Durango (Spain)

Durango is a municipality in Vizcaya, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country in Spain. Located in the Duranguesado region, it has an area of 10.79 km² and a population of 29,935 inhabitants (2021). It is considered, by economic activity and number of inhabitants, the most important population in the Biscayan historical territory after the several that make up Greater Bilbao. He holds the titles of "Very Noble and Very Loyal to the Royal Crown of Durango".

Toponymy

Although it has been said that Durango comes from the Basque Urango, with the d' that was used in the Middle Ages as "of", that is, Valle D'Urango today this etymon is not considered valid by the scientific community. The surname Uranga would come from Urangoa, that is, Urango-a. Urango means watery valley or meadow Ur ('water') ango = angio &# 39;Valley, plain, meadow'. There is the surname Urango, which supports this etymology.

Julio Caro Baroja suggested that the place name Durango could be derived from the Latin place name Duranicus, which in turn arose from the personal name Duranius. This personal name would be behind another Basque place name like Durana.

Originally Duranicus would have referred to a possession of Duranius, an ager Duranicus, for example. The evolution of the place name would have been Duranicus → Duranigo → Durango.

There are various opinions regarding the place name Durango. Alfonso Irigoien estimates that: "it is clearly of early medieval formation, a time in which it was in force as an anthroponym in the form Duranco". Other authors consider that it would be a derivation of Urazango and Justo Gárate proposes that it would be an evolved form of the name Padurango.

In the Middle Ages, the name Durango referred to an entire region and was a different political entity from Vizcaya. From 1212 Durango was integrated into Vizcaya as one of its merindades, although maintaining its own private institutions.

On an indeterminate date in the Middle Ages (probably the beginning of the XIII century) the town of was founded Tavira de Durango in its territory. In the confirmation of the jurisdiction of the town by the infant Don Juan (1372) it is called Villanueva de Tavira de Durango. Tavira would later become known as Villanueva de Durango and this name would remain until the XVI century, when the town became known as Durango to dry. In Castilian it is called Villanueva (Uribarri in Basque) to the dedication of the church. At the same time, the Merindad de Durango became known as Duranguesado, a name it continues to receive today.

Geography

With an area of 10.79 km², Durango occupies an open space on the left bank of the Ibaizabal River. To the south, a small anticline, compressed and fractured, with almost vertical layers, has given rise to a ridge that continues to the east through the peaks known as peñas del duranguesado (Alluitz, Anboto, Mugarra, Oiz, Saibi, Gaianda).. Within the municipality, the Peña de Mugarra (969 meters) stands out, whose summit is actually located in the neighboring municipality of Izurza, and Mount Neberondo (453 meters), which form a small limestone massif with numerous karst-type formations.

The Ibaizabal river, as it passes through the municipality, receives the flow of the Mañaria river, which crosses the municipality from north to south, and the Larrinagatxu stream.

As far as political geography is concerned, Durango borders, starting from the north and continuing clockwise, with: Yurreta, Abadiano, Izurza, Mañaria, Dima and Amorebieta-Echano.

Population

Durango has experienced a continuous demographic growth, since 1940 under the protection of the numerous industries installed in its vicinity. This trend came to a standstill in the 1980s as a result of the economic crisis. This increase, to a large extent, has been a consequence of the arrival of immigrants from the rural areas of Duranguesado and coastal regions of Vizcaya, and especially from other regions; fact that explains the youth of its pyramid of ages.

In 2021 it had 29,972 inhabitants.^{[citation required]}

Economy

Durango's economy is based on the secondary sector and is largely industrial. It still maintains a certain degree of activity in the primary sector by having some small family farms. The service sector experienced a breakthrough in the late 20th century and early XXI.

The primary sector, focused on rural neighborhoods, which are few due to the small size of the municipal area, maintains a family activity where products are produced for own consumption or for sale in the markets of the region. It is normal for this activity to be carried out as a secondary activity, the main one being work in the industry well located in the municipality itself or in the neighbors.

