Vitoria

The main square in Vitoria

We have decided to get round the problem of Spanish meal times by having a big breakfast and then a very late lunch, and no dinner.  So this morning we ate a good breakfast, and then drove to Vitoria. Vitoria is on a little hill surrounded by a fertile plain, with the river Zadorra running across it.

Joseph Bonaparte had set up his army in three lines across the road to Vitoria, facing west, from where he expected Wellington to attack. Needless to say, Wellington did not oblige. He divided his army into four main attacks – Graham’s force went through the hills to get behind the French and cut the main road to Bayonne; Hill commanded an assault from the right, intended to draw the French away from the main assault. A Spanish civilian went to Wellington to tell him that the bridge of Tres Puentes, was not only intact but not even guarded, and Wellington, decisive as usual, ordered Kempt’s force across, which they did with almost no opposition. One of the few casualties was the Spanish civilian, who was decapitated by a cannon ball. Meanwhile Picton got too impatient to wait for Dalhousie and forced the Mendoza bridge. Then the French were simply rolled up and routed.

The hill of Arinez, from where Wellingtom commanded the later part of the battle 

The Tres Puentes bridge is still there, and pretty much unchanged – it’s originally Roman. This was the only time on our tours that we have met other people out visiting battlefields, but we met a bus tour from Northallerton, very largely composed of soldiers. They may be here as tomorrow is the 200^th anniversary of the battle and all sorts of junkets are planned.

Tres Puentes Bridge

We crossed the bridge and walked up to the Roman town which is being excavated. It wasn’t actually that interesting, but the wild roses, honeysuckle, every sort of wild flower even including orchids, and the cacophony of bird song, made it a delightful walk.

Then we crossed the Mendoza bridge, which is completely new. We saw the village of Margarita, which was taken by Dalhousie. Dalhousie seems to have been a bit of a ditherer – Picton got impatient and  forced the bridge, and then Dalhousie said to a senior officer “I suppose we should take the village”. Whereupon his impatient ADC, Harry Smith, the husband of fourteen year old Juana, promptly said “Certainly sir!” and carried out the "order"!

Wellington wasn’t really able to follow up this smashing victory, as the roads were choked with carriages and carts from Joseph’s camp followers. There were quite a lot of Spanish who had collaborated with the French, and were keen to escape.  Actually, at one point in the battle, Spanish on the Allied side engaged Spanish fighting on the French side.

The looting was amazing – Joseph had packed up the Spanish royal picture collection, amongst much else. He escaped with only the clothes on his back . His silver chamber pot is still used by the The King’s Royal Hussars to drink toasts.    

Then we went into Vitoria, which lacks Bilbao’s dramatic site, but is a much older town. There are a lot of early Renaissance town palaces, and very attractive central squares, one with a rather florid memorial to the battle, showing Wellington being greeted by grateful townspeople.

 One of the palaces belonged to Alava, the Spanish general who was Wellington’s chief liaison and much respected. But we couldn’t be sure which one. We did find the one Wellington stayed in after the battle.

The house used by Wellington after the battle

The cathedral was built in the fourteenth century, unfortunately without anything much in the way of foundations. So for many years it’s been a building site, and you can take a hard hat tour. It was really interesting. You can see out through some of the cracks in the walls. The distortions to the arches and pillars were very impressive. It will be even more interesting in a year or two, as they have made very extensive archaeological discoveries, which are going to be displayed in a gallery in the newly reinforced foundations.

The distorted arches

All in all, I recommend Vitoria, even if you’re not a Peninsula war freak. And it is genuinely Basque – lots of people speaking it (I assume – it’s not Spanish, anyway) and lots of older men in weird big floppy berets.