If you still do not know the Comunidad Foral in autumn, take note of this route to a getaway through Ribera Navarra full of flavour, landscapes and history.
OLITE, A REAL MIRAGE
The riverside route begins in Olite and does so at dusk. Enter Olite with his illuminated castle It is something that is not easily forgotten. Yes, the town is a jewel that reveals its splendor when crossing the spire tower and get to San Carlos Square, the Castle where the court of the ancient kings of Navarre was established is a dreamlike vision. your neighboring church, the gothic Santa María La Real is another wonder.
As accommodation we suggest the Parador de Olite, part of the primitive castle where you can enjoy a royal banquet and sleep like a child. within the silence of its walls.
Olite Inn (Navarra).
AFTERNOON
In Navarra you cannot miss wine and the Olite afternoon at Bodegas Ochoa is the place to enjoy it. do the honors the Ochoa sisters, Adriana winemaker and Beatriz responsible for marketing. Friendly and eloquent, their conversation reveals their passion for the world of wine they are already sixth generation.
They talk about the rosé that characterizes Navarra but also about the white, red and muscatel fermented with equal care and success. Adriana tells Condé Nast Traveler how the wines of a lifetime belong to her father Javier, while she works as a winemaker together with her sister try new broths, always honoring their surname with which they sign, just like their grandfather did, '8ª'.
A paragraph to clarify that Javier Ochoa's muscatel has been chosen among the ten best of the world. His daughters recommend taking it accompanied by foie gras.
Castle of Olite, Navarre.
During the palatial dinner at the Parador, under a medieval chandelier and at an impeccable table, the president of the D.O. Navarre, David Palacios, explains the pairing of each autumnal dish, in which there is no lack of mushrooms or foie gras, tomato compote or partridge truffle.
The essence of his wines is carried out by the aromatic grenache grape. David tells how the rosé, which he has sometimes considered second best, in Navarra is a real gem who takes care of himself like nobody else. So much so that for a red you need 1 kilo of grapes while 2-3 kilos are used for Navarrese rosé.
Vineyards in Olite.
In the pairing you can enjoy the high-end red wines from Príncipe de Viana, the 100% Garnacha rosés from Bodegas Pagos de Araiz (an unavoidable visit in Olite wine tourism) or a white 100% Chardonnay, moment in which David Palacios intervenes: "And the legend says that the Chardonnay grape arrived in Navarra straight from Palestine, where it found the cool Navarran climate ideal for its growth and that its name corresponds to the Hebrew word Shaar-Adonai (Gate of God)”.
THE IMPERIAL CHANNEL OF ARAGON
It was the most important work of the Europe of the Enlightenment in its genre. It all started when the canon of Italian origin Ramon de Pignatelli back in the s. XVI, aware of the flow of the Ebro river, wanted to take advantage of it by building a ditch to irrigation of orchards.
His ambitious dream originated in the French midi canal, and he aspired to unite the Cantabrian Sea with the Mediterranean. His project, already considered by Carlos III, culminated during the empire of Carlos V as Imperial Acequia, later Imperial Canal of Aragon, 110 km long irrigation and navigation from Fontellas to Saragossa.
Roncal Valley, Navarre.
The Bocal dam begins the Canal and names the Town where 300 people who worked on it lived. Although it was depopulated in the seventies, it still keeps your lovely school with maps of the Spain of that time and wooden desks.
Is it so the charming theater, the neoclassical church with a T-shirt sundial, the Palace of Carlos V –old floodgate house– and its labyrinth where you can get lost in peace, because if you breathe something in this place it is serenity.
A delicious spot on the banks of the Ebro surrounded by trees and history where the Almadia still takes place which, in May, celebrates its festival in honor of the gancheros, those men dressed in pellicos driving down the river the indomitable trunks of the Pyrenees to the Valley.
Panoramic view of the Ebro in Tudela.