The secondary sector, of great development and prominence, occupies the majority of the active population and constitutes the main source of wealth for the town. The tradition of working with iron goes back to the times of the forges. Its industries, focused on metal processing and especially on foundries, are leaving the scarce urban land to settle in the numerous new industrial estates of the municipalities of the region. Companies in the machine tool sector stand out, such as Ona Electroerosión, hardware, such as Ferretera Vizcaína, foundry, such as Fundiguel S.A. and the Azterlan Metallurgical Research Center.

In the services sector, as the head of the Durango region, it centralizes the administrative, health and secondary education, baccalaureate and professional training services. Among the Vocational Training schools, that of San José, founded by the Marist brothers in 1904, called Maristak, has special relevance.

Commerce is developed but the influence of the provincial capital, Bilbao, which is 30 km from the town means that commerce does not have the boom that in another city of this rank would have. The hotel industry stands out for some good restaurants and the proximity of Bilbao has helped in the establishment of some hotel establishments.

History

Map of Durango in 1857

The town called Tabira de Durango and later Villanueva de Durango and currently Durango, does not have a Puebla Charter like the other Basque towns, but historians usually place the date from its foundation at the beginning of the XIII century, with a confirmation of the jurisdiction in 1372 by the Infante Don Juan. Although the Chronicle of Ibargüen and Cachopín of the XVI century says that

Sancho VI of Navarre named the Sabio and in another way, the Valiente, gave to the village of Durango that exhausts is Vizcaya that then to the place of Navarre of the village and anteiglesia of Hechano of the merindad of Çornoça hera his...

Sancho VI of Navarre reigned between 1150 and 1194.

Tabira, would be the name of the primitive nucleus and Durango that of the merindad. This is how it was named in the confirmation of the jurisdiction in 1372 and it is known that until the XVI century it was named as Villanueva from Durango. The reference to Tabira appears on the shield in memory of the origin of this town.

Durango, like Merindad de Durango, formed part of the kingdom of Navarre until the year 1200, when it was definitively incorporated into the kingdom of Castile. Twelve years later it is ceded, as compensation for the services rendered in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, to the Lord of Vizcaya Diego López II de Haro.

The original urban nucleus is located between the churches of Santa María de Uríbarri and Santa Ana, and has preserved its original structure formed by three parallel streets (Calle de Yuso or Barrenkalea, Calle del Medio or Artekalea and Calle de Suso or Goienkalea), later expanding with Nueva or Kalebarria street, and crossed by a Transversal. Surrounded by a wall were the gates of Kurutziaga, San Pedro, San Juan, San Martín, Nuestra Señora de la Piedad and Santa Ana, which still exists.

The faction wars had an active presence in the town during the Middle Ages. The different noble houses that dominated the merindad leaned some towards the gamboíno side and others towards the oñacino. Throughout the XV century the town is involved in the various vicissitudes produced by the fights between the Ibarguen families, Zaldibar and Unzueta. At this time the flagship tower-houses of which there are hardly any vestiges were built and among which we can highlight those of Arandoño, Asteiza, Echevarría, Láriz, Monago and Otalora. Visits are received from the Kings of Castile, Enrique III (1393) and Enrique IV (1457), as well as that of Queen Isabella the Catholic (1483) who stays, according to the Municipal Archives, in the Torre de Lariz. During this visit she swears the privileges of the Merindad and the town.

The town never became part of the Merindad de Durango since it was made up of the churches, that is to say, the residents who received the jurisdiction of the Tierra Llana de Vizcaya and who met at their headquarters in Guerendiaga in the neighboring town of Abadiano. The town, which was governed by the common law, had its representation in the Guernica Boards.

One of the best-known events in its history is that of the so-called Heretics of Durango, who between 1442 and 1444 were instigated by the Franciscan friar Fray Alonso de Mella, who came to promulgate the community of property and women. More than a hundred of his followers were sentenced to death and publicly burned on Kurutziaga street. As an expiatory monument for heresy, the cross of the same name was raised.

The most important events of the XVI century are associated with misfortunes that occur in the town. Thus, in 1517 Durango is devastated by a terrible plague epidemic that causes great mortality among the residents. In 1544 there was a violent flood that flooded a large part of the town. Subsequently, on March 11, 1554, the town suffered a great fire that, having started in Artekalea, turned all the buildings made of wood, which were the vast majority, into ashes. Even in 1597 a new plague epidemic occurs again. The construction of the Town Hall of Durango, largely carried out by the master stonemason Bernabé de Solano, also dates from this century.

