Gaztelugache
Gaztelugache (officially and in Basque, Gaztelugatxe) is an islet in the Biscayne town of Bermeo, Basque Country, Spain. It is linked to the mainland by a two-arch bridge. On the island there is a hermitage dedicated to San Juan that dates from the X century, although some discoveries date from the IX. Said hermitage was built on the remains of a castle attached to the Kingdom of Navarra and which was besieged, without being taken, by Castilian troops. Together with another small neighboring island, that of Aqueche, it forms a protected biotope, which extends from the town of Baquio to Cape Machichaco in Bermeo, in the Bay of Biscay.
Etymology
The word gaztelugatxe comes from the Basque gaztelu, "castle" and atx, "rock", that is, "rock of the castle". The word atx and its phonological variants are usually used as a suffix or prefix in Biscayan Basque to name mountains and rocks: Aketx, Murgoatx, Karatxa, Atxulo, Axpe...
Documentarily in the XI century (1053) the hermitage was called Sancti Johannis de Castiello (San Juan del Castillo), in the letter of donation that Íñigo López, Lord of Vizcaya, and his wife Toda Ortiz made of it to the monks of the Monastery of San Juan de la Peña -cradle of the Crown of Aragon in (Jaca, Huesca, Aragón)-, under whose protection and domain remained.
«...ego Enneco Lopiz et uxor mea
Tota Ortiz of our good volunteers
tibi domino Zianno Sancti Johannis
monaco. Damus deo et
Holy Johanni pro animabus
nostris in loco quod dicitur Sancti
Johannis de Castiello id est in territory
from Bakio et afia part of
Bermeio ut posideant et habeant
eum iIIIi seniors Sancti Johannis
cum all sua hereditate from him ».
In later documents, from the year 1162, in old Spanish, the hermitage appears as Sanctus Lohannes de Penna (San Juan de la Peña), donated to the Premonstratensian Order by Count López de Nájera y de Vizcaya.
Description
The Biscayan coast in this place is wild. The sea works incessantly eroding the rock, sandstone and hard reef limestone, and carving tunnels, arches and caves in it. The island of Gaztelugache is the heart of this interesting stretch of coastline, together with the small island of rabbits, the island of Akatx, a paradise for seabirds.
On the island of Gaztelugache there is a hermitage dedicated to San Juan. Next to the hermitage there is a small shelter that allows you to protect yourself from the wind and to be able to have a snack enjoying the sea and the birds that nest in these parts.
The access is spectacular. A narrow path that starts from the mainland and crosses over the rocks by a stone bridge allows you to reach the upper part of the islet after climbing 241 steps. The path is also marked out with the successive stations of a Via Crucis. It is usually a tradition among walkers to ring the bell of the hermitage, as a symbol of the effort made, once the 241 steps have been ascended. The effort is worth it.
The islet is pierced by tunnels and there are numerous arches. On its sides there are stone beaches that are often used by divers.
The coast, steep, is covered with vegetation. The Basque endemism and the wild olive tree stand out in this area, and on top of them there are gorse, holm oaks and heather. In the sea, with rocky bottoms, there are seaweed meadows, with species such as laminarias or saccorhizas. The fish population is typical of the Cantabrian Sea, where sea bass, pouts, conger eels or mackerels abound, and is completed with slugs, carraspios, julias and invertebrates such as actinia, sea urchins, holothurians, octopus, crabs and spider crabs, as well as barnacles that perch on the rock.
Seabirds are abundant. The existence of wide spaces, such as the island of Aqueche, which can only be accessed by sea, means that they can reproduce with ease. Among the birds that breed here, due to its rarity and small size, the common storm petrel stands out. There is also an abundance of yellow-legged gulls, shags and rock doves.
Although there are frequent discrepancies regarding which municipality the Gaztelugache isthmus belongs to, it is located within the limits of the Villa de Bermeo.
The hermitage
The small church dedicated to the Decapitation of Saint John, which is closed most of the time, dates from the 10th century and some consider it to be of Templar origin, which is impossible, since said order was not created until 1119, and documents prior to this date prove its existence. In 1053 it was donated by Íñigo López, lord of Vizcaya, to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña located near Jaca in Huesca.