TUDELA, CAPITAL OF THE RIBERA NAVARRE
Just by entering the Plaza de los Fueros in Tudela you feel the richness of its history written by Celtiberians, Romans, Arabs, Jews and Christians, masterfully told by Santi Lorente, from Tudel, who exudes passion for his land when he speaks of the coats of arms of the nobles that surround the facades of the square, with dates from 1119, when Tudela went from being Muslim to Christian.
The balconies also tell their story through the shields of the Merindad de Tudela. And ceramics dedicated to Islam and Israel are observed. Tudela was a land of Jewish poets and its Jewish quarter had great relevance when King Sancho VII the Strong, Nicknamed for his height, he welcomed and defended them within his walls.
at the bandstand the honorary medallions to Navarrese musicians such as Eslava, Sarasate, Gayarre, Gaztambide can be seen. The temple continues to star the festivals of Tudela, playing faithfully and successively La Polca de Tudela, La Jota, El Baile de la Era and La Revoltosa.
The latter derives its curious name from a director who liked partying more that the orchestra conducting and that he was conducting in a hurry to go on a spree driving the pipers crazy and forcing the parishioners to churn dancing.
Square of the Fueros of Tudela.
On the way to the Bona Maison gourmet store of Navarran products, Santi tells us about the orchards where you can eat outdoors, savoring the best vegetables, which thanks to the initiative of Santi Lorente and Anabel Hueget can be obtained canned in his store, open from October 6, 2021.
It is an establishment of first class artisan products, such as the tomato and piquillo pepper jams, LC asparagus, Mandrágora Ordoki brandy, or the famous Mantecados from Tudela.
The museum of Cesar Munoz Solar, one of the most recognized figurative painters from Navarra of the 20th century, celebrates this 2021 the centenary of his birth, honoring him with the exhibition the secret years, which –according to his son, Tomás Muñoz Asensio, also an artist and designer of the exhibition– discovers the artist's works during the twenty years he spent away from Tudela, in New York, Paris and Rome. Paintings in which the great portrait painter that he was can be seen, for example in Sofia Loren's portrait with a skull next door, reflecting the beauty and ephemeral nature of life.
The Cathedral of Santa Maria de Tudela, of Cistercian architecture, dating from the s. XII, when it was built on the existing mosque. In Calle del Juicio you can see its medieval doorway full of modillions. A stone book that evokes sin and temptation because evil is outside the Cathedral and good, inside doors.
Cathedral of Santa María de Tudela (Navarra).
THE PRODUCTS OF THE GARDEN
It's time to enjoy the prebends of the Navarrese countryside and where better than El Lechuguero de Cascante, whose name goes back to the ancestor of the owners, Angelines 'lto lechuguerica ', who had a lettuce planter where they set up a canteen that today a third generation, run by Carmelo and Angelines, has been transformed into a restaurant whose gastronomy is intimately linked to its orchard. There they eat the best artichokes, game, fish... depending on the season.
For wines, those from the Bodegas Marqués de Montecierzo, whose installation at the beginning of the 20th century from the largest flour mill in Spain to a concentration camp during the war, until the Lozano family rebuilt the premises, converted it into a winery and brought from their vineyards that grape from the calcic land organically grown that produces exceptional wines such as the red Emergente, or that rosé that has won three consecutive years the award for the best Navarrese rosé.
Because, as the owner, Joaquín Lozano, says, they they are farmers and winemakers, and what distinguishes the wine is the terroir where its grapes grow.
Sleeping in the town of Villafranca is enjoy the baroque of its Virgen del Portal parish church where, by the way, the giants wait to be taken out to dance at parties, from the convent of Carmen or the old convent converted into Alesves Hostel, where to dine and sleep wonderfully, not without first having burned a bit of adrenaline in the night running of the town.
LEGENDS AND STORIES OF PILGRIMS
The Bridge over the Arga River gives its name to the town of Puente de la Reina, a few kilometers from Pamplona, and is one of the emblematic enclaves of the Camino de Santiago -it appears in the Codex Calixtinus where the routes of Roncesvalles and Somport that have come together in the Plaza de los Fueros de Obanos, in Puente de la Reina are already ONE, converted into the French Way.