The economic development of the town of Durango was based on trade and industry. Trade developed because it was an important point on one of the routes that linked Castilla with the ports on the coast, while industry was based on the production of ironworks and ironworks, as well as a thriving clothmaking activity.

In 1785 the pediment was built, one of the most important in the country.

The French enter Durango in July 1795 and evacuate shortly thereafter after capitulation and subsequent neutrality. Later, during the War of Independence, the town and the rest of the country will once again be occupied by the French. By their order, the church of La Magdalena was demolished and a cemetery was built in its place.

Casa de don Carlos in Durango in 1837 (drawing of Isodoro Magués).

View of the town in the first half of the centuryXIX

During the First Carlist War it was the court of Don Carlos. Carlos Maria Isidro. Famous in this war was the so-called Durango Decree, which ordered the shooting of foreign fighters taken prisoner by Carlist troops, disregarding the Lord Eliot Agreement. It was also occupied by the Carlists during the second Carlist campaign, but later the liberal troops entered the town without encountering the slightest resistance.

In 1882, the railway from Bilbao to Durango was inaugurated, which would later mean a great boost for the economy of the town by turning Durango into a point of reference for what would be the Basque railway network, making the town a station terminus of the Vizcaya Central Railway, which linked Bilbao with Durango, and then the beginning of the line from Durango to Zumárraga (where it connected with the line of the Northern Railway, Madrid-France) and the Durango-Arrazola-Elorrio branch.

Durango History of Spain in the nineteenth century

In 1861, the construction of the drinking water supply to the town and the construction of three fountains that would serve and facilitate its distribution (the Ezkurdi, Pinondo and Kurutzeaga fountains) were agreed upon. The collection was made from the springs of Mount Gallanda, a small elevation of 524 meters of altitude belonging to the Oiz massif located to the north of the municipality on Yurreta land.

In 1886, the Euskara Festivals were held in Durango, a cultural event of great importance, in which the bertsolaris and txistularis contests and, above all, the literary contest stood out.

Street of the town towards 1905 in a painting by Darío de Regoyos

The annexation with Yurreta

Source of Santa Maria, symbolic object of the annexation of Yurreta to Durango; on its basis is the legend "They took me 8-12-1926 and brought me back 8-12-1989".

The 20th century begins with a time of flourishing industry. During the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, the dictator himself came to Durango and opened the food market.

On November 12, 1926, during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, it was annexed to the Yurreta church, with which the town obtained a significant territorial expansion (Durango had been founded on land belonging to the church) and increased its population in about 2000 people, although this annexation was very unpopular and harshly rejected by the Yurreta neighborhood, as documented, which whenever possible requested disannexation (in the Republican period the status of "Entity was unsuccessfully requested Local Minor". The detachment occurred on January 1, 1990.

The mayors of Durango and Yurreta, Celestino de los Ríos and Justo de Uribarrena, respectively, agreed on the occasion of the annexation to install a fountain on Landako lands that belonged to Yurreta, to supply water to the houses that were being built in the area, and finish the works on the road to Goiuria. Popular culture tells that the annexation occurred for other reasons: the mayor of Yurreta saw the fountain that those of Durango had next to the Church of Santa María. The fountain to draw water was far away for him and he proposed to the mayor of Durango that if he put that fountain in the plaza of the Yurreta church, it would be annexed to Durango. Those from Durango placed the fountain in the Yurreta square and annexed the town. When the church was detached in 1990, those from Durango reclaimed its fountain and it returned to its original place on December 8, 1989. Currently the fountain can be seen next to the church of Santa María de Durango (today converted into a basilica) with a inscription on its base that says, in Basque and Spanish, "They took me on 12-8-1926 and they bring me back on 12-8-1989".

