The town has two beaches (Itzurun and Santiago), which are of interest to geologists because they are situated among the longest set of continuous rock strata in the world.

It has a temple with a magnificent reredos by Juan de Antxieta, the only work by this Basque sculptor found in Gipuzkoa.

In the Middle Ages, the people who lived in the Sehatz valley having to endure the continuous attacks of pirates and pillagers, fortified the city.

It has been widely theorized that Zumaia's name comes from "zuma" or "zume", the Basque word for the wicker, a plant that apparently was plentiful on the area.

With regards to Villagrana, there is a theory that states the possibility to be related with "grana", meaning "seeding", that were produced by the abundant groves of evergreen oaks in that period.

Despite the disagreements in certain aspects with regards to the origins of Zumaia, all historians agree that the villa emerged surrounding the Monastery of Santa Maria.

According to the first preserved parchment in which is mentioned the place "Zumaya", the Monastery of Santa Maria had been a donation by a privilege of Sancho VI of Navarre to the Roncesvalles's convent in 1292.

Despite the different conclusions about the emplacement of the monastery, the monks of the Monastery of Santa Maria the direct witnesses of the birth of this villa, after the inhabitants dispersed by the valley of Sehatz decided to put an end to the continuous assaults of piracy and plunder and raise a villa walled and strengthened from where they could defend in group against the enemy.

Nowadays there is no evidence of the fortification that only was interrupted at a height of solar houses and towers that could play the same function of defending as the wall.

With the pass of centuries, has brought logically many changes not only in the former ordinances municipal written in 1584, but also in the urban development as well as in the customs and way of living of citizens.

The majority of the first inhabitants of the villa were devoted to agriculture, though grouping in the same place accelerated the appearance of some professional and industrial activities.

The situation began to improve very quickly in the 17th century, among other reasons because the desiccation of the marshes enabled the cultivation of the former reed-beds and, consequently, the increase of the agricultural production, especially if corn.

But there were some other factors that lead this reappearance, since in the 19th century the factories of cement turned into the engine of the economy of the villa, promoting the commercial activity of the port.

The improvement of the communications, nevertheless, harmed to the port of Bedua, whose commercial activity started to expire due to the fact that the bridge of Urola river was blocking the way to the ships upstream.

An interesting fact that took place in Zumaia is that the first diesel engine of the whole Spanish State was set here, precisely in the enterprise Yeregui Hermanos.

Some years later, the economic crisis also came to Zumaia, sharpened by moments with readjustment of personnel and even with the closing of some big workshops that had been emblematic until then.

In respect of the site being 'one of the best exposed, most continuous and highly studied outcrops of deep marine sediments in the world' the 'Cretaceous-Paleogene Stratigraphic Section of Zumaia' was included by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022.