Yellow walls in the north of Spain

My wife is finishing writing a book on our Europe travels - and we came across pics we took of houses in the North of Spain, which had one or more bright yellow walls on the outside. I seem to remember that this had some significance (possibly to do with the basques) but an hour’s worth of googling did not bring me any further.

Anybody here who can help?

EDIT: hm, perhaps GQ would have been better… at least it is mundane.