Back in March, we took a quick trip to the Basque Country to see family. On the way, we had stopped at Burgos, just to see a new place. We were talking about Burgos when a friend said he had passed through Burgos when he participated in Korrika, the massive race in support of the Basque language. At first, we were a little confused – why would Korrika pass through Burgos – until they pointed out the big hole in the middle of Araba…

• Let’s start with some definitions. An enclave is a territory belonging to one jurisdiction that is surrounded by an other. An exclave is the opposite – it is a piece of territory that is separated from the main jurisdiction. So, an enclave of one place can be an exclave of another.
• The “hole” in Araba is the Treviño enclave. It is actual part of the province of Burgos, but it is surrounded by the province of Araba. It consists of two municipalities, Condado de Treviño and La Puebla de Arganzón. Puebla de Arganzón was founded (received its fueros) in 1191 from Sancho VI of Navarre (“Sancho el Sabio”, “Sancho the Wise”) in 1191. It is thought that Condado de Treviño is even older. When Araba was conquered by Castilla, the region that now forms the Treviño enclave was given to Manrique family and passed down as part of a noble title.
• As one might expect, this has led to both some complications and challenges. The people of the enclave must travel to Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of Araba, for many of their services. This creates a strange administration problem in which Araba provides the bulk of the services to the people of another province.
• The people of the enclave have voted in the past to join Araba, but that vote was ignored. More recently, there have been votes to have a referendum on the issue, but that was also ignored. The current leaders of the enclave have deferred the discussion to higher level government officials.
• Araba isn’t the only Basque province with an enclave. Bizkaia also has one, this one belonging to the province of Cantabria. Valle de Villaverde was purchased in the 15th century by one Pedro Fernández de Velasco, and at that time it ceased being a part of Bizkaia.
• And, Bizkaia has an exclave. The city of Urduña is part of Bizkaia, but it sits on the border between Araba and Burgos – it is not an enclave as it is not surrounded by a single other territory, it is on the border. It has strong historical ties to Bizkaia with long standing economic agreements and commercial routes connecting to Bizkaia. Though Araba has tried to annex it in the past, the people of Urduña have reaffirmed their commitment to remain part of Bizkaia.
• …AND, within Urduña there is yet another enclave. The Cerca de Villaño sits within the Urduña exclave but is part of Burgos.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: See the links in the main article.