Butrón Castle


Butrón castle is located in Gatika, on a hill, and sitting on some rocks, surrounded by a hundred-year-old forest. The castle takes the visitor to the Middle Ages, where fights between different families took place. But Butrón has not always been a castle. In the middle of the 13th century it was a tower-house and the Fifth Lord of Butrón transformed it into a castle in the 14th century.

For over three hundred years, from the 16th century onwards, the castle was the scene of non-stop and bloody fights between two sides of Bizkaia's nobility. The lords of Butrón, sheltered in the castle, exerted their power in that area.

When bloody fights finished in the beginning of 16th century the castle was abandoned and it deteriorated until its restoration in the late 19th century, where it acquired its present appearance. The person in charge of the project was the architect Francisco de Cubas, who in 1878 rebuilt it following the prevailing criteria in that period's main European castles.

This magnificent monument to Romanticism is the finest example of a modern recreation of a Medieval castle in the State today and, together with its beautiful surroundings, is surely one of the prettiest postcards of Biscay.

Location

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General and/or specific data

  • It is a castle straight out of a fairy-tale, with four turrets, seven floors and a great variety of decorative elements.
  • The park surrounding the castle is an important feature, due to the great number of species of plant, both native and exotic, growing there.
  • The castle is closed to visitors.

Information about accessibility

A Good Idea

The estuary that runs from the Castle of Butrón (Gatika) to its mouth in the Bay, offers a parallel promenade that runs to the town of Plentzia, a welcoming town on the coast of Bizkaia with a great tourist attraction with a fishing and naval tradition. This 6 km walk is part of the GR 280 Uribe, an ideal environment also for horseback riding or canoeing.

Did you know?

Butrón Castle is part of the medieval route of Uribe. The route has different interpretive points throughout the region where you will learn about passages, curiosities and vicissitudes on different themes of this time.

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