(Surprising) places of interest in Álava
A SALT VALLEY RESURRECTED
It is not an exaggeration to say that the whitish terraces that prostrate themselves on the slopes near yearling make up one of the most amazing landscapes in the country. The impact on the retinas is amazing, with certain visual reminiscences of the rice fields that grow in Southeast Asia, but in a more bare version. Looking up at the small infinity of artificial eras provokes a sensation of discovery, as if the earth suddenly opened up and offered a parallel universe unknown in the days of Instagram. But beyond the awesomeness of this man-made landscape, there is a story of second chances.
Today, this space can be visited, understood and valued thanks to a foundation that, since 2000, it was proposed to revitalize the ruins . Just one hundred years earlier, the end of the state salt monopoly caused this exploitation to go bankrupt due to the high costs and unfair competition from the cheaper and more accessible maritime salt mines. And, since salt is salt and could have little added value at that time, Añana went from being a prosperous town to crying with nostalgia . However, the work of this foundation has allowed that the whole valley recovers , which becomes a tourist asset thanks to guided tours of the salt flats and a rather playful interpretation center. In addition, it has had the support of the most important chefs in the country who have their own plot of land where they they extract their salt and have chosen to give it a gourmet touch to the productions mixing this rock with various ingredients. A whole vein that makes it worthwhile to walk among the terraces and lose yourself in your store.
The salty valley of Añana
A LABYRINTH OF NEO-FRETWORK
Much of the 'mojo' of The guard (and other towns in ** Rioja Alavesa ** ) are the tunnels that pierce its entrails and that, decades ago, they served as the perfect capsule to age the wine in barrels . With the growth and professionalization of wineries and, also, with the construction of new homes, many of these passageways have been lost or forgotten. However, in the underground level of the city, for a few years, some of these sections have been recovered for different purposes, making the underground visit to the city much more entertaining.
On the one hand, there is the persistence of the memory linked to the boom in wine tourism at Bodega el fabulista, a winery that has become a ‘must’ for its entertaining visit in which the old facilities are dissected. With a more renovated air, Casa Primicia recovers the cellars of what is the oldest winery in the world to turn them into tasting rooms and niches for its consumer club. On the other hand, there are the gourmet and gastronomic options such as Entre Viñas and Olivos , a wine cellar with an essential basement or Hospedería Los Parajes , a Premium establishment that grows wild in its long draft below the Plaza Mayor.
Hostel Los Parajes
CONSENTED AND MODERNIST STREET ART
It is logical that it be linked to Victory like that ladylike city, capital city, half medieval half 19th century, tough and good food. It is true that with the curious and voyeur visit to his cathedral under construction he has managed to get out of the habit a bit, but not much more. And yet, without the need to leave the historical almond, it surprises with a quite remarkable way of embracing contemporary creation with striking designs such as the mechanical ramps of the streets La Soledad and Fray Zacarías Martínez.
But its particular climax is found in the parallel cantons of Anorbin and Butchers , where he Street art turns them into a real museum. Sponsored by the city council itself, the artists who sign these works represent a Vitoria (or a feature of the city) very different from the one perceived using, in addition, some unconventional techniques and materials in this type of murals such as ceramics. All so that the city and contemporary creation go hand in hand in an organic way and that this marriage does not translate, only, into abstract sculptures in the parks but also have their particular language between centuries-old buildings and layouts.
Street Art in Vitoria
THE BASQUE VERSION OF A CASTLE
One of the features of the entire Basque Country is that animosity towards gigantic medieval constructions . In part, because it was never a hard-fought land and its reconquest was relatively simple, to which must be added a capricious orography. However, that does not mean that they did not have almost fratricidal disputes that, in many cases, ended up leading to Carlism. In that somewhat nervous environment, in order to control the valleys and mountain passes, the petty nobility became strong in their palatial fortifications. Or what is the same, in the towers that served to put order and to make clear the hierarchies.
And to get to know them better, Tower of the Varona in Valdegovia is the best example. In the first place, for its magnificent conservation and for being the only one in all of Álava that conserves its moat. Secondly, because inside it houses a museum of memories of this quite memorable family with some relics such as the first Phillips light bulbs that arrived in Spain. And, thirdly, for preserving some rooms that evolved from a barracks to a mansion and in which the wallpapers are, directly, from another league, with Somewhat exaggerated representations of the most important monuments in Spain as well as other bucolic and natural motifs.
Tower of the Varona in Valdegovia
THE SISTINE CHAPELS OF THE GOTHIC
The region of La Llanada was always a highway for merchants and pilgrims centuries ago, hence the San Adrian tunnel be one of the most characteristic landmarks of the Camino del Norte. Here is a series of churches that served as canvases for the first Gothic paintings that are preserved in the Peninsula and that anonymity in some cases or, the fact of having been covered by altars in others, has allowed the degree of conservation to be top. Therefore, the temple of San Martin de Tours in Gazeo, the church of Saint Mary of the Assumption in Alaitza and that of the Nativity of Our Lady in Añua they are a perfect hat-trick of medieval archaeology, silence and Christian linear comics.
THE GREENEST CIRCUMVALATION
The European green capital is one of those complex prizes for the traveling public to understand and for the authorities to exploit. However, all the cities of the Old Continent should learn from Victory , who in 2012 took advantage of this award to raise a typographic icon made with plants and to claim its outskirts. And it is that, beyond functional and sustainable neighborhoods, the city is surrounded by a green ring designed and promoted to enjoy the calm lagoons and the most immediate gall oak forests. Among all of them surprising Salburua section , a park with its own interpretation center and viewpoint in which architecture and architecture share the limelight.
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Salburua Interpretation Center