The civil war in Durango

Already in the XX century, after the elections of February 1936, the requetés of Durango carried out guerrilla practices in Urquiola and prepare for the coup d'état on July 18. Once the military coup was carried out, the group of traditionalists from Durango, seeing that the Civil Guard forces did not join the armed uprising, decided to move into territory controlled by the insurgents. They are arrested on July 25. The defense of the Republic is organized by the left-wing parties and unions that form the Defense Committee in Durango. The PNV remained undecided until the 26th. Supporters of the uprising were arrested and the Jesuit College and the convents of Santa Susana and San Antonio were occupied to establish various war services there.

On September 25, 1936, Durango was bombarded, causing 120 deaths and triggering the retaliation of the firing squad of 22 detainees for affinity with the attackers. The front remained stabilized in the vicinity of the region throughout the autumn and winter of 1936–1937. On March 31, 1937, Mola ordered a general attack with the objective of eliminating the northern front. That same day the town was bombarded. The bombardment of Durango was carried out by planes from the 214 squadron of the 24 Savoia 21 heavy bombardment group and CR-32 type fighters.

At half past eight in the morning of March 31, five bombers and nine fighters reached the skies of Durango, dropping 80 50-kg bombs. At that time, religious ceremonies were held in the church of Santa María and in the Jesuit College. There is a market in the great portico of Santa María. The bombs destroy both temples causing many deaths among the faithful as well as in the convent of Santa Susana. At 5:45 p.m., 8 bombers and 15 fighters carried out a new action in which they dropped 22 100-kg bombs and 54 50-kg bombs on the town. The second attack targets the diagonal that goes from the cemetery to Zeharkalea street, an area heavily traveled by people who come to identify the victims of the morning bombardment. The machine-gunning of the fighters cause many casualties among the civilian population. Durango lacked air defense.

On April 2, the villa where an international commission from France and Great Britain was studying the damage suffered by the previous attack was bombed again. On the 4th it was bombarded again. It is estimated that some 281 bombs were dropped on the town of Durango, making up a total of 14,840 kg of explosives. The fatalities were 536, 71 buildings were destroyed and another 234 were affected, including several churches and convents.

On April 27th, the battle was fought at the gates of the town on its eastern side. The attacks are made up of battalions of requetés and they extend through the northern part, in such a way that it is intended to isolate the population. The defense troops withdrew towards Bilbao and tried to establish a line of fire in the Berna neighborhood, now on the outskirts of Yurreta. Some militiamen remain in Durango ambushed in the buildings that face the traditionalists of the Tercio de Montejurra who take the town on April 28.

On July 29, the new city council was constituted, naming Adolfo Uribasterra mayor who replaced Ramón Oralde who had exercised these functions since the entry of the uprisings against the republican legitimacy in the population.

Post-war and today

After the post-war period, the Duranguesado, with Durango as the regional capital, is adding to the industrialization of the country. From the old iron and textile tradition, a relevant industrial infrastructure is being built. The emigration of some industries from Eibar that settle in the Ibaizábal valley, as well as the creation of their own companies, make Durango an eminently industrial town, highlighting the tool machinery and automobile sectors, with advanced R&D companies.

The development of the villa began in the late 1970s and gained momentum at the end of the XX century reaching a population of 28,000 inhabitants, discounting those belonging to the detached Yurreta, and covering practically all the building land available to the municipality. It is noteworthy as characteristic of this period the large influx of emigrants to the town from other less industrialized areas of Spain such as Extremadura and Andalusia mainly.

Administration and politics

Culture

The Durango Basque Book and Record Fair, created in 1965 and held annually, is undoubtedly the great cultural event that gives the town special notoriety throughout the Basque-speaking area; Suffice it to point out that in the 2018 edition it added more than 115,000 visits in its five days [1]. It is celebrated at the beginning of December.

In the cultural field, the inauguration at the end of 1998 of the San Agustín Kultur Gunea (San Agustín Cultural Center) has provided Durango with a space in which to host high-quality live shows. Its theatre, dance and music productions receive visitors every weekend. A good complement is the Bartolomé Ertzilla Music School, a center where hundreds of Durangues study.

