Lekeitio

Lekeitio is a fishing village on the coast of Bizkaia, in the Lea-Artibai district, wedged between Mounts Otoio and Lumentza and looking out over a bay presided over by the island of San Nicolás. Founded in 1325 by María Díaz de Haro, who granted it its charter and privileges, it lived for centuries on fishing and shipbuilding, and it preserves the medieval layout of its streets along with a handful of palaces from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Its greatest monument is the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, a fifteenth-century Gothic church that houses a Flemish altarpiece considered one of the finest on the peninsula. The harbour remains the heart of the town: the rowing crews, the fish markets and the bars along the waterfront set the rhythm of village life, and in September the San Antolín festivities culminate in the Antzar Eguna, the fiercely contested goose trial held over the bay. For pilgrims following the coastal variant of the Camino del Norte, and especially for those travelling by bicycle, Lekeitio is a natural stop between Zarautz and the Gernika estuary: it offers ample accommodation, two town beaches, Isuntza and Karraspio, and a fish and seafood cuisine that on its own justifies stopping for the night.