This XV century tower/home is the oldest civil building that has been preserved in Bermeo. In the historic center of Bermeo there was at one point thirty tower homes. Until the middle of the XX century the Ercilla tower had people living in it. Nowadays, it is the Fisherman’s Museum.

The base of the tower was not the average with six sides and a six paneled roof. The thick walls that surround the building makes it appear as a shelter.

The tower was built with a diversity of materials. The façade is made with cut sandstone, another wall also with sandstone and the rest of the walls built with masonry.

Until the middle of the XX century the tower was as much a home as it was a place for lodging. In 1944 the tower was declared a monument and years later the regional government of Bizkaia bought it. It was reinhabited and since 1948 has been the Fishermen’s museum.

The museum is one of the only of it’s kind; it shows the visitor the life and trade of fishermen describing the art of fishing, unions and associations, different types of fishing vessels, fishing techniques and the market throughout time.

Also, it informs us on the Battle of Matxitxako during the Spanish Civil War.

The building is the cradle of Alonso Ercilla Zuñiga’s family. His father, Fortun García Ercilla was born in the tower. Alonso Ercilla was born and raised in the kings court and later took part in the invasion of South America. Despite this he maintained close ties with Bermeo. So much so that in “La Araucana,” a collection of masterful verses retold about the war against the Chilean Mapuches or Araucanos, he made a dedication to Bermeo, remembering his family’s origins.

“Look at Bermeo, fenced in by weeds,
Head of Bizkaia, and above the port
The thick walls of the Ercilla ancestral home
An ancestry founded before the town”

In Lamera Park there is a bust of Alonso Ercilla next to an araucaria tree.