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From the second half of the l9th c., especially after Pascual Madoz's arrival in 1846, a new building impulse started, which took shape in the construction of big villas and palaces along the beach fromt. Madoz chose Zarautz to retire so that he could continue writing his dictionary. Captivated by the natural beauty of the place as well as the warmth of its hospitable inhabitants, he spent all the rest of his summers in Zarautz until he died in Italy in 1870. He built a palace designed by J.J. Belaunzaran, in the site where the Muskaria housing development stands nowadays. It was a big property (1.6 hectares), and a palace of eclectic character was situated in the middle, built with the money obtained from the publication of his dictionary. However, the decisive factor that gave impetus to and consolidated the new urban growth was the arrival of Queen Isabel II in 1865 and 1866. Her therapeutic summer holidays attracted the court nobles and the rich burgeoisie who, at the same time, also drew the rest of those nore modest visitors that came to Zarautz, who were growing in number . All of them laid the foundations for the new tourist vocation of Zarautz. Among the few examples of that architecture that still survive, we should mention Villa Munda, built by doctor Pedro Velasco over the former lands taken up by the cemetery. It is an eclectic building erected in the last quarter of the l9th century. It is of considerable size and has suffered different alterations over the years. lt is rectangular in plan and has a semi-basement, a ground floor and two levels, which are topped by a lantern and covered with a hipped roof (or roof with four slopes). This small manor house is surrounded by a garden, limited by gates on both sides and a double entrance flanked by stone pilasters, iron bars and a couple of small sandstone and slate temples . The central body on the main façade sticks out compared with the lateral ones, and it is entered along steps that lead up to two twin doors covered by a charming iron and glass canopy supported by thin columns with iron volutes. The first storey has an overhanging balcony that runs along the three flat openings. The bossed corners and the casings of the openings are made of dressed stone. The south front is projected along two lower masses, forming a small Ushaped courtyard, that were added later. Sanz Enea is a small palace also erected in the last quarter of the l9th c. by the French architect C.H. Besoin. It is a detached building, rectangular in plan, that has a basement, ground floor and three levels. The whole is topped by slate attics of obvious French crigin. The chromatic effect is achieved by the polychromy of the walls, the bossed corners and the contrast with the black slate of the attics. The flat mouldings on the impost line neatly divide the storeys and there is a predominance of big symmetrical openings with ledges.The only breaches on that sequential rhythm are the overhanging balconies of the south and north fronts, which focus the view of the entrance steps. The central body is projected slightly ahead of the lateral ones.
We can find other examples of villas, although they are more modest in their aim, in Villa Maria Pilar, Villa San Antonio and Villa Florita (built by architect Guillermo Eizagirre in 1923, it is the Police Station at present "Ertzantza"). They are houses greatly influenced by the artistic movements of the time, dominated by an eclectic style that drew its inspiration from such diverse elements as the Basque country house, with its false woodwork on the fronts, the Anglosaxon rural architecture or the different neo movements (Neoclassical, Neogothic...). Other buildings can also be included in this group, among which we will mention Gure Ametsa, Villa Mar and Arguiñano Restaurant. Zuazo Enea and Villa Tamarindos are part of the more recent history of the architecture on the Eastern development of Zarautz. The former is a single-family house, nowadays turned into flats and apartments, designed by the great architect Secundino Zuazo. It is a detached building, surrounded by gardens and rectangular in plan. It consists of a ground floor, two levels and a hipped roof , alternating flat openings and a gallery topped by big eaves that rest on two wooden uprights. Note the excellent use of bricks and the contrast with the white limestone of the Neogothic openings, balconies, consoles and emblems, thus creating an attractive chromatic effect. As regards to Villa Tamarindos, we will say that it is a building that receives different influences of the architectural movements of the historic avant-garde. In spite of its present shabby condition, it still has undeniable artistic value. This rectangular-plan building has a ground floor and two levels topped by a lean-to roof that slopes down gently towards the north front. It is surrounded by a garden and single-flight stone steps on each side provide access te the first floor. The ground floor opens in its centre in the shape of a porch and over it there is an overhanging terrace that stretches along the whole first storey. A staircase lit by a kind of glazed apse leads us to the second fluor entrance There is a clear dynamic intention in the design of the ground plans and storeys, which tries to break with the spatial structure of the traditioinal house by projecting masses and changing levels. In the same way, the absence of ornamentation, the geometry of the openings in the walls and the search for pure forms, turn this building into an interesting example, if not unique, of modern architecture in Zarautz. Finally, we will walk to the area of dunes and marshes that stretch over the eastern limits of Zarautz.More precisely, the space taken up by this area corresponds to the sands and dunes of the part just behind the beach, a section of the I–urritza river mouth and some plots of boggy vegetation situated further inland. Two complementary but sharply clear-cut areas can be distinguished: An area of dunes behind the beach zone, with gentle hillocks and hollows, used as golf course and of great scenic value.On the other hand, we have the I–urritza river, with its banks of sand and mud and what remains of the marshes. Farther away from the beach, there are some plots of land , depressed in the margins of two water courses that come together with the river.These lands are quaternary sediments, both fluvial (muds) and marine (sands). This area of dunes is the largest on the whole coast of Guipuzcoa.
The golf course, despite being covered with lawn, preserves little-altered areas in which we can find botanical species that are very rare on the rest of our coast and even some endemisms such as Galium Arenarium (an endemic species of the French atlantic coast that finds its area's limits here), Alyssum arenarium, Festuca vascocensis and so on. In the marsh, vegetation occupies a very small surface, since the rest is taken up by ploughland. There are some species that survive there such as Limonium humile, Glaux maritima or Aster tripolium. In the inner plots we can find ground covered with ditch reeds and vegetation clusters of plume grass, rushes and such rare species as Escirpus pungens, Carex riparia etc. As for the fauna, some migratory limicolous birds rest or spend the winter in the river area and its surroundings. Among these we can mention some birds belonging to the following genera: Calidris (Knots), Charadrius, Plucialis (plovers), Limosa (godwits) etc. In spite of the area's small dimensions the fact that these birds' populations have been drastically decimated in the rest of the country confers it great value from the ornithological point of view.
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