Hotel and environment

19th Century House. Musealized

Foto bonilla 2

This villa, now a small renovated hotel, contains in its architecture and its rural setting a very unique period and atmosphere representative of Basque historical, social and cultural “becoming”.

 

This is the first neo-Basque villa, built in the late nineteenth century during the full vivacity of European regionalism with Romantic roots and an unquestionable response to the great crisis with identity overtones caused by the autonomous abolition 1876.

It was built in 1883 by geologist Ramón María Adán de Yarza and conceived as a summer house. Those were the times when British tourism along the southern coasts of France was born (for us Basques, this took place in Iparralde, as it is considered northern Basque Country). This was the time of therapeutic sea- and sun- bathing, of spas … and of course the atmosphere of the bourgeoisie, of industrialization.

 

Obviously the hotel requires a different type of comfort than what was conceived of in the nineteenth century. However, we wanted to keep the large, bright, open-plan spaces that inspired its original layout.

RAMÓN ADAN DE YARZA 40x59

Musealization

We have done a humble musealization of the Hotel to highlight the architectural values ​​of the building and the relevance that it meant for the beginnings of Sea Tourism on the coast of the Basque Country. The setting of the main entrance will take you to the end of the 19th century when Ramón Adan de Yarza and his wife Mª Dolores Gortazar built their summer house.

 

From your room, you can gaze at the Karraspio beach with the stirring and impressive Bay of Biscay in the background. Or the medieval town of Lekeitio, or the beautiful Baroque palace “Zubieta” to the south, located on the estuary near the old tide mill… All this, only a five-minute walk away.

To take the caliber of who built this house, nothing better than to trace its lineage to the two characters that Francisco Goya himself portrayed at the end of the 1780s. This is Antonio Adan de Yarza and Mª Ramona de Barbachano great-grandparents of our Ramón. An aristocratic family of enormous heritage in land and buildings in rural and urban Biscay; All its generations have members also carrying out public functions in the different institutions of the Basque administration and even in the Castilian court.

Sea tourism began and the Adan de Yarza  – Gortazar family  joins this new current that will forever revolutionize the life of the Basque coastal towns. These are new times and the beach begins to be seen as an enjoyment and an unprecedented health benefit.

Continuing West, in less than an hour’s drive we come to Bilbao. The same distance to the east is Donostia/ San Sebastian, where you should spend an entire day just enjoying the gastronomy, with internationally renowned pintxos (Basque tapas). For a cultural cherry on top, visit Chillida Leku or take a simple stroll through the Bella Easo.

You can visit the proposals section to see some plans that we propose while you are staying at the hotel.