From Gernika to the Oma forest

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Ibarrola's Oma forest

Gernika-Lumo –for many people, the sentimental and symbolic capital of the Basque Country– is the starting point of this excursion that will lead us to the Oma Valley, where nature and art merge. This valley, dotted with farmhouses and old mills, shelters the most important prehistoric settlement in Bizkaia –the Santimamiñe Cave– and the Oma Forest, painted by Agustin Ibarrola.

Gernika-Lumo was born in 1882 from the union of Gernika and the anteiglesia of Lumo (a village or municipal district specific to the Basque provinces). In 2006, on April 28th, they celebrated the 640th anniversary of Gernika’s foundation as a villa (town).

Also in April, -on the 26th- they remember the bombings by the German air force sent by Hitler. The town –that houses the Assembly House and the tree under which the laws of Bizkaia were drafted- was reduced to rubble. At present, Gernika-Lumo works for being known in the whole world as a City of Peace.

Built in the 19th century as a church, there gathered the General Assemblies of Bizkaia, surrounded by the portraits of the territory's lords. We should pay special attention to the stained glass window covering one of the ceilings and, outside the building, the emblematic Tree of Gernika.

Chillida’s monument ‘Gure aitaren etxea’ is located near ‘Large figure in a shelter’ by Henry Moore. These two symbols of peace are very near the Assembly House, in the Park of the Peoples of Europe.

We go through the BI-638 road to Kortezubi. Therefore, we have to take the road joining Gernika and Arteaga. Before arriving, a diversion to the right indicates our following destination: ‘Santimamiñe Caves’. Before entering into the caves, we can observe the hermitage, dating from the 16th century. The lintel and the threshold show two outstanding fragments of funeral steles decorated with sun and cruciform motifs.

Stairs up, 200 metres from here, we will find the caves, one of the most important sanctuaries of cave paintings of the Magdalenian period, in the Upper Palaeolithic between 14,000 and 9,000 years before our time. The cave is closed to the public because of its damage. This prehistoric settlement, the most important in Bizkaia, is located at the foot of Mount Ereñozar. The cave paintings were found in 1916.

Turning right from where we have parked our cars, we find a signposted path towards the Animated Forest (3 kilometres). Splashes of colour join the trees. Eyes, geometric figures, and characters merge in this exhibition of ‘land art’. This work by Agustín Ibarrola is a dialogue between the artist and nature.

This circuit allows observing this spot from very different angles. It is worth to get deeper into the valley and observe its meadows, farmhouses –some of them with gothic arches, traces of a medieval past–, and old mills. The road is quiet, so we can do it on foot.