Village
Capital of Álava and of the Basque Country, and the only municipality in the Cuadrilla de Vitoria-Gasteiz. With 260,699 inhabitants (INE, 2025) it is the most populous city in Euskadi. Its urban center sits at 539 m in altitude, within a municipal area ranging between 495 and 1,029 m. It is already mentioned in 1025 in the Reja de San Millán; the Navarrese king Sancho VI the Wise granted it a settlement charter in 1181 under the name Nueva Victoria, over the village of Gasteiz, and John II granted it the title of city on 20 November 1431.
Monument
Gothic cathedral whose construction began in the 13th century and continued until the 16th. It was declared Monumento Histórico-Artístico (Spain's heritage designation in force between 1931 and 1985) on 3 June 1931 (today a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) under Law 16/1985) and has been part, since 2015, of the UNESCO World Heritage property "Caminos de Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés y Caminos del Norte de España" (Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain). Its restoration process was opened to the public via elevated walkways in the "Abierto por obras" (Open for works) project, a model later imitated by other institutions.
Monument
Neo-Gothic cathedral built in the late 19th century, known as the "new cathedral" to distinguish it from that of Santa María.
Monument
The medieval "almendra" (almond-shaped old town) preserves a layout of concentric streets from the 12th and 13th centuries around the cathedral hill, among them Correría, Zapatería, and Herrería, which take their names from the trades that once populated them.
Monument
The arcaded, neoclassical Plaza de España houses the town hall, built between 1783 and 1791. Next to it, Plaza de la Virgen Blanca preserves the monument to the 1813 Battle of Vitoria.
Nature
A belt of peri-urban parks surrounding the city, with more than 10 million m² of green space, about 42 m² per inhabitant. It was one of the merits that led the city to be named European Green Capital in 2012.
Activity
Patronal festivities that kick off on 4 August at 6:00 pm with the chupinazo (opening rocket) and the Bajada de Celedón (Descent of Celedón), in which the figure travels from the tower of San Miguel to a balcony on the square, where he is replaced by a human Celedón who crosses the square among the crowd. They end on the night of 9 to 10 August, when Celedón climbs back up the tower in the farewell ceremony, accompanied by a candlelight procession.
Historical milestone
In September 1181 King Sancho VI the Wise of Navarre granted a founding charter to the hamlet of Gasteiz, already walled since the 11th century, refounding it under the name Nova Victoria; over time, in the predominantly Basque-speaking local pronunciation, the 'c' was dropped and the name evolved into Vitoria.
Monument
Gothic church where the city's patron saint is venerated and which preserves what is considered the finest 16th-century altarpiece in the Basque Country; a niche in its façade holds the machete on which the town's general procurators used to swear their oath of office.
Monument
Built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries next to the medieval wall, it functioned as a fortress-church integrated into the old town's defensive system.
Monument
Built on the site of the old castle of the original settlement of Gasteiz, its Gothic towers form part of the city's historic skyline.
Curiosity
The Gothic towers of the churches of San Miguel, San Vicente, and San Pedro, together with that of the Catedral de Santa María, form the silhouette known as 'the four towers', the most recognizable historic image of Vitoria-Gasteiz's skyline.
Monument
Renaissance palace located at the top of the medieval old town, today home to cultural events and the municipal departments of Culture and Education.
Monument
Renaissance urban palace built by Fernán López de Escoriaza and his wife Victoria Pérez de Anda e Ibáñez de Esquivel, at the top of Calle Villa Suso, within the historic center.
Monument
Housed since 1942 in the Agustín Zulueta palace, it brings together Spanish art from the 18th to the 20th centuries, with special attention to Basque art from 1850 to 1950 and several rooms devoted to the painter Fernando de Amárica.
Monument
The Bendaña palace, from 1525, has housed since their merger the BIBAT complex ('two in one' in Basque), which brings together the Álava Archaeology Museum and the Fournier Playing Card Museum, with the collection of playing cards assembled by Heraclio Fournier, founder in 1868 of the city's playing-card factory, one of the most important of its kind in the world.
Monument
Defensive tower-house from the early 15th century, one of the surviving structures of Vitoria's old wall; since 1986 it has housed the Álava Natural Sciences Museum.
Monument
15th-century building built by the converso Juan Sánchez de Bilbao around a pre-existing tower-house; it takes its name from the Franciscan cord carved on its façade and today houses the Fundación Vital.
Monument
Old 15th-century coaching inn where merchants passing through Álava used to lodge, with Renaissance, Gothic, and Mudéjar elements; restored in the mid-20th century, it is the city's longest-established restaurant.
Historical milestone
It owes its name to the oath the city's general procurator swore before the people on a machete, pledging to defend the town's privileges under penalty of losing his head if he failed to do so; the last time this ceremony was held was on 1 January 1841.
Nature
Neoclassical garden with French influence built between 1820 and 1855 by the architects Ángel Chávez, Juan de Velasco, Ramón Ortiz de Velasco, and Manuel Arana; it preserves a botanical trail featuring the park's forty most notable species.
Historical milestone
On 21 June 1813 the French troops escorting Joseph Bonaparte were defeated near Vitoria by an allied Spanish-British-Portuguese army under Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington; the victory led to the definitive withdrawal of Napoleonic troops from Spain, except from Catalonia.
