Rural architecture and tower keeps

Like Zuia, Zigoitia was home to noble families who built mansion houses and tower keeps of great beauty and considerable artistic and historical interest. Manurga is probably the most interesting village in terms of the heraldic richness of its mansion houses. It once had four tower keeps, though little now remains of them. Part of the walls of the Elexalde keep still stand by the church, and the coat of arms of the Iturrizar family can be seen on a wall by the local wash-house.

The best preserved of the remaining buildings is the keep of the Hurtado de Mendoza family, dating from the 15th or 16th century, the ancestral home of many renowned personages with positions at the royal court.

Also impressive is the late 18th century mansion house of the Verastegi family, home of Prudencio María de Verástegi, who was General Deputy for Alava in the early 19th century.

The village contains several more mansions dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, decorated with the coats of arms of their founding families.

Elsewhere in the municipality of Zigoitia, the tower keep of Goikoetxea or Goikolea in Gopegi, bearing the arms of the Zárate and Eguiluz families, is also significant.