Getaria

Getaria is a fishing village on the central stretch of the Gipuzkoa coastline, facing the Cantabrian Sea. Its old quarter occupies a narrow strip of land artificially joined to Monte San Antón, a rocky headland that was an independent island until the sixteenth century. The outline of this promontory, which resembles the silhouette of a mouse, has made the so-called Ratón de Getaria one of the most recognisable images in Gipuzkoa; the best vantage points are the sea wall at Zarautz beach and the roadside viewpoints on the road towards Zumaia.

Getaria is also the birthplace of two figures of universal renown. Juan Sebastián Elcano, a sixteenth-century navigator, completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Cristóbal Balenciaga, born in the village in 1895, became one of the great masters of haute couture in the twentieth century; his legacy is housed locally in the Museo Cristóbal Balenciaga.

Gastronomy completes the town's identity: restaurants specialising in traditionally grilled fish and txakoli, a white wine with its own Denomination of Origin produced under the direct influence of the coastal environment.