Nature
Wetland area east of the city, within the Green Belt, formed by the Betoño, Arkaute, Larregana, and Duranzarra lagoons; drained in the past for agricultural use, it was the subject of a hydrological restoration project begun in 1994 that restored its natural richness. In 2002 it was included on the list of wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
Curiosity
The European Commission awarded Vitoria-Gasteiz the title of European Green Capital for 2012 in recognition of its sustainable development and the extent of its urban green spaces, including the Green Belt.
Curiosity
The rag doll with a beret, cape, and umbrella that 'descends' from the tower of San Miguel to open the festivities of the Virgen Blanca was created in 1957 by a group of friends, inspired by the figure of Juan Celedonio de Anzola, a native of Zalduondo. In 2012, the year of the European Green Capital, Celedón's umbrella exceptionally swapped its traditional white stripe for a green one.
Monument
Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country, with much of its exhibition space underground; its collection is a reference point for contemporary Basque and Spanish art from the 1950s to today, with outdoor works by Eduardo Chillida, Jorge Oteiza, and Richard Serra.
Curiosity
The city saw the birth of the three Maeztu siblings: the painter Gustavo de Maeztu (1887), the essayist Ramiro de Maeztu, a figure of the Generation of '98 executed by firing squad in 1936 at the start of the Civil War, and the educator María de Maeztu, driving force behind Madrid's Residencia de Señoritas.
Monument
A medieval tower in Vitoria-Gasteiz, evidence of the factional feuds between the Calleja and Ayala lineages during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Monument
The Palacio de Montehermoso was used as a residence by Joseph Bonaparte during the French occupation. The nearby Casa Etxezarra housed Napoleon Bonaparte between 5 and 9 November 1808.
Monument
Two former convents of Vitoria-Gasteiz; the Convent of Santa Clara came to house a secondary school and today is the seat of the Basque Parliament.
Monument
A museum in Vitoria-Gasteiz dedicated to arms and military history, among the city's main museum venues alongside the Museum of Fine Arts and BIBAT.
Monument
A palace in Neo-Basque style built between 1918 and 1920 by the Swiss architect Alfredo Baeschlin for the industrialist Serafín Ajuria Urigoitia. After serving as an educational center and a museum, the Basque Government acquired it in 1980, and it has since been the official residence of the lehendakari, with a botanical garden of more than a hectare.
Historical milestone
At the Palacio de Ajuria Enea in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the so-called Pacto de Ajuria Enea was signed, a landmark political agreement among the main Basque democratic forces against terrorism.
Nature
A botanical garden set within the Olarizu park, part of the Green Belt of Vitoria-Gasteiz, which together with the rest of the city's parks and green areas covers more than ten million square meters.
Nature
A wooded area of the Green Belt of Vitoria-Gasteiz that is home to wild boar, squirrels, birds of prey and about thirty species of small birds such as finches and robins.
Nature
An ecological refuge in the Green Belt of Vitoria-Gasteiz that shelters weasels, hares, foxes and waterfowl.
Curiosity
The Salburua wetlands, one of the most important sites in the Basque Country for the breeding of waterfowl (nearly 200 species), also host a population of the endangered European mink, and deer reintroduced in the late 1990s.
Historical milestone
The place name Gasteiz is first documented in the Reja de San Millán, a document from the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla.
Historical milestone
After the founding of Nova Victoria by Sancho VI of Navarre in 1181, the town passed from Navarrese to Castilian rule after an eight-month siege.
Historical milestone
King John II of Castile granted Vitoria the title of city.
Historical milestone
During the First Carlist War, an attempted siege of Vitoria was repelled by the city's Urban Militia.
Curiosity
Beethoven composed the orchestral work 'Wellingtons Sieg,' or 'Wellington's Victory' (op. 91), on learning of the 1813 Battle of Vitoria, cementing the international impact of the clash.
Curiosity
The restoration of the Cathedral of Santa María became a tourist attraction in its own right thanks to the 'Open for Restoration' method, which allowed visits along elevated walkways among the scaffolding and drew more than 350,000 visits over five years, the Europa Nostra Award in 2002 and the European Archaeological Heritage Prize in 2019. The writer Ken Follett presented his novel 'World Without End' in the cathedral's portico on 9 January 2008, in recognition of the inspiration the temple had given him for 'The Pillars of the Earth.'
Activity
A jazz festival founded by the Jazzteiz collective, which began as a two-day event and has gone on to book stars such as Oscar Peterson and Muddy Waters. It is one of the leading jazz festivals in Spain and represented the country in the European jazz festival organization created in 1988.
Monument
An 11th-century Romanesque sanctuary located in Argandoña, about 8 km from Vitoria-Gasteiz, atop a promontory with views over the Alava plain. It has a simple floor plan crowned by three apses, historiated capitals and the ornate 'Puerta Speciosa.' It passed into the hands of Cluniac monks from Nájera in 1138, was sold to Fernán Pérez de Ayala in 1431 and donated to the Hospital de Santiago of Vitoria in 1542; since 1923 it has been kept by Benedictine monks, who canonically crowned the image on 6 May of that year. Nuestra Señora de Estíbaliz is the patroness of Álava.