Azkoitia

Azkoitia is a city located inside the province of Gipuzkoa, inside the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, in northern Spain. It is likewise the seat of the municipality of the identical name. Azkoitia become the birthplace of the mother of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founding father of the Jesuit spiritual order. Ignatius' maternal grandfather, Don Martin Garcia de Licona, had bought Balda Tower within the mid-15th century. Recurring bloody encounters in the place persuaded the king, Henry IV of Castile, to lessen the tower from a castle to a courthouse.

On thirteen July 1467 Don Martin's daughter, Dona Marina Saenz de Licona Balda married Don Beltran Ibanez de Onaz Loyola from neighbouring Azpeitia within the Licona own family home in Azkoitia. The unique wedding ceremony contract nevertheless exists. Loyola's delivery house remains preserved as a museum a part of a massive Jesuit compound. It is placed some kilometers east of Azkoitia's metropolis center, at the small community of Azpeitia, and is a main tourist appeal.