Today we left Nájera and headed towards Santo Domingo de la Cazada
It would be fair to say that, after the lovely towns we have stayed in so far, Nájera was a bit of a disappointment. We stayed at the Hotel Duques de Nájera which was perfectly fine – finding a place for dinner was a challenge with limited options and, of those, most seemed to be booked out. Anyway we found somewhere eventually where the food tasted better than the surrounding area looked!
On the way out of town, we passed the monastery of Santa Maria la Real. The first building on the site dates back to the 11th century – the monastery and the attached royal pantheon were founded by King Garcia Sánchez III of Navarre in 1052. It was later elevated to an episcopal see (area of a bishops ecclesiastical jurisdiction) and placed under Papal authority. As for Nájera itself, the Romans built the town of Tritium on land which now falls within the boundaries of Nájera and the neighbouring municipality of Tricio. Subsequently, the area was under Muslim rule and the name Nájera (Naxara, meaning “town between the rocks”) is of Arabic origin.
A short hill up out of the town and we were back into the countryside with vineyards and some distant mountain views. As the morning progressed the vineyards were slowly replaced by the (previously) usual fields of rapeseed, peas and wheat.
On the way to the village of Azofra was an extensive gravity fed irrigation system – the concepts & techniques of which were bought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs & Berbers. After the short walk through the village we passed by the Rollo de Azofra which represents the administrative category of the village as it was fully self governing since 1116. It was also notable as a place of executions. King Carlos V granted this (execution) privilege in the 16th century – inhabitants of Azofra had to be tried in Azofra.
We then started up a long hill (Strava tells me it was 3.3km long with a climb of 148m – a 4.5% gradient). It certainly got the heart and legs pumping! At the top of this hill was a town called Ciriñuela which was remarkable for its unremarkableness!. We could see Santo Domingo de la Cazarda in the distance for most of the walk down the hill – at this stage there were no more vineyards to be seen.
Tomorrow we head to Belorado.