The Museum of Art and History of Durango, very close to the aforementioned Kultur Gunea (Cultural Center), exhibits historical and artistic objects. Inaugurated in 1986 in the Etxezarreta palace, a building from the XVIII century, its interiors have recently been renovated, incorporating Led lighting among other improvements. The museum preserves various objects that illustrate the history of Durango as well as a large model that recreates the appearance of the villa in the XV century. It also has an artistic collection that includes engravings by Eduardo Chillida and Los Caprichos by Goya, a still life by Alfredo Alcaín and Basque art: Darío de Regoyos, Manuel Losada, Aurelio Arteta, Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, José Luis Zumeta, Mari Puri Herrero, Agustín Ibarrola, Andrés Nagel... In addition, the museum holds exhibitions of painting, sculpture and photography, mostly by current authors; The new artists from Durango have a springboard in this center to show their talent. In recent years, the center has gained notoriety and an influx of visits (some 17,000 in 2019) partly thanks to temporary exhibitions with engravings by great masters such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Eduardo Chillida and Alberto Durero.

The municipally owned historical archive was kept for years in the aforementioned museum, but is currently housed in a newly built building (Bizenta Mogel Library) on Conventos street (Komentukalea, 8).

The town has a second museum, smaller and focused on the Kurutziaga Cross: the Kurutzesantu Museum, which houses this stone monument as well as the Tourist Office.

Theater groups include Karrika antzerki taldea, Atara Zarata antzerki taldea and Gora tagora antzerki taldea. There would be the Kriskitin, Tronperri and Txoritxu alai dance groups.

Durango has its own choir, El Orfeón Durangués. A choir dating from 1882, being one of the oldest in the country.

Language

In Durango, in addition to Spanish or Castilian, the Biscayan variety (bizkaiera) of Euskera is spoken with the characteristics of the region. In 1869, L. L. Bonaparte, classified this locality in the western subdialect and variety of Guernica.

Escudo de la villa de Durango, fechado en 1611

Comparison:

Year 1996

Year 2001

Source: Department of Culture (Vice-Ministry of Language Policy of the Basque Government); EUSTAT. II Sociolinguistic map; Population and Housing Censuses.

Monuments and places of interest

The Cross of Kurutziaga, in its previous location outside. He is currently guarded at the Kurutzesantu Museum

The monumental heritage of Durango was diminished by the lack of urban control of past decades. The historic center stands out, which still keeps the medieval structure with three longitudinal streets and one transversal, at the ends are the churches of Santa María de Uríbarri and Santa Ana.

Apart from its architectural samples, two urban monuments stand out, sculptural works conceived for public display:

• The Mikeldi's idol, of pre-Roman origin represents a fourfold animal. You have no idea of its meaning. It is a sculptural piece found in Durango in 1864 and the original work is found in the Archaeological, Ethnographic and Basque Historical Museum in Bilbao. In Durango, the Ezkurdi park hosted the replica of this piece until its remodeling. This replica is currently on Mikeldi Street in Durango.
• La Cross of Kurutziagaof the end of the centuryXV, it is a magnificent cross of term of Gothic style (gothic basochism), which represents the tree of the cross. Moving from its original location it has moved to the hermitage of the Veracruz arranged as the Kurutzesantu Museum, located on the same street.

