Vitoria-Gasteiz, chief town of the Basque province of Álava and administrative center of the Autonomous Community of the País Vasco, lies to the south of the Cantabrian Mountains in a plain below the north side of the Montes de Vitoria. In recent decades a busy industrial area (mainly engineering and foodstuffs) has grown up around the town, but agriculture is still an important source of income.
History
This was probably the Visigothic settlement of Gasteiz: hence its double name. It began to develop into a town of some consequence in the 12th century, when, after a Navarrese victory, Sancho the Wise renamed it Vitoria. In 1813 Wellington's troops defeated a French army commanded by General Jourdan in a battle fought to the south of the town, compelling the French to withdraw from Spain.
Opposite El Portalón is the Casa Armera de los Gobeo-Guevara-San Juan, which now houses the Archeological Museum, with Celtiberian and Roman antiquities from the nearby site of Iruña.
At the far end of Calle Correría, to the left of the Cathedral, are a number of very handsome old brick-built houses, including a 15th century merchant's house known as El Portalón, now occupied by a restaurant.
At the end of the Calle de Fray Zacharias are the Arquillos, a row of buildings erected in the 18th century to accommodate the difference in level between the old and the new town. Here too is the church of San Vicente.
The Museo del Naipe, in the same building as the Provincial Museum of Art, has the very interesting Fournier collection of playing cards, with examples going back to the 15th century.
To the south of the old town is the much larger area of the new town. On its west side, adjoining the park of La Florida, is the Catedral Nueva, begun in 1907 but not consecrated until 1969.
From the Cathedral, Calle de Fray Zacharias returns to the south end of the old town, passing the 16th century Palacio de Escoriaza-Esquivel, which has a Plateresque doorway and a handsome inner courtyard.
From the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca a passage leads to the Plaza de España, which was laid out in 1791 on the model of the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca. On the north side of the square is the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall).
The Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes holds a collection consisting mainly of religious art from the former Diocesan Museum (including pictures by Ribera and Alonso Cano);
Address: Vitoria-Gasteiz Provincial Museum of Art, Paseo de Fray Francisco de Vitoria 3, E-01007 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
On the north side of the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca stands the 14th century Gothic church of San Miguel, with a statue of the Virgen Blanca (White Virgin), patroness of the town, on the facade. The church, entered through a richly sculptured doorway, has a retablo by Juan de Velázquez and Gregorio Fernández on the high altar. In a niche on the outside of the apse, in the Plaza del Machete, is an axe (machete), on which the royal governor of the town was required to swear that he would act in the interests of the town, on the understanding that he would be beheaded with the axe if he did not.
Northwest of the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca is the 14th century Gothic church of San Pedro, with a fine doorway. In the Capilla Mayor are tombs of the Álava family.
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Vitoria-Gasteiz
