Kurtzebarri, Mountain and monumental cross in Aretxabaleta, Spain.
Kurtzebarri is a 1,133-metre peak in the Zaraiako range, on the border of Aretxabaleta and Eskoriatza. Its summit holds a large metal cross, and beside it stands Elorretako Haitxa (1,146 m), the higher point. To the north, the Narruko atxak crags drop about 800 metres to the Urkulu reservoir.
A stone cross was set on Elorretako Haitza, the range's highest point on the Aretxabaleta–Eskoriatza boundary, in 1742 as a boundary marker. When weather wore it down, an iron cross replaced it around 1840. On 18 September 1928 the Aretxabaleta group "gorbata berdeak" erected a large metal cross, not on Elorretako Haitza but on the rock most visible from the town, inscribed "Kurutze berri, kurutze ona...". The mountain then took the cross's name, while Zaraia passed to the range.
The summit cross gives the mountain its name: it was first called Kurtzebarri ("new cross") while the mountain was Zaraia, and the name later passed to the peak and the range. On the second weekend of September the Kurtzebarriko Eguna is held, organised by the Murrukixo Mendizale Elkartea, with soup, cheese and chorizo handed out to walkers at the top.
Multiple well-marked trails lead to the summit, with the route via Mendiola offering the most direct access and being suitable for most hikers. The climb typically takes two to three hours depending on your fitness and the path you choose.
The summit holds a plaque honouring the alpinist Felix Iñurrategi, placed in a box on the top. The mountain also gives its name to a megalithic station: three burial mounds, Asuntzeta east, Asuntzeta west and Puntiaga, lie on its western slope in Eskoriatza at 600–700 m, dated between 3000 and 900 BC.
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