Eraso, Navarra

The village of Eraso is located 42km northwest of the Navarra city of Pamplona (Basque name Iruña), near the junction of the Ríos Larraun and Basburua (now the A15 motorway) and in the ayuntamiento (township) of Imotz. It's one of the many picturesque Basque villages in Navarra's Valle de la Ultzama.

I visited this village in September, 2003. I found that it did not even contain the 30 houses that one source said it did, but perhaps only a dozen, including a church at least 200 years old. Most of the houses were rural casonas, but a couple were of more modern construction, probably serving as country homes for Pamplonans. The farmhouses are typical of the region (and throughout Europe’s mountain villages), with animal stables on one floor (usually the upper floor if the house was built into a hillside), and the family living quarters on the other.

There is a tiny cemetery high up the hill behind the church. Few gravestones remain, but for a couple of more recent ones. None were Erasos.

The fertile, green, wooded mountains of Ultzama seemed to go on forever, dotted with tiny farming villages of whitewashed and stone casonas with red tile roofs. It was not apparent that only a few kilometers away was a busy motorway connecting Pamplona with San Sebastián. It seemed to me to be an ideal location for a summer retreat.

Photos of our visit may be found here.