Vitoria

History

The history of the Basque country is fascinating and complex. No one quite knows where the Basque people came from (they have no migration myth in their oral history), but their presence here is believed to predate even the earliest known migrations. Interestingly, when the Romans invaded Spain in 218 BC, they never conquered the hilly Basque Country, perhaps because its inhabitants were impossible to subjugate. After the Roman Western Empire collapsed in the 5th century AD, the Visigoths eventually established their dominance over much of Spain, making Toledo their capital in 542.

In 581 AD, Historians believe that a precursor to modern-day Vitoria, called Victoriacum, was founded by the Visigoth king Luivigild. The king had recently won a battle against the Basques and wanted to commemorate his victory with a new settlement. However, Victoriacum vanished from history shortly after its foundation.

In 711, Tariq ibn Ziyad, the Tangier’s Muslim governor, landed at Gibraltar with around 10,000 men and quickly subdued most of the Iberian Peninsula. His army decimated the poorly trained Visigoths and was only halted by the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. The enlightened Islamic civilization that would rule most of Spain was called Al-Andalus. From the middle of the 8th century to the mid 11th century, the frontier between Muslim and Christian territory lay across the north of the peninsula, roughly from southern Catalunya to northern Portugal. Yet the Basque Country was never conquered by the Muslim forces, and a rebellion began as early as 722 at the battle of Covadonga in Asturias.

The Asturian kingdom eventually moved its capital south to Leon and became the kingdom of Leon, which spearheaded the Reconquista (reconquest) of Spain. The expansionist Castilian crown gained sovereignty over the Basque territories during the Middle Ages (1000-1450) – in 1181, the King of Navarra Sancho the Wise founded a settlement called Nova Victoria, the current predecessor to present-day Vitoria-Gasteiz. It was built on the site of a previous settlement known as Gasteiz. However, in 1199, the town was besieged for nine months and eventually captured by the troops of Alfonso VIII of Castile. He annexed Vitoria as part of his kingdom. However, even when the settlement came under the Castilian orbit, Navarra and three other Basque provinces extracted broad autonomy arrangements, known as the fueros (the ancient laws of the Basques).

Modern Times

Vitoria would play a pivotal role in the tumultuous events of the 19th century. In 1807, French forces poured into Spain, supposedly on their way to Portugal. Still, by 1808 this had become a French occupation of Spain, and Carlos IV was forced to abdicate in favor of Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte. However, the Spanish revolted, and the French were finally driven out after their defeat at Vitoria. There is a monument commemorating this battle in the city’s main square, known as the Monument to Independence.

Sadly, this did not signify the end of Vitoria’s troubles. After the second Carlist War in 1876, all provinces except Navarra were stripped of their coveted fueros, thereby fueling nascent Basque nationalism. This fervent nationalism remains alive and well today.

Spain did not take part in the World Wars of the 20th century. However, it had plenty of internalized strife to contend with. When the second Spanish Republic in Madrid proposed the possibility of home rule to the Basques in 1936, both the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Vizcaya took up the offer. Conservative Alava, in contrast, sided with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War, ensuring that Vitoria was left relatively unscathed during the conflict between the Republican government and Fascist dictator General Franco. The Nationalists entered Madrid on 28 March 1939, and Franco declared the war over on 1 April. Regional autonomy was henceforth off the table, and church and state reigned supreme. Divorce, strikes, trade unions, and political associations were declared illegal.

It was during the Franco days that ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) was born. Originally set up to fight the Franco regime, which suppressed the Basques through banning the language and almost all forms of Basque culture. After Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s, widespread regional autonomy was granted. Yet, ETA wanted nothing less than total independence and continued its bloody fight against the Spanish government until, in 2011, the group announced a ‘definitive cessation of its armed activity.’

Today, Vitoria is a fitting symbol of the Basque Country in 2019 – proud and independent, Vitoria boasts self-confidence that is entirely deserved. Yet Vitoria has a habit of falling off the radar, as visitors flock to the more famous San Sebastian and Bilbao, which are indeed beautiful destinations. But in many ways, Vitoria is like a miniature version of Bilbao, but for the moment, it has avoided any of the downsides of mass tourism. That, combined with the city’s thriving cultural, gastronomic, and arts scene, is priceless.