Kortezubi (Cortézubi)

Steel mesh and 14,000-year-old bison

The torch beam picks out a line of red ochre bison, their bellies curved to follow the natural bulge of rock. Below them, a narrow steel walkway clings to the cave wall, wet with condensation and slick enough to demand rubber soles. This is Santimamiñe, a ten-minute drive uphill from Kortezubi’s church, and the only place in the Basque Country where you can stand eye-to-eye with Palaeolithic art without boarding a boat to Altamira. Entry is by timed slot—twelve visitors, twice a morning—so turning up at opening time is essential. Miss the 10 o’clock shuttle and you’ll watch Spanish school parties disappear while you thumb the English fact-sheet provided at the hut.

From cave mouth to painted forest

Most visitors pair the cave with the Bosque de Oma, three kilometres away by winding farm track. The “painted forest” is less enchanted grove, more land-art scavenger hunt: Basque artist Agustín Ibarrola daubed pines in blocks of yellow, pink and turquoise so that, viewed from precise angles, the trunks merge into cows, eyes or fertility goddesses. It works only if you commit to the footpath—thirty minutes of ducking under branches and squelching through clay after rain. Trainers with tread are fine; canvas plimsolls will be shredded. Mobile signal drops to 3G under the canopy, so screenshot the route before you set off. Those who arrive in flip-flops tend to turn back at the first boggy patch, missing the best views at the far end of the loop.

A village that isn’t quite a village

Kortezubi itself spreads like a loose collection of farmsteads across the green floor of the Urdaibai estuary. There is no postcard square ringed with geraniums; instead, stone houses sit among apple orchards and small plots of kale, the lanes between them signed only at junctions. The parish church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, keeps its doors locked unless the sacristan is around, but the adjacent frontón wall still hosts Sunday pelota games loud enough to echo off the surrounding slopes. Walk five minutes past the last house and you’re on a shepherd’s track that climbs through gorse and dwarf oak to the 220-metre ridge. From the top, the Atlantic weather rolls in fast—one moment Devon-green pasture, the next a mist damp enough to soak a jacket in minutes.

When to come, and when to stay away

Spring and early autumn give you warm afternoons without the August squeeze. During fiesta week (15 August) the population triples, local prices treble and every guestroom within 15 km is booked by February. Winter brings emptier car parks but also the real possibility that the cave will close if the internal humidity spikes; check the Santimamiñe website the evening before. The Urdaibai Biosphere is officially Atlantic, not Mediterranean—expect four seasons in a day, and pack a fleece even in July. Grey skies don’t ruin the visit; they simply shift the emphasis from forest trail to the excellent interpretation centre where a 3-D scanner lets you “crawl” the entire 400-metre gallery on a screen.

Eating, or why you’ll probably drive to Gernika

Kortezubi keeps two bars, both cash-only. Bar Lezika grills a chuletón that arrives rare in the middle, charred at the edges, weighed at half-kilo increments—enough for two hungry walkers and cheaper than Bilbao’s steakhouses. Beyond that, the choice is txakoli from a plastic jug and whatever the owner’s mother has stewed that morning. For vegetarian plates or simply a wider menu, most drivers continue five minutes down the BI-2235 to Gernika, where Saturday market stalls sell Idiazabal cheese and cider houses pour the tart, still variety known as sagardoa. Bring euros: there is no cash machine in Kortezubi, and the nearest one in Gernika often runs dry on market days.

Getting here without a car

Public transport exists, but only just. Bizkaibus line A3514 leaves Bilbao’s Termibus at 08:45, 12:45, 16:45 and 19:20, reaching Kortezubi forty-five minutes later. The return schedule is symmetrical except on Sundays, when the service halves and the last bus back is 19:20 sharp. Miss it and a taxi to Bilbao costs €70–€80 after 22:00. Bicycles are an alternative: a greenway follows the old mining railway from Gernika to the cave turn-off, mostly flat and car-free, though the final 2 km to Santimamiñe is a calf-burning 10% gradient. Bike hire is available in Gernika for €20 a day—reserve online because the shop shuts for siesta between 13:30 and 16:00.

What the brochures leave out

The painted forest is not ancient; the oldest pigments date from 1982 and the colours fade noticeably each decade. The cave paintings, by contrast, are genuine but viewed only in replica unless you join the monthly conservation group limited to six academics. Most casual visitors see the high-resolution copy in the interpretation centre, which is better lit and easier to photograph anyway. Finally, Kortezubi will never supply a full day’s entertainment on its own. Treat it as a two-hit morning—cave and forest—followed by a long lunch elsewhere, and the place makes perfect sense. Arrive expecting cobbled lanes and gift shops and you’ll be back in the car within the hour, wondering why you bothered.