Autumn in the Otzarreta beech forest in Orozko.

The deciduous forests that dot Bizkaia offer a unique view in autumn.

The leaves, while still attached to the branches, go through a range of colours that migrate from green to red and through all the shades of yellow and ochre.

And it doesn’t happen uniformly. When they fall, they form a dense carpet from which moss, lichens, thick roots and mushrooms emerge. Often the valuable boletus mushrooms.

Otzarreta forest is located in Orozko, in the foothills of Gorbeia and its natural park. A real experience.

It is a beech forest. The centuries-old activity of the forges, where artisans used to smelt iron ore by means of charcoal-fuelled fires, gave shape to its branches thanks to the work of the forgers.

The charcoal burners did not cut down the beech trees, whose wood provided them with raw material. They only pruned their branches to a height of between two and three metres. This wood was used in their conical charcoal bunkers. In this way, the beech forest was maintained. And it took on a peculiar shape with thick, short trunks and almost horizontal branches. A shape that today generates unique sensations when walking through the mist, the singing streams and the thick roots sticking out of the fallen leaves.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the flight of birds, observe the tracks of wild boar, roe deer and horses. And the remains of another time.

Information about Otzarreta forest