Arteaga Castle

The original tower at Arteaga dates to the 13th century, property of the Arteaga family, related to the Montijos and therefore to Empress Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III of France. By the 19th century the building was badly deteriorated and used as a farmhouse.

In 1856, the Biscayan General Assembly named the Imperial Prince — son of Napoleon III and Eugénie de Montijo, descended from the lords of Arteaga through his mother — an honorary Biscayan. In gratitude for this recognition, Empress Eugénie decided to rebuild the deteriorated family castle, commissioning the plans from French imperial architects — the Neo-Gothic work was designed by Gabriel-Auguste Ancelet and began in 1859.

Today the castle operates as a 14-room hotel, each room individually decorated, within the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve.

The castle's documented reconstruction by imperial commission, funded and directed by the wife of a reigning French emperor, gives Arteaga one of the few Spanish castles with a direct and documented link to 19th-century French imperial court.

The honorary Biscayan title granted to the Imperial Prince in 1856, tracing his descent from the lords of Arteaga through his mother, ties the castle's reconstruction to a specific and unusual episode of Basque-French dynastic connection.

The castle's setting within the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-recognized natural area, gives guests staying at Arteaga access to one of northern Spain's most protected coastal and estuarine landscapes.