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Getxo () (Spanish: Guecho) is a town located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in Spain. It is part of Greater Bilbao, and has 75,430 inhabitants (2023). Getxo is mostly an affluent residential area, as well as being the third largest municipality of Biscay.
The town's coat of arms has an oak with two cauldrons chained to its branches and the motto Kaltea Dagianak Bizarra Lepoan (Basque language for "Who makes evil, the beard at the back"). It is a proverb meaning that the evil doers look back, fearing revenge.
With industrialisation in the 19th century, some parts of Getxo evolved into residential areas for the rich bourgeois class. A residential area called Neguri (Basque language for "Winter Town") came into being. The village of Algorta grew around the church of Saint Nicholas (San Nicolás) and the canalisation of the firth, provided for the colonisation of the beach, where a district called Areeta in Basque and Las Arenas (Spanish for "The Sands") was built. Near Areeta / Las Arenas, on the other side of the road to Bilbao, there grew a working-class district called Erromo, similar to the one that grew near Neguri: Neguri Langile. Finally, in the 20th century, urban development reached the rural areas of Getxoko Andra Mari.
Getxo, as well as the surrounding area known as Uribe-Kosta, grew rapidly in the last decades of the 20th century. While in the early 1980s the town had only 50,000 inhabitants, it has now more than 83,000. The surrounding towns of Leioa, Berango and Sopelana have also multiplied their population in the same period.
Getxo was hit by the Basque Conflict several times, with the town being the location of many ETA attacks. The deadliest of these was an ambush in October 1978 when three civil guards were killed and the most recent the car bomb attack on May 19, 2008.
Las Arenas and Neguri arose in the late nineteenth century as residential areas for the Basque industrial bourgeoisie. Neguri neighborhood is characterized by the palaces in which lived the elite of the bourgeoisie and where nowadays many of the people with more resources of Getxo live. The name of Neguri was coined by Resurrección María de Azkue, since previously it was called Aretxetaurre (before Aretxete). Neguri comes from the merger of two Basque words: negu and uri (winter and city respectively): Neguko hiri, Neguri, the winter city designed, as has been noted, for the Basque bourgeoisie.
The neighborhood of Algorta is the district of largest population of Getxo. The greatest expansion was in the 70s when middle-class families decided to find a more comfortable place to live rather than in the neighborhoods of the left bank of the Nervion.
Romo neighborhood was built in the beginning to house the working class, formerly separated by the train barriers from Las Arenas. Nowadyas is separated by Gobelas river from one side and reaches the traffic circle of Romo. Originally the district was shaped like a horseshoe. It borders the neighbourhood of Ibaiondo (which belongs to the municipality of Leioa), so much so that the road from the roundabout Romo until the bank of the estuary of Bilbao is the municipal border between Getxo and Leioa. One sidewalk belongs to each municipality.
The neighborhood of Santa María de Getxo stood longer as a mostly rural area until the last third of the 20th century. It still has several farmhouses, arable fields and pastures and but there are also many villas and houses built in the 1990s.
These galleries and viewing balconies are of extraordinary architectural, visual and environmental interest. Their floor plan is irregular, following the outline of the Punta Begoña promontory on which they stand. A fort defending the bay stood on this same spot from the 17th century to the 19th.
The galleries were designed by architect Ricardo Bastida in 1918 in an eclectic but mainly classical style. They were commissioned by Horacio Echevarrieta, a renowned businessman, and their main function was complete the containing wall holding back the cliff below Atxekolandeta, the area on which the mansion of Echavarrieta family stood (this English-style mansion designed by architect Gregorio lbarreche in 1910, is no longer standing). The owner fitted out the galleries with various rooms and passages designed as a leisure area.
They are built in a blend of masonry, ashlars and concrete on a high sloping masonry base, and comprise three gallery sections at different heights, ending in terraces and balustraded viewing balconies.
Getxo's office of mayor has been continuously in the hands of the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) since democracy was restored in 1978 ( Local Elections). Since 1991, the major opposition party has been the Partido Popular(PP). As of the 2019 local elections other parties represented on the Town Council are EH Bildu, the Socialist Party of Euskadi (PSE-EE), and the Elkarrekin Podemos alliance (EP).
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Getxo has five different districts, which serve administrative and electoral purposes: Algorta, Las Arenas, Romo, Santa María de Getxo and Neguri.
Getxo has some tourist appeal with easy access to four beaches and to the regional economic capital of Bilbao. It has a yacht harbour, a golf course, and several sports complexes (both public and private). A dynamic, semi-autonomous Department of Culture organises many events on a regular basis, including several international given over to jazz, the blues and Folk music.
The town has many houses of architectural interest, including the Town Hall and several churches, as well as private dwellings belonging to members of the wealthy industrialist class of Biscay. The Old Harbour district of Algorta and several parks with views across to the bay called the Bilbao Abra are also worth a visit.
Getxo also has festivals for Christmas season. Several neighbourhoods of Getxo celebrate marches with (in Christmas Eve, December 24). And there is a longer Cavalcade of Magi through Algorta and then Las Arenas on January 5.
Every year one of the rowing clubs of Getxo organises a regatta of called Flag of Getxo. Besides, other annual trainera competitions, like the Flag of Santurtzi, the Flag of Getxo and the Grand Prix of Nervión ara also held partly in waters of Getxo.
There are several association football clubs in Getxo. The most successful is the Arenas Club de Getxo football, which took part in the first ever national La Liga season, stood seven seasons in its First Division and won the 1919 Copa del Rey.
Getxo Rugby Taldea is the local Rugby union team and play in the División de Honor B, former players include a Danish rugby international.
Getxo also has other clubs for golf, Basque traditional sports, Basque pelota, skating, hitch-hiking, cycle sport, sailing, basketball, surfing, fishing, athletics, triathlon, rhythmic gymnastics, handball, futsal, chess, tennis, paddle tennis, horse riding, hockey, boxing, and other sports. List of sport clubs, Website of the town council of Getxo ()
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