Haro, La Rioja
Haro is a town and municipality in the northwest of La Rioja province in northern Spain. It is known for its fine red wine and every year the Haro Wine Festival is held where locals hold a wine battle.
It has an important architectural heritage, including the main entrance of the Santo Tomás Church, the work of Felipe Vigarny, numerous palaces, and the old town, which was declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1975.
Apart from its role as home to many of the great bodegas in La Rioja, one of Haro's other claims to fame is that it was the first town in Spain to have electric street lighting.
History
There are several theories about the founding of Haro, though the most realistic theory is that of Domingo Hergueta, who argued that before the town, there was a lighthouse near the village of Cerro de la Mota which illuminated the mouth of the Ebro river. The town received the name of the lighthouse (faro), and in Castilian Spanish evolved into the name 'Haro'.
During the Roman rule of Hispania, a fort called Castrum Bibilium was built in the cliffs of Bibilio.
Rioja
Rioja or La Rioja may refer to:
-
Rioja (wine), a group of red, white and rosé wines from the province
- 209083 Rioja, a minor planet named after the wine
- La Rioja (Spanish Congress Electoral District), an electoral district (circunscripcione) used for the Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales
- the University of La Rioja, a public institution of higher education based in Logroño
- 209083 Rioja, a minor planet named after the wine
La Rioja Province
La Rioja Province may refer to:
La Rioja (Spain)
La Rioja (/lə riːˈɒhəˌ -kə/; Spanish: [la ˈrjoxa]) is an autonomous community and a province in Spain, located in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and Nájera. It has an estimated population of 322,415 inhabitants (INE 2010).
It covers part of the Ebro valley towards its north and the Iberian Range in the south. The community is a single province, so there is no County Council and it is organized into 174 municipalities. It borders the Basque Country (province of Álava) to the north, Navarre to the northeast, Aragón to the southeast (province of Zaragoza), and Castilla y León to the west and south (provinces of Burgos and Soria).
The area was once occupied by pre-Roman Berones, Pelendones and Basques. After partial recapture from the Muslims in the early tenth century, the region became part of the Kingdom of Pamplona, later being incorporated into Castile after a century and a half of disputes. From the eighteenth century the Rioja region remained divided between the provinces of Burgos and Soria, until in 1833 the province of Logroño was created, changing the name of the province to La Rioja in 1980 as a prelude to its constitution under a single provincial autonomous community following the adoption of the Estatuto de San Millán in 1982. The first written reference in which the name Rioja appears is in the Miranda de Ebro forum in 1099.
Podcasts:
