Just outside Azpeitia (12km south of the A8 motorway along the GI631) lies the portentous Santuario de Loyola , dedicated to St Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order. The dark, sooty basilica, laden with grey marble and plenty of carved ornamentation, is monstrous rather than attractive. The house where the saint was born in 1490 is preserved in one of the two wings of the sanctuary. Weekends are the most interesting times to come; the sanctuary fills up with pilgrims.
