Estella-Lizarra and Vitoria-Gasteiz

SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 : Today we are visiting two cities, Estella-Lizarra and Vitoria-Gasteiz. Each one of these towns is known by two names. This is Basque country – the first name is the Spanish name and the second is the Basque name. Often the city is referred to by only one of the names, depending on the language spoken. However in English, it’s common to use both names together, to acknowledge the bilingual nature of the region.

This morning, we left Calahorra and drove an hour north to Estella-Lizarra. The weather was dark and overcast. This gloominess was appropriate for the dismal things we would see today.

Most of the way was through flat, agricultural land with many grape vineyards and fruit orchards. We eventually reached the mountains, and the town of Estella-Lizarra, which is beautifully situated in the hills.

After parking our car, we walked toward the tourist office, passing by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Holding up the ornate arched portal are two sculptures which are identified as Jews by their beards and kipot (religious head coverings). Often medieval churches featured decorations such as monstrous figures or beasts, depicting vices on their corbels. We can deduce that placing two Jews here was not a compliment. Seeing this anti-Jewish symbolism carved in stone was gloomy.

From the Church of the Holy Sepulchre we continued towards the tourist office. Despite the church’s negative symbolism, our initial impression of Estella-Lizarra was overwhelmingly positive. Situated along the Way of St. James pilgrimage route, the town was bustling with people equipped with hiking poles and backpacks. We found the historic district’s cobblestone streets, boutique shops, and trendy restaurants charming, a refreshing contrast to the more run-down small towns we’d previously visited.

At the tourist information office, the clerk had the Jewish Network booklet about the town, but only in Spanish. However, he knew all the Jewish points in town and showed us where to go on a map. This was much more informative than most other tourist offices we have been to so far. After getting a stamp in my Network of Jewish Quarters passport card (very important!), we continued to explore the few sites here.

Our first destination, up the hill, was the Church of Santa María Jus del Castillo, where the synagogue of the old Jewish Quarter once stood. Supposedly three of the walls of the church are partially built from remains of the synagogue.

What is interesting, it that both here, and at the previous church, the signage clearly mentions the Jewish past.

As the Jewish presence in the town expanded, the New Jewish Quarter was created next to the walls of Belmecher Castle, on the other side of the same hill. Today it is all buried underground, with only one wall remaining visible.

When then continued driving one hour northward to Vitoria-Gasteiz, a large city with over 250,000 inhabitants, and the administrative capital of the autonomous Basque Country.

Before doing any sightseeing, we checked into our AirBnb and found it to be the most unusual we had ever been to (and we have been to many). This apartment came along with a cat. The cat was supposedly self-contained – meaning it had an automatic feeding machine, and an automatic litter cleaning contraption, as well as a cat playground that took up a whole wall of the house. We were told we could ignore the cat, but this proved impossible as she would jump onto the dining room table wanting to share our food.

Besides having a cat, it seems the host usually lives in the apartment and his belongings were everywhere. The fridge and kitchen cabinets were full of his food and even the washer and dryer, that we needed to use, had his clothes in them. It was obviously a bachelor pad, and we could tell that the lint filter in the dryer had never been cleaned. The host told us that the dryer does not work so well. Once we cleaned the filter, it worked fine. We sent the host a YouTube video about how to clean a dryer lint filter.

Out of the many available AirBnbs in Vitoria-Gasteiz, I had selected this apartment because it was in walking distance to Judimendi Park, and once we unpacked, this was where we headed to.

In 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain, the Jewish community of Vitoria-Gasteiz entrusted their cemetery to the municipal authorities. On June 27 of that year, an agreement was formalized in which the city council committed to preserving the sanctity of this burial ground, ensuring it would remain undeveloped. This pledge was honored for over five centuries, and today, the former cemetery has been transformed into Judimendi Park—a serene green space whose name means “Mount of the Jews” in Basque. No construction or farming has ever taken place here.   

A monolith in the park honors the park’s history as a former Jewish cemetery, reflecting the city’s commitment to preserving this sacred site since the 15th century.

Also in this park is a sculpture erected in 2004, called “Coexistence”, created by the Israeli artist Yael Artsi. This monument has eight large concrete slabs arranged like the pages of a book, symbolizing peaceful coexistence. On the pages, spreading a message of peace and harmony, you can read in Spanish, Basque and Hebrew: “…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more…” Isaiah 2-4

However, that message seemed to go unheeded. At the far end of the small park stood a wall painted with the large, Basque slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”  A gloomy end to a nice day.