Foruko udaletxea

Foruko udaletxea is the town hall of Forua, a small municipality in the Basque Country's Bizkaia province, sitting right on the banks of the Oka river at the heart of the Urdaibai reserve. The building stands on Elejalde street and serves as the seat of local government, but the village around it — modest as it looks — packs in one of the denser clusters of heritage sites in the Busturialdea district.

Where exactly is Forua?

The municipality occupies the left bank of the Oka estuary (also known locally as the Mundaka), a short drive north of Gernika-Lumo, to which it's connected by both road and a walking trail. Forua was once administratively tied to neighbouring Gernika and now runs as its own municipality, though the two remain closely linked in daily life. Sitting inside the marshes and floodplain meadows of Urdaibai, the area draws bird-watchers just as readily as it draws visitors chasing local history.

What history is layered into this place?

People have lived on the land around Forua since prehistoric and Roman times — a figure of the goddess Fortune from the Roman period was unearthed in the nearby Peña Forua cave and is now displayed at the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Bizkaia in Bilbao. The area also holds the "Ama Birjina" stele, a fragment of an old stone marker with notable ethnographic value, along with traces of a former convent that once stood on municipal land. The village's best-known landmark is the church of San Martín de Forua, recognised for its Baroque altarpiece, and a short walk from the centre stands the Urdaibai watchtower, a leftover of the medieval structures that once guarded access to the estuary.

What's the town hall itself, and why stop here?

The municipal building at Elejalde 1 is a compact, working seat of local administration, currently led by the mayor elected in the 2023 local elections from the EAJ-PNV list. It makes a natural starting point for a short walk through the village: from here it's an easy stroll to the church, to the sites tied to the old convent, and down to the estuary edge, where the marshes and flooded meadows typical of Urdaibai open up. Forua is often treated as the quieter counterpart to the more visited Gernika-Lumo — a place to slow down and take in everyday Basque village life.

Planning a visit

The simplest approach is by car or bike from Gernika-Lumo — the ride takes well under half an hour and runs alongside the estuary. Since Urdaibai is a wetland reserve, spring and early autumn make the most comfortable seasons, with mild temperatures and plenty of waterbirds gathering on the surrounding meadows and marshes — bring binoculars if you can. Seeing the village itself, including the church and the streets around the town hall, usually takes under an hour, but pairing it with the trail toward Gernika-Lumo turns it into a half-day walk.

Frequently asked questions

Can you go inside the town hall? It's a working administrative building, not a visitor attraction — access is limited to office hours and official business, with no organised tours of the interior.

What's worth seeing near the town hall? Right nearby is the church of San Martín de Forua with its Baroque interior, plus trails leading out toward the marshes and meadows of the Oka estuary.

How do you reach Forua without a car? The easiest route is to get to Gernika-Lumo first, from where a local walking trail and short road connections lead into Forua.

Is there anything tied to Roman-era history here? Yes — a figure of a Roman-period deity was found in the nearby Peña Forua cave and is now on display in a Bilbao museum, pointing to long-standing settlement in the area.