Zumaia Fishermen Town

In the Gipuzkoan coast, in the confluence of the rivers Urola and Narrondo we find Zumaia. This small town of 10.000 inhabitants has become famous for appearing in Game of Thrones as the Dragonstone coast that the queen Daenerys Targaryen walks on. Also because its hermitage of San Telmo appears in the film Spanish Affair. But Zumaia is more than that.

Even if today it’s a modern town with a strong industrial sector, it was formerly a merchant village with strong ties to France, Flanders, England and Germany. In its old quarter we find the old majestic houses like the Olazabal palace and the Ubillos tower, and the classic painted houses of the Cantabric towns. In this ensemble the church of Saint Peter Apostle stands out, a robust church about which we will talk deeper in the future, and that’s a real surprise. From outside it’s stark and sturdy, as it served for defensive purposes, but inside it’s the most spectacular gothic space of unique nave in the whole Basque Country.

And then there’s the flysch. It draws a natural coastal landscape out of this world that takes the breath away. Some of the beaches in Zumaia and some of the most spectacular viewpoints in town are united to the flysch. It’s simply obligatory devote a long time to this natural formation if we go to Zumaia.

Also, the food is very good! If you like octopus, Zumaia has a great surprise for you, the soup of flysch octopus, prepared with octopus dried by fermentation and it’s very dense, it’s a town’s icon. So much that it has its own Octopus Day.