Logroño

The Romans had a river port called Vareia here, founded near an older town of the Berones, but medieval Logroño grew up as a crossing of the Ebro. It was a small village belonging to the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla until 1095, when Alfonso VI of León granted it a charter, or fuero, to populate this strategic border spot; the charter already mentions the fortified stone bridge over the river, and it became the model for many other charters in the region. The Camino de Santiago brought pilgrims, crafts and trade through the town.

In May and June of 1521 French and Navarrese troops besieged Logroño. The town held out, and the victory is still remembered every 11 June, the feast of San Bernabé; the Revellín gate in the walls was begun the following year. In 1609 and 1610 Logroño was the main seat of the Basque witch trials held by the Spanish Inquisition. Wine was already central to the town's life: in 1635 the mayor banned carts from the streets near the wine cellars in case their vibrations spoiled the wine.

The walls were later removed and the city spread beyond them, though it only passed 30,000 inhabitants in the 1930s. During the Civil War many people were killed in the repression, including workers from the city's tobacco factory, a building that now houses the Parliament of La Rioja. The creation of La Rioja as an autonomous community made Logroño a regional capital, and the city grew into the commercial centre of the wine country.

Logroño's culture revolves around wine and the street. The two great fiestas are tied to its history and its vineyards: San Bernabé on 11 June, when the Fish Brotherhood hands out fried fish, bread and wine in memory of the siege of 1521, and San Mateo in late September, at harvest time, when the first grape must is offered to the Virgin of Valvanera on the Espolón.

The Camino de Santiago runs straight through the old town, entering by the stone bridge and continuing past the churches of Santiago and San Bartolomé, and pilgrims with backpacks and scallop shells are part of the everyday scene. The co-cathedral of Santa María de la Redonda dominates the Plaza del Mercado, and the Fountain of the Illustrious Riojans portrays eight famous Riojans in life-size bronze.

Social life is lived outdoors and in bars. Calle Laurel, nicknamed the path of the elephants, and Calle San Juan are where friends meet for pinchos and wine; Calle Portales is the place for a stroll and a terrace; and the Plaza del Mercado is where nights out begin. The city's identity is Riojan rather than Basque or Navarrese, though the Basque wine towns of Rioja Alavesa are just across the river.

About 152,000 people lived in Logroño in 2025, and more than 200,000 in the metropolitan area. It is the shopping and financial capital of La Rioja, and its economy is heavily reliant on wine — the Rioja designation — alongside the manufacture of wood, metal and textile products and the services of a regional capital, including the University of La Rioja.

Most people live in the flats of the districts that spread south of the old town after the walls came down, and the city is easy to cross on foot or by bus. Varea, the village on the site of the Roman port, is part of the municipality.

The rhythm of the day is Spanish and social: the evening brings the paseo along Calle Portales and the Espolón, followed by a round of tapas bars. The river parks are busy with walkers, runners and cyclists, and in autumn the conversation turns to the harvest across the vineyards that surround the city.

Logroño is best known for its tapas streets. Calle Laurel, with Travesía del Laurel, Calle San Agustín and Calle Albornoz, has more than fifty bars, and nearby Calle San Juan another thirty. Many traditional bars serve only one speciality, as a pincho — a single serving — or a media ración, a half portion: one is known for mushrooms with garlic butter and a prawn on toasted bread. All of it is washed down with Rioja by the glass.

The local table is hearty. Patatas a la riojana, Rioja-style potatoes, are stewed with chorizo and peppers in a sauce thickened by their own starch, sometimes with bay leaves, paprika or mushrooms, and go with a glass of red. On San Bernabé the Fish Brotherhood hands out fried fish, often trout, with bread and wine. The Mercado de San Blas on Calle Sagasta is the covered market for local produce.

Wine is the city's pride. Rioja is divided into three zones — Rioja Alta, Rioja Oriental and Rioja Alavesa across the Ebro in the Basque Country — and is graded by ageing. Several wineries can be visited on the edge of the city, and many more in the wine towns of the valley.