The Basque Country

The Basque Country, called Euskal Herria in the Basque language, is the cultural and historic homeland of the Basque people, a region unified by shared ethnicity, language, and tradition rather than by a single political structure, sitting in the western Pyrenees along the Bay of Biscay astride the border between France and Spain. The greater Basque Country comprises three main areas, the Basque Autonomous Community and the autonomous community of Navarre in Spain, and the Northern Basque Country within the Pyrenees-Atlantiques department of France, together home to roughly 3.15 million people across about 20,947 square kilometers, with Bilbao as its largest city. The region's identity is bound up with the Basque language, Euskara, spoken by around 650,000 people mainly in its northern areas and in Gipuzkoa, alongside the dominant Spanish and French of its respective territories. Basques maintain a distinct identity through language preservation, traditional sport, and historical consciousness, even as the political status of Basque nationhood remains a highly contested question.