The Basque Home of Sare                                                      Come in and Visit
 

An obsession for authenticity

Ortillopitz with its three hectares of land is perched above Sare, with a privileged view of such beauty that it will take your breath away.
It is a superb dwelling with six hundred square metres divided into three different levels, together with its nearby setting form bygone days:
its typical hayrick, the garden, the apple orchard, the vineyard, a vegetable garden designed and replanted like in the  17th century, flax fields and so many other splendid things.
You can have a look at the wash-house with its age-old stones and water coming from the spring which flows and gushes forth only three hundred metres away.
Our eye is next caught by the front view of the house with  its timber structure and eaves so traditional in the area, by the oak balcony with turned and carved bars  and by the “lorio” (porch) at the entrance. .

 The Door opens

The door opens to reveal the cider-making area: the Basque drink before Romans introduced the wine.
The stairs, with banisters worn down for so long by so many comings and goings, lead us to the heart of the house:a large kitchen with polished furniture form the 17th and 18th centuries : Sideboard, "zizailu", stone sink, baking trough, …And yet further treasures : the office-drawing room belonging to the privateer the first ever resident at Ortillopitz, the bedrooms, its whitewashed corridors with 17th century panelling, the barn with its fifteen metre beams or those seven metre long pieces of timber and its arched roof tiles.
The Ortillopitz’guides tell us about details and traditions, thus unveiling the history of the Basques, telling us about customs and habits of life in the countryside and particularly at the “etxe” where men’s hearts beat and where their destinies are set.
A symbolic place which turns Ortillopitz immortal forever.