High on a green hillside above the village of Bolibar, in the Biscayan interior, the collegiate church of Ziortza looks out over a valley of meadows, farmhouses and eucalyptus and pine plantations. It is a tranquil, solid place, a church and cloister built of grey stone with a fortified look, and it stands on the Camino del Norte, the coastal route to Santiago, so you will often see pilgrims resting on the benches outside.
The village below has a famous name. Bolibar is the ancestral home of the family of Simón Bolívar, the liberator of much of South America, whose forebears emigrated from here to Venezuela centuries before he was born. A small museum in the village tells his story and the family's Basque origins. Ziortza itself grew from a medieval church into a collegiate foundation, and today it is cared for by a small monastic community. The Basque countryside around is classic baserri country: big stone farmhouses with wide eaves, apple orchards for cider and sheep on steep pastures.
Getting here involves exactly the kind of riding that makes the Basque Country so addictive. The roads wind through the hills between Markina-Xemein, Bolibar and the coast, narrow but well surfaced, constantly turning and rising, with views opening to the bulk of Mount Oiz to the west. The climb up to the church itself is short and steep. Rain is frequent and leaves the shady corners slick, especially where cattle have crossed, and fog can sit on the tops, so ride with a margin. Weekends bring cyclists and local traffic; weekday mornings are blissfully quiet.
For fuel, Markina-Xemein is the nearest town of any size, and Ermua and Durango lie further west along the main valley. Bolibar itself has a bar or two where you can get a coffee and a pintxo, and the village centre is pleasant for a short walk. In the evening the light catches the church from the west, and the valley below fills with long shadows and the sound of cowbells. It is a good place to stop thinking about the road for a few minutes and simply sit.