Basque Country

The Basque Country — Europe's great anomaly. Uniquely it was never fully Romanised or conquered and kept its ancient charters (the fueros) of self-rule into the 19th century; with Euskara — a language with no known relatives, older than the Indo-European arrival — the Basques are in effect a people older than Spain itself, which is the bedrock of their separateness. Heavily industrialised around Bilbao's iron, steel and shipbuilding, it generated a strong, at times violent, nationalism (ETA, now ended). Today wide fiscal autonomy, a reinvented Bilbao, the rural baserri, pelota and a world-renowned cuisine (the txoko societies, San Sebastián's Michelin stars) underpin a prosperous, distinct nation within Spain.

• Existed: 700 CE – present
• Type: Entity