A brief history
The first settlemnt here was in the 11th century, Hagurahin, and then a town was established in the 13th century. The aim was to protect the border against Navarre, and to safeguard the trade route along the Camino. There are three main roads, parallel to each other, and two fortress-like churches, one at each end of the town.1 The plague ravaged Salvatierra in the 16th century and was followed by a fire in 1564 which destroyed most of the town. Salvatierra was nevertheless quickly rebuilt in the following centuries.
In the 20th century the development of roads and railways changed the town into a busy industrial hub.
Walking up the Calle Mayor
Every Medieaval border town was walled, with gates. In Salvatierra we entered through the Gate of the King which, sadly, was demolished in 1841. The walls are no longer intact either. We walked up a narrow street to reach the Plaza Mayor.
The Church of St John the Baptist (no.3)
The Church of St John the Baptist dominates the main square, but it was closed. It is not the original church on this site, but was rebuilt after the fire in the 16th century. This is the square where the market is held every Tuesday, since the 13th century. There are long arcades/butterwalks down one side of the square, providing shelter in bad weather.
The first stop, as always, was the tourist office, where a very helpful young man ‘sold’ the Basque country to us – he did a very good job! The tourist office was once an old palace, and then a police station, with cells, but today it is empty, apart from the very top floor which housed an exhibition of old radios!
As you walk down the Calle Mayor the great number of mansions, with elaborate coats-of-arms, is very striking. This must have been a very wealthy town in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Nearly every building in the main street has some feature of interest! The Casa de Begona is a Basque Manor House of the 16th/17th centuries, with a large garden.
This mansion was commissioned in 1582.
The Church of Santa Maria, another fortress-like construction, also dates from the late 15th/early 16th century. There was an earlier building on the site, but presumably it was destroyed in the great fire. The church is built into the walls, and stands at the top end of the town, next to the north gate.
Calle Carniceria
The Calle Carniceria (street of the butchers) leads from the Church of Santa Maria parallel to the walls on the eastern side of the town. Immediately in front of the church is a little park, one of several small green public spaces inside the walls.
Down the road is the Convent of the Clarissas which dates from the 15th century. Today it is home to a community of nineteen who make sweets, for sale in the Convent.
In the Santa Clara Plaza, at the end of the street, we saw these colourful strawberry trees, and some interesting murals.
Apparently ceramics was once an important industry in the town. The Society of Alavesa Ceramics was created in the town in 1912 by Dimas Ugarte Merino, Vidal Sanz Echevarria and a group of friends and relatives. The heyday of the factory was in the 1930s. 23 “What truly set Cerámica Alavesa apart was its collaboration with legendary Basque costumbrist painters, most notably Obdulio López de Uralde, as well as the brothers José and Ramiro Arrue.”4
Calle Zapatarias
After a cup of coffee in the Plaza of St John, we walked up the third main street, along the western line of the walls.
I also a music school, and in the same space a memorial to A D Marcos Sagasti, a much-revered teacher in Salvatierra.
And another extraordinary coat of arms on a mansion commissioned in 1580, after the fire.
The few hours in Salvatierre/Agurain were most enjoyable, but again I was left feeling woefully ignorant of Spanish history (another book needed!) and very aware that the Basque country and culture are not the same as I had encountered in the centre of Spain. The town ‘felt’ different, perhaps more austere – it was difficult to pin it down, but it was different.
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