Editing Guernica (section)

==Cultural importance==
[[File:Tríptico iglesia andra mari.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Santa María Church]]
[[File:Gernikako arbola.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The "Old Tree" of Guernica inside its [[Tholos (architecture)|tholos]]]]
Guernica is historically the seat of the [[Juntas Generales|parliament of the province of Biscay]], whose executive branch is located in nearby [[Bilbao]].

In prior centuries, Lumo had been the meeting place of the [[Fueros|traditional]] Biscayan assembly, [[Orduña|Urduña]] and [[municipal charter|chartered towns]] like Guernica were under the direct authority of the [[Lord of Biscay]], and [[Enkarterri]] and the [[Durango, Biscay|Durango area]] had separate assemblies. All would hold assemblies under local big trees. As time passed, the role of separate assemblies was superseded by the single assembly in Guernica, and by 1512, its oak, known as the [[Gernikako Arbola]], became symbolic of the traditional rights of the [[Basque people]] as a whole.

The trees are always renewed from their own acorns. One of these trees (the "Old Tree") lived until the 19th century, and may be seen, as a dry stump, near the assembly house. A tree planted in 1860 to replace it died in 2004 and was in turn replaced; the sapling that had been chosen to become the official Oak of Guernica is also sick so the tree will not be replaced until the earth around the site has been restored to health.

A [[Hermitage (religious retreat)|hermitage]] was built beside the Gernikako Arbola to double as an assembly place, followed by the current house of assembly (''Biltzar Jauregia'' in [[Basque language|Basque]]), built in 1826.