In 1593 it suffered a corsair attack at the hands of Francis Drake in which it was looted. This was one of the many incidents that it has suffered throughout its history, where it has caught fire several times. The last one on November 10, 1978 in which it was destroyed. Two years later, on June 25, 1980, it was reopened again.
Medieval burials from the 9th and 12th centuries have been found on the esplanade and inside the hermitage. The religious jurisdiction to which the hermitage belongs is that of the parish of San Pelayo de Baquio.
According to a tradition, once you have reached the hermitage you have to ring the bell three times and make a wish. The effort required to climb the stairs, carved into the rock, is amply rewarded.
The hermitage houses several ex-votos from sailors who have been saved from a shipwreck. It is also traditional that the fishing boats that set sail from the port of Bermeo, at the beginning of the tuna campaigns in the Azores sea, when they arrive in front of the islet of Gaztelugatxe comply with a ritual, to which ships from other nations have been added.: three turns to port and another three to starboard, sounding the siren at the end of each turn with the bow pointing at the hermitage, to ask for luck in the catches and good weather.
Bermeo is one of the main fishing ports in Bizkaia, considered the World Capital of Tuna, with a large fleet of 50 tuna boats and 25 inshore boats, which accounts for around 10% of the world catches of tropical tunas.
The Virgin of Begoña has been submerged 10 meters deep in front of the islet since 1963, as an initiative of the divers to protect them from her underwater throne.
War episodes
The strategic place it occupies made it play an important role in different historical events. It was one of the places where King Alfonso XI of Castile and the Lord of Vizcaya Juan Núñez de Lara clashed in 1334.
In 1594 he was attacked by Huguenots from La Rochelle, suffered looting and the murder of the hermit who was in his care. In the 18th century it was assaulted by English troops and in the Spanish civil war the battle of Cabo Machichaco took place in its waters, where the republican navy faced the insurgent.
Customs and traditions
In addition to the tradition of going up and ringing the bell three times to make a wish or drive away evil spirits, there are others. When fishing boats from Berme go out to fish, they usually make several turns to port and starboard so that the saint gives them luck. Women who suffer from a problem related to fertility usually go to this place in the belief that the Saint will help them solve said problem. The stairwells, identified as the footprints of San Juan, are given different healing powers. To benefit from them, you have to put your feet in them looking for them to heal the calluses or leave hats, scarves or hoods to cure the headache.
Tradition tells that San Juan Bautista made landfall at this point on the Basque coast, leaving his footprints marked in the rock in four different places: in the arch of San Juan in the urban area of Bermeo itself, next to the farmhouse Itsasalde, on the top of Burgoa and finally next to the Ermua hamlet, was placed in 1982. It also tells that in the caves of the rock the inquisition locked up those accused of witchcraft.
Parties
Several festivals are celebrated in San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. The curious thing is that each of them is attended by people from a different town. So that:
- On June 24, St. John the Baptist, the Bermeans celebrate.
- On July 31, St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Arrieta party.
- On August 29, San Juan degollado, is celebrated by those of Baquio. In addition, the corporation of the City of Bermeo goes to the peñón every year as tradition orders, to renew the record on the possession of it.
- On December 30, the end-of-year mass was offered.
- During the feasts of Bermeo, in September, a submarine floral offering is made to the Virgin of our Lady of Begoña who was installed at the base of the cliff, in front of the arches, in 1963. There is a replica of this virgin submerged in the church of San Francisco in Bermeo.
Television stage
The islet and its surroundings were the scene of the filming of some scenes of the seventh season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, in which the beach becomes Dragonstone. In the fiction of the series, a digitally recreated palace can be seen instead of the existing hermitage, but the path with 241 steps that ascends to the top of the islet does stand out. As a result of San Juan de Gaztelugache serving as the setting for the famous series television, the influx of visitors has been so massive that the Provincial Council has had to limit access through free tickets that must be obtained online.
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