Orixe, the poet of Euskalherria

Although born in Gipuzkoa (in the nearby town of Orexa), Nicolas Ormaetxea – “Orixe” – spent his childhood and youth in Uitzi, which he left to join the Society of Jesus, a religious order which he left in 1923. This period of his life and his Jesuit-based human and religious training deeply marked his entire personal history. 

He was a tireless scholar of Euskera and a master of its use who wrote biographies, treatises and poems and translated many books into Euskera. He also collaborated on the major Euskera-language magazines and was a member of the language’s official regulatory body. 

In his major work – Euskaldunak – a long Homeric-style poem written before the 1936 Spanish civil war but not released until 1950, he describes in great detail and with all his love and longing the life and customs of his childhood Uitzi.

Angel Urrutia Iturbe

Angle Urrutia Iturbe was born in Lekunberri on 20 October 1933 and died in Pamplona on 11 May 1994.

He was a founding member in 1963 of the Ediciones Morea publishing house, where he published his first two books. 

Founder, editor and publisher of the magazine Río Arga from 1976 to 1983, he was also co-founder, editor and director of "Medialuna" publishing company from 1990. 

As a poet and anthologist, is the author of nine of his own works and eight anthologies.

Every year, a literary contest is held in his village, Lekunberri, in his honour.