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In the municipality of Aia, about 25 km from San Sebastian, lies the Pagoeta Nature Reserve and the Iturraran Botanical Garden. I visited the park as part of an afternoon fieldtrip during a conference I attended in San Sebastian in October 2018.
The park has an old farmhouse on the mountain-side and an old foundry down by a small river. This is what the guided tour focused on, and that was fine, learning about old farming and iron-work practices was interesting in a region where these activities historically have been important for the local economy. What I really enjoyed, though, was the botanic garden that surrounded the farmhouse on the hillside. I didn’t get a proper chance to wander around in it, because the guided tour only focused on the farmhouse and foundry (which was a bit odd, considering it was a fieldtrip with researchers attending an environmental research conference, I was probably not the only one who was curious to hear more about the local ecosystems and the species in the garden). But what I saw, from walking between the historical sites, looked gorgeous.
From what I understand, the botanic garden was basically the sole endeavor of a man who love oaks and who planted an arboretum with different sections for different species, both of oaks and of other types of trees. It felt very organic, like walking in a forest, and then suddenly you’re in a completely different type of wood – which is what makes you realize that it’s actually a very well planned garden. And growing like it did on the hillside, with green mountains all around, it was so beautiful!
Photo: Jardín Botánico de Iturraran / Iturrarango Lorategi Botanikoa in Parque Natural de Pagoeta, in Aia close to San Sebastian, Spain, October 2018. Posted on Instagram November 13, 2020.
Katja Malmborg 