Valle de Aezkoa

Here, under the silent protection of the Pyrenees and amidst a network of ravines that wind their way down to the Irati River , the forest writes its own memory without the need for words. In this valley, the atmosphere is felt in the solidity of the red-tiled farmhouses and in the continuity of ways of life that have learnt to converse with the mountains. It is a place of unhurried contemplation, where ancient trades, the cadence of the Aezkera language and the constant presence of the forest coexist as if they had never ceased to be, integrating nature and culture in a single rhythm.

What to see in the Aezkoa Valley?

Landscape and memory intertwine here in a continuous sequence of discoveries.

• Irati Forest : The valley’s main attraction, comprising the second largest and best-preserved beech and fir forest in Europe. It is a place for wildlife watching, where species such as red deer, roe deer and wild boar live amidst the unspoilt vegetation.
• Orbaizeta Royal Arms Factory : 18th-century ruins declared a Site of Cultural Interest, bearing witness to the Pyrenees’ military-industrial past. Today, the architecture, overgrown with vegetation, offers a scene of mysticism and silence beside the Txangoa ravine.
• Route of the Hórreos: Here stand 15 of the 22 hórreos preserved in Navarre, all protected as Assets of Cultural Interest. Unlike in other places, here they retain their original function of storing grain safe from damp and rodents, raised on stone pillars.
• Museum of the Stelae: A museum-style cemetery where some twenty medieval disc-shaped stelae record the traces of death and the legacy of the valley’s houses within a landscaped labyrinth, in the village of Abaurrea Alta .
• Archaeological heritage: The landscape preserves ancient remains such as the Roman Tower of Urkulu, a 1st-century monument guarding the border pass, and the Azpegi Megalithic Site, with numerous cromlechs and dolmens.