Basilica of Begoña

You are standing before the shrine of the Virgin of Begoña, patron saint of Biscay, whom Bilbao people fondly call the Amatxu, “little mother” in Basque. The church you see was begun in the early 16th century to plans by Sancho Martínez de Asego, and the statue was not moved into it until 1603.

1The foot that would not move

Legend says the statue appeared on a holm oak on this hill, that the villagers wanted to take it somewhere more convenient, and that the building materials they gathered by day turned up back up here the next morning. One version adds that a voice cried “Bego oña”, something like “keep your foot still”, and that this is where the name Begoña comes from. The writer Antonio de Trueba recorded the tale in the 19th century and already pointed out that the same story is told at many shrines.

2An unwilling fortress

The documented history is harsher. Because it overlooks the town, Begoña became a military position in the Carlist Wars. In 1835, during the first siege of Bilbao, the Carlist general Tomás de Zumalacárregui was wounded in the leg near here and died days later. The Liberals blew up the bell tower, which crashed onto the vaults, and in 1874 the tower fell again under shellfire. The statue survived because its devotees carried it down to the church of Santiago.

According to a seafaring tradition, sailors coming up the river would say a Salve Regina as soon as they caught sight of this tower.

3What to look for

• The doorway shaped like a 16th-century triumphal arch.
• The tower, rebuilt after the 19th-century wars.
• The view of the Old Town from the square.