Gaztelugatxe
— — a stairway the sea forgot to take back.
Not only on a wall.
“A small islet off the Biscay coast, tied to the mainland by a stone causeway and 241 steps that climb to a tenth-century hermitage. The path follows the spine of the rock above black water. At the top, a single bell, and a tradition of three rings for a wish. Most mornings the wind comes up the channel before the visitors do. The hermitage has been burned, rebuilt, and burned again, and still the steps go up. from the studio
Gaztelugatxe, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Gaztelugatxe is a small rocky islet on the Bay of Biscay coast of Biscay, in the Basque Country of northern Spain, joined to the mainland by a narrow man-made stone bridge and a stairway of 241 steps. The summit holds the hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, first documented in the tenth century and dedicated to John the Baptist. The site sits within the protected biotope of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, between the fishing town of Bermeo and Bakio, and is reached on foot from a clifftop car park.
The causeway is laid in fitted stone across two arches, climbing the spine of the islet in a switchback that the locals walk slowly. The hermitage itself is a plain whitewashed chapel, modest after the climb, repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt across the centuries — burned in the sixteenth century, sacked in the Carlist Wars, restored most recently after a 1978 fire. A single bronze bell hangs by the door, and the tradition is to ring it three times for a wish at the top.
Access is free but the regional government of Biscay requires a timed reservation in the busy season to protect the path, bookable through the official tourism site. The round trip from the car park to the bell and back runs roughly two to three kilometres on stone steps, with the last stretch exposed to weather off the Atlantic. Mornings are calmer than midday. The site sits about 35 kilometres east of Bilbao, reached via the BI-2101 through Bakio.