Shops with Camino motifs, pilgrims with backpacks on their backs, cane and illusion in the countenance, and a monumental architecture of which the Gothic stands out for its size and beautiful legend Church of the Wooden Crucifix, They say that it was a Germanic gift from those pilgrims who found hospitality and affection on their arduous walk in Puente de la Reina, and in gratitude they donated the royal sculpture
And it is said that on the Bridge stood vigilant the image of the Virgen del Puy, patron saint of the town, nicknamed Virgen del Txori (bird) by a little bird that daily her face. When the image had to be moved inside the church and the txori couldn't get in to clean her, she died of grief.
the scent of roasted peppers spreads through the town from the market where its inhabitants sit roasting, peeling and canning them in a nice chat around the tasty vegetable.
Queen Navarre Bridge.
From the Templar hermitage of Santa María de Eunate, in the heart of Valdizarbel, they say “experience endless sensations on the surface; peace, mystery, history…” . It is one of the most suggestive temples of the romanesque architecture of Navarra, built in the same geographical center, to which telluric forces are attributed, can be seen mysterious marks of the stonemasons and it is linked, without certain science, to the Order of the Templars.
PAMPLONA (AND WHAT IS NOT KNOWN ABOUT IT)
Difficult to define in a few lines the facts that make up Pamplona today. The theatrical visit of Viajes Divertis is an entertaining and learned way of listening to the King Sancho VI 'the Wise' tell his version of Navarrese history or to the maid of the nuns of the Magdalena the events of when Pamplona was divided into three cities (neighborhoods) that did not get along at all and were continually on the rampage.
To complete the tour the rich history of the city there is the funny rogue and secret version of Santiago Lesmes Zabalegui, author of the Cool Guide to Pamplona, which reveals what is not known. Starts with the because of the Navarrese fueros while pointing the statue to the uprising against the attempted abolition of them in 1893 by German Gamazo.
The model, Rosa Oteiza, was the lover of José María Ubago, author of the sculpture together with his brother. A matron who holds the charters and chains of Navarre. The year is 1903, the population recognizes the model that she has had three children with the sculptor and the scandal is armed.
Facade of the City Hall of Pamplona.
The pillory is still present where Santiago recommends this is not for sensitive ears when counting how they dismembered and hung the limbs of those executed on the sinister stick. To sweeten the most interesting and bloody stories, nothing like trying the pinchos from La Vieja Iruña, whose delight and originality have earned them the XVI prize for the Euskal Herria Pintxos Championship in 2021.
And complete the menu with the tasting of pintxos and cocktails at Baluarte Terrace, a cosmopolitan place where you can enjoy local gourmet products and a series of cocktails by Carlos Rodríguez, its owner, who defines himself as bartender who has traveled overseas with his cocktail shaker and puts it into practice by offering a Manhattan or Bloody Mary on its spacious and avant-garde terrace.
It's time to visit the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, an emblematic place where the three neighborhoods, San Cernín, San Nicolás, and La Navarrería they smoked the pipe of peace in 1423 thanks to Carlos III, after 400 years of struggle, and where the chupinazo of one of the most famous festivals in Spain is launched, those San Fermines that a young journalist Toronto Star named Ernest Hemingway made world famous after falling in love with them.
Inside doors waiting a giant game of the goose rug and his explanation of how the famous game, the reverse of Parcheesi, had its reason for being as a Templar map of the Camino de Santiago.
Citadel of Pamplona.
The Cathedral of Pamplona has recently welcomed in its Gothic cloisters a market for antiques, collections, second-hand objects, giving visitors the privilege of strolling and shopping in a magnificent environment, under the supervision of Ame & Art, which is responsible for selecting the best design and author brands.
At dinner at Casa Manolo, delicacies such as the perfectly roasted suckling pig or the cod with lobster. Navarrese wines as a pairing and, for dessert, the heartfelt songs of the land to culminate an unparalleled journey that ends between the soft sheets of the Tres Reyes hotel, highly recommended and located In the city center.