Gernika-Lumo (Guernica y Lumo)

On Monday, April 26, 1937—market day—Gernika suffered history's second terror bombing against a civilian population. (The first, much less famous, was against neighboring Durango, about a month earlier.) The planes of the Nazi Luftwaffe were sent with the blessings of General Francisco Franco to experiment with saturation bombing of civilian targets and to decimate the traditional seat of Basque autonomy. Since the Middle Ages, Spanish sovereigns had sworn under the ancient oak tree of Gernika to respect Basque fueros (special local rights—the kind of local autonomy that was anathema to the generalísimo's Madrid-centered "National Movement," which promoted Spanish unity over local identity). More than 1,000 people were killed in the bombing, and today Gernika remains a symbol of independence in the heart of every Basque, known to the world through Picasso's famous canvas Guernica (now in Madrid's Centro de Arte Reina Sofía). The city was destroyed—though the oak tree miraculously emerged unscathed—and has been rebuilt as a modern, architecturally uninteresting town. The Museo de la Paz offers a closer look at the bombing heard around the world (thanks largely to the Picasso painting), and the Museo de Euskalerria provides insights into Basque culture, history, and ethnology. The stump of the sacred oak, which at last died several decades ago, can be found in the courtyard of the Casa de Juntas (a new oak has been planted alongside the old one)—the object of many a pilgrimage. Nearby is the Balcón de Vizcaya overlooking the estuary of the Ría de Gernika, a stone's throw from some of the area's most colorful fishing towns.