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Munain is a small village in Alava from San Millan's town hall. It is situated on the plain part of Alava, on the south part of Ordoñana. It is 617 m above the sea level. The language used before the 19th century was Basque but now the common language is Spanish.
Contents
Demography
Before the 13th century 10 people lived there. In the Middle Ages the population increased while other villages lost population. In the 18th century 129 people lived in Munain and in the 20th century the population continued as in the 18th century.
Munain's church
The church is a rectangular plant with straight head and two thrones covered with vaults. It possesses a compact tower of plant squared with four floors, the first one is the portico and the quarter is the belfry. From 1544 the person who realized the church was Ramiro de Okariz. The church has a chapel that is known as the chapel of the Bicuñas and it has an altarpiece of beginning of the 17th century where the holy doctors and Evangelists meet, to the sides are the sculptures of San Pedro and San Pablo.
Ondaeta, centenary trees
A study confirms the presence unknown in Munain-Okariz of flora and fauna till now, in the Iberian Peninsula. The result of the studies are spectacular and the secret is in the biodiversity that the centenary trees guard: 608 trees of at least, five centuries of antiquity, others of eight centuries and some of thousand five hundred years, with a diameter of trunk superior to a meter and an average perimeter of some 428 cm.
Where are them
After several years of investigations and studies, different experts could have registered a great variety of flora and fauna related to Munain-Okariz's forest in the plain part of Alava.
History
The neighbors of the nearby peoples who lived there left his oaks grew, then they cut them and left for fuelwood and for the charcoal-burner. There came experts of the United Kingdom, friends' of the old trees association and persons of the gardening of the queen Isabel III to study them. For the science, Munain-Okariz's forest is an unknown jewel full of difficult life to be equal in Europe and very little known. It takes only 385 hectares, 213 in Munain and 171 in Okariz. All this are reasons enough to value a landscape that is protected as Place of Community Interest inside Entzia's Saw. It is a privilegiate place where de Zadorra river is born.