Zuia

Zuia (Spanish: Zuya) is a town and municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain.

The first mention of the Zuia Valley is in the document Reja de San Millan from the year 1025 (though some authors argue that it is posterior, probably twelfth century), a document conserved in the Monastery of San Millan (La Rioja). The document states that every ten neighbors must deliver a grating iron to a religious institution; according to the document, nine bars correspond to Zuia, 13 to Zigoitia, 12 to Kuartango, etc. In 1752, after repeated attempts, the king approved the establishment of a highway through the valley of Zuia to facilitate communication between Vitoria and Bilbao. Work was supposed to be completed by the year 1798. In 1763, they voted to enlarge the town hall, under Mayor Francisco Vea Murgia. In 1767 the city council house of Zuia was finished. However, in 1795, after 6 years of poor harvests and a draining war with France, the Valley remained mired in abject poverty, so they sold half of the town hall for 4300 ducats to Don Domingo Ortiz de Zarate, the patron of Luquiano, who lived in Murgia.

Geographically, the municipio of Zuia borders the province of Biscay (Orozko and Zeanuri) and Álava municipalities: Urkabustaiz, {Amurrio}, Zigoitia, Kuartango and {Vitoria-Gasteiz}. Within its limits is located a large portion of the Gorbea massif (73.5 km2), including its most important summits: Gorbea (1,482 m), Nafakorta (1.017m) Burbona (935m) and Berretín (1.226m). The sources of several rivers are located here, including the Baias, the Ugalde, and the Larreakorta, which as they flow from North to South have carved steep watersheds into the valley of Zuia, around river Baias. Although part of the original vegetation of Gorbeia has been cleared (nowadays occupied by heath and pine), magnificent beech woods are still found in Berretín (Larreakorta), Arlobi, and Ilunbe; an extensive Pyrenean in the ravine of the river Ugalde (Aldamiz, Arazo and Southeast of Berretín); and a strip of alder groves on the banks of the Baias. But, without a doubt, the best preserved enclave is the beech forest of Altube, where the part of Zuia, has been developed around the canyons that descend from Burbona: the Bortal/Rekandi and Katxandiano. In the area of Zuia Valley, extraordinary oaks remain next to the Baias (in Bitoriano, Ametzaga Lukiano and Gillerna in Basubitxi and San Fausto), distributed like islets between large areas of pasture that occupy the entire Valley of Zuia. Peñas de Oro/Atxabal (896m) and Ganalto (Badaia saw, 900 m.), close the Zuia Valley, sheltering beautiful patches of beech and oak on its slopes. These places offer beautiful views over all Oro, a place of great botanical, geological (calcareous Islet in the diapiric area of Murgia) and artistic (Sanctuary of Oro) interest.

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