Sajazarra
Two hours, and worth the detour if you are driving between Haro and Ezcaray. Do not expect services: there is one bar.
A walled village of one street with a castle at the end of it — the most complete medieval ensemble in La Rioja outside Briones.
At a Glance
Sajazarra is a single walled street inside the remains of its medieval walls, with a 15th-century castle at one end and the church of Santa María de la Asunción at the other. It has been restored house by house rather than turned into a museum piece, and there are more cats than cars. It is twenty minutes from Haro on the road to the mountains.
How it got here
Castilian kings granted the village its charter in the thirteenth century to secure the border against the Kingdom of Navarre. The town wall protected agricultural settlers during these border conflicts between the two crowns. The fortress at the village edge dates from the fifteenth century and stands as a primary piece of defensive architecture from the transition between the medieval and Renaissance eras. The Romanesque transition church of Santa María de la Asunción holds a retable from the sixteenth century. These stone remnants survive today because the village economy remained tied to wine production rather than industrial expansion during the modern centuries.
Where it sits
The village sits on the western edge of La Rioja where the plains meet the foothills of the Obarenes mountains. The landscape shifts from the vine-covered river valleys to broken limestone ridges and thickets of holm oak. The road from Haro climbs through open fields before narrowing into the stone gates of the village. Summer heat dries the surrounding grasses to a pale yellow while autumn brings heavy rains and dark green foliage to the vines. Traffic rarely passes through the single main street which maintains a quiet atmosphere during the week even as visitors arrive on weekends.
What to eat and drink
Rioja Alta produces wines from Tempranillo grapes that define the local palate. Patatas a la riojana, a stew of potatoes, chorizo, and sweet peppers, provides the standard rural meal. During the autumn, the village smells of woodsmoke from the roasting of chops over vine clippings. Lamb cutlets grilled over these embers carry a scent of the surrounding vineyards. Simple vegetable preparations like menestra de verduras, a mixture of fresh artichokes, peas, and asparagus, utilize the produce grown in the gardens along the nearby Ebro river basin. Red wine remains the only drink served with these local staples.
La Rioja: the whole region
One product, done better here than anywhere else in Spain: a wine region that fits inside a valley, vineyards running from the Ebro plain up into the Sierra de Cantabria, and every town on the road between Haro and Logroño involved in it.…
Minimum 3 days · better 4-5 days · deep 7 days
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In La Rioja
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