Civil architecture

Zabala Palace

• Torre de Lariz. Very renovated and deteriorated until its restoration in 2007-2009. On its façade stands out a series of sculpted baskets (for the support of a balcony or voladizo) and ojivale windows. It is estimated that it was in this building where Isabel the Catholic stayed in 1483 when she swore the bulls of Vizcaya and the Merindad de Durango. It was the seat of the Tourist Office until it moved to the Kurutzesantu Museum; the tower is now the headquarters of Andragunea, space for women and equality.
• Arc de Santa Ana. It's the only door left of the old walls. It was built in 1566 and restored in 1744; in 2017 it was subjected to a cleaning. It's baroque style. He bears the imperial shield on one face, and a hornacina where a Virgin is exhibited.
• Palace of the Zabala. Home of Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, founder of Montevideo.
• Etxezarreta Palace. Solariega house where the Museum of Art and History is located. It is a good example of the baroque austero vizcaíno in which all the basic characteristics of the style are given: balanced ordination of the facade with empowerment of the central axis, use of the construction materials in a hierarchy, regular vanos adintelados y pacados, rear garden and gallery with orientation at noon. This palace, built on a quadrangular plant and with a superb volume of construction is covered with a four-water roof over a cornice of moulding and canes carved with plant and animal motifs. Its facade concentrates all the elements of interest and characteristic of the style of which is an example. It is framed between two carved pilasters that surpass the deck and become pinnacles, it is ordered into symmetrical grids of five axes of vain and four heights separated by impost mouldings. The central van is broken and without windows or balconies; it is located, on the ground floor, the main access on which a sun clock has been painted. The entrance is defined by mixed mouldings with ears and legs, and at the height of the third floor is the great heraldic shield. On the third floor there is a large wrought iron balcony that opens two defined door sticks, such as the challenge of the vains, by baquetonated moulds with eyelets and legs. The balcony rests on a large chin.
• House consistorial. Of classic style and Neapolitan influence, they stand out their facades completely painted with fresh stories, made in 1772. It has a certain Neapolitan air, of the artists of Carlos III. It was restored in the second half of the centuryXX. recovering the paintings they had suffered in the bombing of 1937.
• Garai PalaceFrench eclectic style, old municipal library, as well as Palacio Cuadra recently rehabilitated, both in the Kurutziaga neighborhood.
• Ferrería de Aranakoa Hydraulic industrial complex located in Tabira, documented at least in 1489 and in continuous operation until the first years of the 21st century.
• Monolith in memory of people retaliated by Franco for their sexual choice, which was the first memorial monument for this reason that was erected in Spain.

Religious architecture

Kurutziaga with the Basilica of Saint Mary at the bottom, towards 1930. Photo: Indalecio Ojanguren.

Church of San Pedro de Tabira; in the garden there is a stone trail sculpted by Nestor Basterretxea.

• Santa Maria de Uríbarri. The Basilica of Santa Maria was built to the tower of Arandoño, which was used as a bell tower. Data from the centuryXIV and it is fundamentally Gothic style that renaissance elements overlap. Its altarpieces and other elements have been restored in recent years. Its immense porch with wooden cover and without columns, the largest of its kind in Europe, rests on huge curved beams according to old naval construction techniques, dates from the centuryXVIII. It serves for a variety of activities undertaken to cover. In the interior stands out the elevated choir that is located at the foot of the nave; supported on a large scarzano arch, its Gothic aesthetic contrasts with the classicism that surrounds it. It was to be preserved when the medieval temple was remodeled to Roman taste.
• Santa Ana Parish, of Herrerian plant and with three naves was built in the centuryXV. He suffered very deep reforms between the 1720 and the following.

Santa Ana Parish taken by Indalecio Ojanguren in 1930.

• Church of Saint Peter of Tabira, with fame of being the oldest in the historical territory. The first population of Durango was established around the hermitage of San Pedro de Tabira. It is rectangular and has Romanesque and Gothic elements. It is a temple very loved by the durangues, which was rebuilt in the centuryXVI.
• Former Convent of St. Augustine founded by the Agustinian order was placed on the outskirts of the villa and outside the walls on the other side of the river. Built in 1662 by the Augustinians, who had been in Durango since 1584, thanks to the legacy of Domingo de Garro, knight of the Order of Calatrava. It is formed by a church aneja to the conventual buildings that are located around a courtyard. He decreed on 18 August 1809 of José I Bonaparte puts an end to his monastic use, going to depend on the council. It installed a hospital and subsequently a nursing home without much affecting the original building. At the end of the centuryXX. the church is converted into cultural equipment by creating San Agustín Kultur Gunea, with a room for performing performances with a capacity of 300 seats. The work is due to the cantero eibarrés Juan de Ansola who had already worked in Santa María de Uribarri. The interior is conceived by the system of distribution of the Spanish basmedieval spaces, while the exterior is of the baroque content of the area. Together with Juan de Ansola worked his brother-in-law Martin de Garatechea. The works were stopped for 20 years because of a lawsuit and were retaken by Martín de Olaguibel in 1682 and completed in 1685. The church-convention set is a steep building that provides its main facade to the street. It highlights the considerable abatial balcony with forging on the main entrance on which the arms shield is located. The slight baroque traces are noticeable at the front door, fitted with moulded between pilasters, with glyph frieze and pavilion wrapped on top. The interior is austere made with half-point arches that settle on smooth capitals and pilasters next to fajones arches and keys without any ornament. The church is located on the left side, opening a arcade gallery with half-point arches on which the choir through which the image of Saint Augustine is accessed, on it, in a hornacina. It is distributed on a nave of three sections with chapels housed under the counter-forces that make up it, at the foot the high choir placed on the entrance hall. It is a "Catholic Kings" type temple has the lined arms cruise and rectangular chapel. Its central section is covered in the baroque style with a half-orange dome made of masonry, while the main nave is made with vaults of star crossing and the rest of simple crossing, in the Gothic style. After the amortization the furniture heritage was sold, the main altarpiece, of the rococo style, made in walnut wood without polychrome, is preserved in the church of San Pedro de Dima.

