Bonito del Norte

“Bonito del Norte” is a type of white tuna, it is delicious! But here, I wanted to show the sweetness of Northern Spain. The hidden forests, castles and mountains accessorised with waves, cows and horses. On this road trip, my friends and I explored Basque forests, mountains and Navarran streets. The three most interesting places of this trip were, Palacio Real de Olite, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe and Faro de Gorliz.

The Royal Palace of Olite is one of the most well-preserved gothic palaces in Europe. Built by King Charles III in the early fifteenth century, this palace served as the seat of the Court of Navarra. The oldest part of the palace was built over ancient Roman fortifications. Due to the centuries of destruction the palace had endured, by 1937 there was a massive restoration of the palace to rebuild outer walls, towers and shape based on historical archives.

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe is a beautiful islet on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. It sits in the Basque Country of Spain and is known for its incredible stone bridge. It is connected to the mainland by 241 meandering stone steps. It has also gained international fame as it was the location for Dragonstone in Game of Thrones. The origins of the chapel that sits at the top of the islet begin in the ninth or tenth century by medieval monks. Because the chapel sits at the front of the coast it was exposed to many attacks from battles and pirate raids.

The Faro de Gorliz is the highest-altitude lighthouse of the Basque Country and the Cantabrian Sea. What is incredibly interesting about this lighthouse is that beneath it, hidden inside the cliffs, are military bunkers and tunnels built during the post-civil war period. Now filled with graffiti, dark rooms and, possibly, arsenic the lighthouse sits as a reminder of the suppression of Basque independence. The tunnels, artillery batteries and command posts were made using the forced labour of prisoners, many of them Basque nationalists, socialist and local anti-fascists who were captured after the fall of Bilbao’s defensive “Iron Belt” (an 80 kilometre network of bunkers, machine-gun nests and trenches used to protect Bilbao from the advancing pro-franco troops). Faro de Gorliz serves as monument to how the Basque people endured decades of intense political and cultural repression under Francoism. Where the 1990 lighthouse represents the Basque Country regaining their regional autonomy and rebuilding their coastal identity.

I wanted to give these photos a warmer look where orange, blue and green transform the visual palette into a nostalgic, dream-like scene that feels calm, immersive and cinematic.