The Basque Country: A Cultural HistoryThe Basque Country is a land of fascinating paradoxes and enigmas. Home to one of Europe's oldest peoples and most mysterious languages, with a living folklore rich in archaic rituals and dances, it also boasts a dynamic modern energy, with the reinvention of Bilbao creating a model for the twenty-first-century city. In The Basque Country, Paddy Woodworth takes us on a sweeping tour of this enchanting land. We discover a small territory which abounds in big contrasts, ranging from moist green valleys to semi-desert badlands, from snowy sierras to sandy beaches, from harsh industrial landscapes to bucolic beech woods. The book reveals how this often idyllic scenery forms the backdrop for a land of ancient and modern culture, where Basque poets still compose spontaneous stanzas in public contests and where strange age-old sports--rock lifting, goose decapitation--are still held at fiestas. Likewise, the region has made important contributions to modern culture, through novelists like Bernardo Atxaga, sculptors like Eduardo Chillida, painters like Zuluoaga, and cineastes like Julio Medem. And of course Bilbao's flagship museum, the Guggenheim, designed by Frank O. Gehry, may be the best work of architecture of the last century. Here then is a marvelous guide to the culture and landscape of one of the most intriguing places on Earth. |
Contents
Wherixe Are We Exactly? And What Will We Call This Place? | 1 |
A Short Version of a Long History From the Stone Age to the Civil War | 13 |
Bai Bai Urdaibai Cave Paintings Painted Trees Tree of Gernika | 39 |
The Frontón at the Heart of Life The Power and Beauty of Pelota | 63 |
Cinco Villas Pío Baroja Flying Mari Sword Dances and Sorcery | 73 |
Gastronomy Some Answers to the Most Urgent Basque Question | 95 |
Wow Bilbao The Transformation of a Tough City | 103 |
From the Music of Labour to Music as a Labour of Love | 135 |
Bay of Biscay Wlhales Belle Epoque Decapitated Geese Sexual Politics | 189 |
Navarre Heartland or Hinterland? | 213 |
Mountain High Pleasure Penitence and Pagan Gods | 239 |
IparraIde The Basques on the Other Side of the Mountains | 245 |
The Reality of Magic the Magic of Reality | 271 |
Further Reading | 277 |
Glossary | 281 |
285 | |
Obaba in Asteasu the Basque Village as a Literary Universe | 141 |
Serious Fun Fiestas in Laguardia | 159 |
Dont Mention the War The Dark Side of Basqueand SpanishPolitics | 171 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Álava Arana Asteasu Atxaga Axular AZTI Bardenas bars baserri Basque coast Basque culture Basque government Basque language Basque nationalism Basque nationalists Basque village Batasuna Bayonne Bernardo Biarritz Bidasoa Bilbao bombing border building Camino Carlist Caro Baroja Castile caves century church city's contemporary Basque dance democracy ETA's Euskal Herria Euskera farmhouse fiesta fishing Franco frontón fueros Gernika Gothic Guggenheim Guipúzcoa hills Hondarribia houses ikurriña industrial Iparralde iron Irún Itziar José Joseba Juan Julio Caro kind kofradia Laguardia landscape Lekeitio Lesaka linked live Madrid María mayor medieval mountain museum Navarran Navarre neighbours Nervión No-one Pamplona pelota Pío played plaza political province PSOE Pyrenean Pyrenees radical region river road San Sebastián Sancho says side Spain Spanish stone streets tion town traditional tree txalaparta Ujué Urdaibai valley Vizcaya walls whale women writer young Zarautz Zulaika