Zuloaga's House-Museum

Where the Urola river meets the sea at Zumaia, beside Santiago beach, the Basque painter Ignacio Zuloaga built himself a world. In 1910 he bought land around a ruined chapel of Santiago, a stop for pilgrims on the coastal Way of St James, and over the following decade he rebuilt the Romanesque chapel and added a house, a studio and a gallery for the art he collected.

That gallery still holds the collection, gathered by Zuloaga, by his wife, the French artist Valentine Dethomas, and by his father Plácido, a celebrated metalworker. It spans the 12th to the 20th century, with sculpture by Rodin and paintings by Zurbarán, Goya and El Greco, the Cretan-born master Zuloaga did much to bring back into favour. Among the Grecos is a Christ on the Cross. The Goya is a portrait long said to show the painter's brother Camilo, a priest, although the sitter's identity is not certain. It was sold at auction in Paris in 1861 and bought by Zuloaga early in the 20th century.

The complex is now run as the Ignacio Zuloaga Cultural Space and opens for guided visits in season. The chapel is part of the tour, with a carved crucifix by the sculptor Julio Beobide that Zuloaga painted himself.