A little-known route of the Camino de Santiago that is World Heritage

It is the second great Jacobean route of Rioja. Traveled by pilgrims since the 10th century to reach Compostela, thus avoiding the Pyrenees, the Interior route of the Basque Country and La Riojaincluded in the UNESCO World Heritage, treasures in its fifty kilometers of route through Rioja lands, with the city of Haro as its axis, numerous places marked by history, art, faith, nature, gastronomy and legends that, however, are unknown to many. A path that is part of the origins of the Jacobean phenomenon, which speaks, like wine, to the senses of pilgrims, walkers and travelers.

Briñas, the Chapel of the Souls. The route begins, after descending the Portillo de la Lobera, in the town of Briñas, in whose medieval framework of stately homes stands the majestic church of the Asunción, from the 16th century, as well as the Jurisdictional Roll and the Cadalso-Humilladero, one of the two existing in La Rioja. A small chapel dedicated to the souls in which prisoners entrusted their souls before being executed and where, today as yesterday, pilgrims ask for protection for their route. We will leave it along Solana Street to continue along the banks of the Ebro River, along the meanders formed by the riverbed between elms and poplars to the Gothic Bridge of Briñas. It was built in the time of King Sancho III of Navarra, in the 11th century, and expanded in the 16th century, and has seven pointed arches and six prow-shaped buttresses, which welcome the city of Haro, which we will access through the popular Estación neighborhood, where there are century-old wine cellars.

Haro, the Capital of the Interior Road of the Basque Country and La Rioja. The Capital of La Rioja Alta is well worth a stop of several days. Haro is much more than wine, that too. The streets of the old town, declared a Historic Artistic Site, contain unique corners marked by history, art and legend such as the remains of the old medieval wall, the Puerta de San Bernardo-El Portillo, the Puerta de Santa Bárbara or the Torreón de los Perdones , the Municipal Calado and the Terete, the labyrinthine and underground urban wineries, the old House of the Nuns and its curious Renaissance stonemason marks or the House of the Order of Calatrava and the ‘ogee arch’. These last two are found in the square where the church of Santo Tomás is located, a Gothic temple, with a Plateresque façade, where the relics of the hermits San Felices, patron saint of the city, and of his disciple San Millán, a Lignum, are kept and preserved. Crucis, and a museum of missal wines, from all over the world. The stone dome, which can be toured, is bewitching, and the tower has an architectural map engraved by the builders. Also a must-see in Haro is the Basilica and Museum of the Virgen de la Vega, marked by a legend that says that the Gothic virginal carving from the 13th century was brought from Granada, and is the protagonist of a historic procession every September. , that of the Holy Rosary of Lanterns. We cannot leave this town without visiting the Riscos de Bilibio, six kilometers from the city, a fascinating landscape, where the ‘Battle of Wine’ takes place, where the hermitage and statue of San Felices, a hermit who was teacher of San Millán, in Las Conchas de Haro.

Bañares, the Riojan crismón. From Haro the path continues to Zarratón, the town of the seven hermitages (one for each neighborhood) and the seven dances, where stands the church of the Assumption, from the 12th century, expanded in the 16th century, with a plateresque façade with a tower. asymmetrical of more than thirty meters. According to a traditional saying, it ‘deceives the poor’ because from a distance it looks like a cathedral. Inside, the relics of Saint Blaise are kept and venerated, which is why it was a reference stop for medieval pilgrims. The path continues through cultivated fields to Madrid de los Trillos, in the municipality of Cidamón, where the seventh convent of the Order of San Francisco and the church of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, from the 16th century, and the hermitage of the Virgen del Buen Suceso, baroque, 17th century. And later he arrives at the town of San Torcuato, referenced since the 13th century, called Villa Porquera until the 16th century, whose church of San Pablo, from the 15th century, is dedicated to one of the seven apostolic men who evangelized the peninsula in the first century.

From here, the route runs through the plain between walnut and almond trees towards Bañares, a town that is entered through Real Street. In this town, a must-see is the Church of the Holy Cross, from the 15th century, Gothic, which keeps the Ark of Saint Formeriuslined with sheet metal and enamel, a holy martyr protector against storms and hail, as well as a large three-section gilded wood tabernacle from the 18th century. And without forgetting the hermitage of Santa María la Antiguafrom the 12th century, a landmark of the Rioja Romanesque, with a façade of four archivolts, eight columns, capitals with facing lions, human faces that appear between leaves, Jaqués checkering, and on the tympanum, the Epiphany with a chrismon flanked by a bull and a lion.

Once we leave Bañares, and after five kilometers first on a paved track and then on land, we finally enter Doce de Mayo Street at Santo Domingo de la Calzadathe city of the holy builder and the popular legend of the ‘hen that crowed after being roasted’, from where the pilgrim and traveler will continue along the French Way, the great Jacobean route, his route to Compostela.