Loop from Logroño

01 Village

Laguardia, Álava

Laguardia

Perched on its hill in the heart of Rioja Alavesa, Laguardia still lives within the walls raised by Sancho the Strong of Navarre. Enter through the Páganos gate, one of the five that survive, and let the lanes lead you to Santa María de los Reyes. Everywhere, the bodegas remind you that wine is the town's livelihood.

02 Village

Elciego

In the south of the Rioja Alavesa, Elciego is recorded as early as 1067 as El Cieko. Pick out from afar the coloured titanium ribbons with which Frank Gehry crowned the hotel of the Marqués de Riscal winery. Its vineyards belong to the Rioja wine region and stretch down to the Ebro, which bounds the municipality to the south.

03 Village

Haro, La Rioja

Haro

Stroll through the old town of Haro to Santo Tomás, whose portal is the work of Felipe Vigarny. Wine capital of La Rioja Alta, the town lives to the rhythm of its bodegas and its batalla del Vino. Its many palaces dot a historic centre protected since 1975, set on a height above the Tirón and the Ebro.

04 Village

Briones, La Rioja

Briones

Briones sits on an 80-metre mound whose northern flank drops almost sheer to the Ebro. Climb up to the church of the Asunción, whose three 16th-century naves rise to equal height beneath a Baroque bell tower. In 1379, Navarre and Castile signed a treaty here that bears the town's name.

05 Church

Santo Domingo de la Calzada Cathedral

Catedral de Santo Domingo de la Calzada

On the Way of St James, this cathedral houses a live cock and hen, in memory of the local miracle. Listen out near their coop, then take in the 70-metre freestanding Baroque bell tower, raised in 1762 by Martín de Beratúa. At the east end, the Romanesque apse retains fine corbels.

06 Abbey

Monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla

Monasterio de San Millán de la Cogolla

At San Millán de la Cogolla there are two monasteries, Suso perched on the mountain and Yuso below. In the scriptorium the Glosas Emilianenses were written, among the oldest texts in a Romance language and the first in Basque apart from inscriptions. Gonzalo de Berceo, the first Castilian poet known by name, signed his verses here.

07 Abbey

San Millán de Suso

Monasterio de San Millán de Suso

Above the Cárdenas valley, Suso grew around the caves of the hermit Millán, who died in 574. Pass through Mozarabic horseshoe arches to the cells cut into the rock and the saint's Romanesque cenotaph. Its name remains tied to the Glosas Emilianenses, regarded as the first writings in Ibero-Romance and in Basque.

08 Village

Viana, Spain

Viana

Founded in 1219 by Sancho VII the Strong, Viana keeps stretches of its 13th-century walls and its emblazoned façades. Cesare Borgia, who fell near the town in 1507, lies in front of the church of Santa María, on the Way of Saint James. Carry on to the Las Cañas lagoon to look out for colonies of purple herons and night herons.

09 Monument

Monastery of Irache

Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Irache

At the foot of Montejurra, on the Way of Saint James, Irache opened the kingdom's first pilgrims' hospital in the 11th century. Its Romanesque church stands alongside a Plateresque cloister and a Herrerian tower; a university was based here from 1569 to 1824. Take in its bulk from the path, like the pilgrims arriving from Estella.

10 Village

Estella-Lizarra

Estella

You only catch sight of Estella as you enter it, so well do the mountains, Montejurra among them, hide it in a bend of the Ega. King Sancho Ramírez founded it around 1090 on the Way of St James to receive pilgrims. Facing the church of San Pedro de la Rúa, the Palace of the Kings of Navarre remains the only Romanesque civil building in Navarre.

11 Nature park

Nacedero del Urederra

12 Monument

Puente románico de Puente la Reina

Built for a queen whose name remains unknown, this 11th-century bridge crosses the Arga where the pilgrim routes from Navarre and Aragon meet. Follow its pedestrian roadway as it rises to the central arch, the highest, between piers armed with cutwaters. Three towers guarded it before the Carlist Wars.

13 Church

Church of Saint Mary of Eunate

Iglesia de Santa María de Eunate

Alone in open fields, the octagonal church of Santa María de Eunate marks the Aragonese branch of the Way of St James, near Puente la Reina. An arcade surrounds it a few metres away, and burials yielding scallop shells have been excavated nearby. Approach along the path to watch its Romanesque silhouette grow amid the farmland.

14 Church

Pamplona Cathedral

Catedral de Pamplona

First comes a late 18th-century Neoclassical façade, grafted onto a Gothic cathedral built from the 14th to the 16th century. Around the cloister survive the refectory, the chapter house and one of the three Gothic kitchens preserved in Europe. It crowns the Navarrería, at the crossroads of the main axes of Roman Pompaelo.

15 Monument

Citadel of Pamplona

Ciudadela de Pamplona

Ordered by Philip II in 1571 and designed by Giacomo Palearo, known as El Fratín, Pamplona's citadel traces a five-bastioned star. Today you can stroll through this green space, now a park in the heart of the city. In 1808, Napoleon's soldiers took it by trickery, under cover, legend has it, of a snowball fight.