Skeleton Key

While doing research on my family genealogy in the Basque region of Spain, it was a surprise to find that the origins of my mother’s side of the family stemmed from the small towns around Bilbao like Durango, Galdakano, Amorebieta, Larrabetzu and Gumuzio, the latter being my mother’s last name, but with a “c” instead of a “z”. 

I was very excited to join my uncle, Marcelo, in his most recent genealogical research trip and anxious to see this wonderful town of Gumuzio.  My mind conjured up images of large, tree lined streets, small tapas bars scattered under the shade of the trees, and old men playing cards in the shade (this is a common tradition during the lunch ours of 1:00 to 2:30 while the women cooked the evening meal).  

As my uncle and I summoned our driver for the ride to the town, we drove through beautiful landscapes of rolling hills, green with recent spring rains and dotted with grazing sheep. 

We arrived in Gumuzio and to my surprise it was only a small hill with the title “Gumuzio” sign tacked to a post on the hill as well as a small signed posted on the side of a building.  One small road led through the center of this incredible small town, and on either side of the road was a small chapel/hermitage, a bar/restaurant, an adult strip joint and a hill dotted with some old 15th century farm houses (I guess after going to the adult club the patrons could then make their way to the hermitage and confess their sins!). Kind of disappointing, to say the least.  It certainly didn’t come close to any expectations I had formulated in my mind! 

As we wandered through the very, very small town, we discovered that the hermitage was built from cut stones that came from a church that my ancestors built in the area long before, and the care taker there was nice enough to show us photographs of the original church and the pictures of the ancestors (kind of a family tree) that contributed to the move and reconstruction of the hermitage. 

The farm houses on the Mount Gumuzio (not sure you can call it a mount, it was a small hill…) was dotted with some very old homes that turned out to be built in the late 1400’s and early 1500’s and were some of the original homes that my ancestors build.  Unfortunately, not part of the family’s property anymore.

Andra Mari Church in the Basque Country, Spain

We then made our way to another town called Galdakano.  A much larger small town that was preparing for their annual festival. 

We took a taxi to the church of Andra Mari, another site that my ancestors helped build and worshiped in back in the 12th century.  It was a magnificent church with a beautiful alter all in gold leaf with the typical cockle shells that are representative of the Camino de Santiago, which runs next to it, and byzantine images of bird motifs. 

We entered the church; mass was being said in the Basque language, which I could not understand at all, but just listening to the words bounce off the stone walls was inspiring and echoed of a rich heritage. 

After the mass, we approached the alter and spoke with the priest, a kindly old man. The altar boy (or alter man; he was at least 65 years old!) made his presence known to us as well.  The fascinating thing about him was that he turned out to be closely related to my family from the same branch that I descended from, way back in the 1600s, so we had a chance to catch up on studies he had been doing and we shared the information we had.   

As the priest had another engagement to get to, he rushed us out of the church so that he could lock up.  This man produced one of the largest skeleton keys I have ever seen from under his frock and proceeded to lock up the church. The thing was 15 inches long if it was an inch and it hung from his sash by a metal ring with a colorful tassel tied to it.

Skeleton Key

I thought these kinds of keys were only used in Frankenstein movies, those that allowed the leader of the mob of villagers to breach the castle draw bridge gate, but clearly, they are still in use today.

It is actually reassuring to see that these old authentic ear marks of a different century are still used and will probably still be in use for another century or more.