Parties

The festivities of the patron saint of Durango, San Fausto, are celebrated around October 13. Numerous activities are launched on October 11, the eve of Pilar Day.

The Durango Sanfaustos began to acquire their current importance when the town stopped celebrating the festival of San Antonio, on June 13. From then on, the essence of the San Fausto festivities took on more force each year. In addition to this noted festivity, the other neighborhoods that make up the municipal area also have their own festivities. There are other minor festivals, corresponding to each neighborhood.

These are the neighborhoods-area where some outstanding minor festivals are celebrated:

Another festival deeply rooted in the community is the festival of Nuestra Señora de Herdoiza, which is celebrated on September 8.

Carnival

The carnival in Durango came to have a lot of relevance that it has lost after the Franco dictatorship. The carnivals began in the town on the Sunday before the carnival. That day, known by the name of basokoipetsu or txitxiburduntxi, people used to go to the countryside with friends or family to have a snack based on chorizo and other products of the slaughter roasted on a bonfire. This custom continues to be maintained within the school programs.

Carnival days have their own name; in Durango they are called eguenzuri (white Thursday or fat Thursday), bariku argi (bright Friday), zapatu erregular (regular Saturday), domeka karnabal (Shrove Sunday), astelen karnabal (Shrove Monday) and martitzen karnabal (Shrove Tuesday).

The eguenzuri was published or read the municipal proclamation in which some prohibitions and good customs that had to be respected during the festivities were remembered. After high mass the band of drummers made a parade playing the zortziko carnaval and a bull was run in sokamuturra (this is tied by the nose). On the afternoon of Fat Thursday there was a pilgrimage to which all the authorities attended and in which different dances were performed, including the aurresku and the arin-arin in which the residents in disguise and the authorities participated. The youngest walked the streets of the town asking for money or food and interpreting the verses, called versos de eguenzuri. The collected was used to make a snack.

Carnival Sunday was the next public holiday after Thursday. The gangs used to seek financing for their acts by charging resources in exchange for singing verses. The program was similar to Thursday's: parades, sokamuturra and pilgrimage. On Monday, which was also a holiday, the bear troupe was brought out, a widespread custom in the country, and a program similar to that of the previous days was followed. Shrove Tuesday was the big day of the festivities. Cavalcades of disguised youths used to go out; For example, the surandis who wore sandals and shepherd's breeches, with cowbells at the waist and a mask with a large nose. They were running through the streets stepping on the puddles to wet the public that was concentrated on the sidewalks and hit them with a vest that they wore as a whiplash. The day ended after the pilgrimage and the prayer bell. Once the prayer was over, the drum crew began a retreat parade that went through the taverns informing people of the end of the party. The drummers and other personnel who had collaborated in the party received a bonus that consisted of sweet wine and cookies, then the bailiff announced the end of the party using rockets.

As in the case of the beginning of the carnival festivities in which the previous Sunday, that of the txitxiburduntxi, was brought forward, the same thing happened at the end, the festival extended to Ash Wednesday in which the burial of the sardine.

Sports

Durango's sports services are organized around "Durango Kirolak", the public body dependent on the city council that manages the municipal sports facilities, and the different sports clubs such as:

Twinned cities

Notable people