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La Rioja, land of wine
Within its 5,000 square kilometres of surface, provides space for a fantastic range of natural and cultural treasures, sometimes eclipsed by the fame of its wines. The fact is that talking about Rioja is, par excellence, talking about wine. From the Conchas de Haro, a natural canyon sculpted by the Ebro river in the Obarenes mountains, to the Natural Reserve of the Sotos de Alfaro, copses located next to the Aragonese border, the visitor is granted a huge and colorful sea of vineyards. For centuries, these have shaped the culture, traditions, and personality of its people.
The region of La Rioja works, lives, suffers, and enjoys the wine born from the vines of its seven valleys.
La Rioja, land of nature
The valley turns its eyes to the mountains: the Sierra de Cantabria -Cantabrian range-, which protects the vineyards from the Northern winds; to the South, the Sierra de la Demanda, and the Sierra Cebollera, with peaks over 2,000 metres. This area hides real oasis of beech, oak, and pine trees, apart from sweet villages as Ezcaray, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Villoslada de Cameros, Anguiano...
The courses of the Najerilla and Iregua rivers are followed by narrow and winding roads and discover paradises of vegetation, fauna, colourness, and secret corners to us, such as the caves of Ortigosa.
La Rioja, land of History
During the Early Cretaceous, a big lagoon covered the current ranges of the South of La Rioja. The dinosaurs that lived in the area 120 million years ago left their footsteps printed at its shores. These, fossilized in rock, have turned this part of La Rioja into one of the most valuable dinosaur footprint sites of all Europe.
The Cameros area gives us the idea of the pastoral past of this region, marked by trashumance. The canyon of Leza river and the valleys of Jubera, Cidacos and Alhama rivers were declared Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO. Here we can find sleepy and beautiful villages made of stone: some in the deepest part of the valley, some others, like Trevijano, high in the mountains, even over the eagles nests and near the base of the first human settlements of this range. The prehistoric megalithic tomb of the Collado del Mallo, dated more than 4,600 years ago.
The Roman Empire also left his heritage in the region. Its main settlements were focused at the shores of the Ebro river, in cities like Calagurris (today Calahorra) and Vareia (Varea). You can nowadays walk along the Iregua valley in a route that tries to follow the road that was supposed to connect Vareia (in Logroño) with the city of Numantia (Numancia) in the province of Soria.
La Rioja, land of culture and art
Half way between the mountains and the Ebro valley, La Rioja shows off about its awesome artistic heritage, materialised in the monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla (monasteries of Suso and Yuso), the monastery of Valvanera, the monastery of Santa María la Real in Nájera, and the Cistercian Abbey of Cañas. The monateries of San Millán, were designated World Heritage Site by the UNESCO, for it was here were the first phrases in Spanish language were written, around 1,000 years ago.
During the Middle Age, La Rioja was a land of frontier and constant wars. Firstly between the christian kingdoms and the moors (specially remarkable is the battle of Clavijo in 844). Later, between the different christian kindoms.
It is because of this that the region is populated with many medieval castles, usually located in high points near the the main Riojan towns.
In RIOJATREK we offer wine tourism activities and trekking walks around La Rioja. If you wish to know the culture of wine, the bodegas, the landscapes, towns, traditions, history, and the secrets of this beautiful region of the North of Spain, do not hesitate to contact us.
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La Rioja Active Tourism register T.A. LR-12. All rights reserved.