the swearing-in of the Lehendakari or the Governor of the Regional Government.
The Tree of Gernika
Planted in the 18th century, the old tree trunk is contained within a colonnaded pavilion in the garden. Although there are records of earlier specimens, it is the most ancient remnant to have survived to the present day.
The Euskal Herria Museum
The home of the Euskal Herria Museum is the magnificent Palace of the Count of Montefuerte, the Alegria Palace, built in 1733.
The Peace Museum
This interactive museum takes us back to the 26th of April 1937, the day on which bombs and fire reduced the streets of the town of Gernika to rubble.
“Guernica” Gernikara
The Mural of Picasso’s “Guernica”
At the bottom of this breath-taking mural there is an inscription that expresses the wish of the people of Gernika that the painting should be exhibited in the town that inspired its creator: Gernika. It literally means: The “Guernica” in Gernika.
The Gernika market
Until the mid-20th century, Gernika’s weekly Monday market was held in the open air - there simply was no covered area that could house it.
Cesta punta in Gernika
Following the overwhelming success of cesta punta in Durango, a magnificent fronton was built and inaugurated in Gernika in June 1963. The work of the prestigious architect Secundino Zuazo, the Gernika Jai Alai was built in the shape of a two-storey-high, right-scalene triangle.
The Gothic Church of Santa Maria
The oldest building in Gernika, witness to more than 5 centuries of history.
Origin
Just a few metres away from the Gernika Assembly House, on a steep slope that once marked the boundary between the urban area of the Chartered Town and the jurisdiction of the elizate or parish of Lumo, stands the Church of Santa María. Work began on the temple in the mid-15th century, following the prevailing Gothic model, but a century later the “Hallenkirche” or Hall Church system was adopted. Its blend of styles (Gothic on the façade, Renaissance in the interior) is one of the church’s most characteristic features.
Work on the church continued for another century: it was finally completed around 1660. The choir, respectfully executed in the Renaissance style, dates from this date, as do the contours of the last vaults to be added, the work of stonemason Antonio Ortiz de la Colina.
