Ziortza-Bolibar

Ziortza-Bolibar is a municipality in Bizkaia, nestled beneath Mount Oiz in the Lea-Artibai region. It comprises two distinct historic settlements: Ziortza, home to the Monastery of Zenarruza, and Bolibar, formerly known as La Puebla de Bolibar.

The Monastery of Zenarruza dates back to the tenth century and was the only collegiate church in Bizkaia. Today it houses a Cistercian community and has been declared a National Monument of the Basque Country. Its complex includes a church, cloister, hospice and various dependencies set in a remarkably peaceful landscape.

Bolibar is widely known as the ancestral home of Simón Bolívar, the liberator of Venezuela. The old farmhouse of Errementarikua now holds the Simón Bolívar Museum, which explores medieval Basque rural life alongside the political career of the South American independence leader. The parish church of Santo Tomás, built between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, contains a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Coromoto, patron saint of Venezuela — a tangible expression of the enduring bond between this small Basque village and South America.