Cenarruza

Ziortza-Bolibar is a municipality in the province of Biscay, Basque Country, in the comarca of Lea-Artibai. It has 383 inhabitants according to the 2006 census, and has an area of 18.94 km².The municipality was annexed in 1969 by Markina-Xemein and recovered its independence on January 1, 2005. Records indicate its existence since the 11th century.EtymologyThe name Bolibar comes from the Basque language, meaning "windmill valley" (bolu = "windmill" and ibar = "valley"). Ziortza/Cenarruza is derived from a local name for polygonum ziaurri (historically *zinaurri) and the suffix -tza denoting a place of abundance of something.Puebla de BolívarBolívar or Bolibar is the urban centre of the municipality, situated along the stream with the same name, at the foot of Mount Oiz.From 1969 to 2004 it belonged, along with the neighbourhood of Cenarruza, to the municipality of Markina-Xemein, until a community movement managed to merge both neighbourhoods into an independent municipality.The last name Bolívar has its origins in this locality; Simón Bolívar de la Rementería, a colonist born in this neighbourhood, took it from Europe to the America, where his famous descendant Simón Bolívar, one of the Liberators of America made it famous around the world. There are a couple of statues and a museum in his honour; there was a family house in Rementería, behind the local church, but it does not exist anymore.