Laguardia

Long before the Romans arrived, the area around Laguardia was home to the Berones, a Celtic people whose settlement at La Hoya endured for over a thousand years. A second Beronian site, Santa Engracia, lay within the same territory.

The town received its municipal charter in 1164 from the Navarrese king Sancho VI, known as the Wise. It became the head of its regional community until neighbouring towns — San Vicente, Labraza and Viana — were founded and absorbed parts of its territory. Even so, Laguardia remained the leading town of the Sonsierra de Navarra throughout the Middle Ages.

The 15th century brought repeated armed conflict between Castile and Navarre. The clashes of 1429 drew resources from across the Kingdom of Navarre to resist a Castilian invasion. In 1461, Laguardia and the whole of what is now Rioja Alavesa passed to Castilian control when Enrique IV invaded the territory to support the Prince of Viana in the Navarrese civil war.

During the medieval period the town had a Jewish community with two synagogues, known as the Old and the New. After the expulsion of Jews by the Catholic Monarchs, the church of Santa María obtained one of the synagogues and an adjoining house from the Crown, selling them to fund repairs to the church.

The Church of Santa María de los Reyes is the town's most important monument. Construction began in the Romanesque period, with the main body of the building taking its present form in the Gothic era; the choir and apse came later. The high altarpiece is the work of Juan de Bascardo. The standout feature is the doorway portal, carved at the end of the 14th century and painted in polychrome in the 17th — one of the very few surviving polychrome portals in Spain. Its archivolt figures depict the Apostles, while the central pillar carries a statue of the Virgin. The tympanum is divided into three sections with narrative relief carvings. A chapel built over the portal in the 16th–17th centuries has protected the paintwork from weathering.

The Church of San Juan was begun in Romanesque style and completed in Gothic. Its south doorway dates from the late 12th century. The bell tower formed part of the town wall as its principal southern defensive tower.

The Ermita de Santa María de Berberana is a Romanesque chapel and the only church in all of Rioja Alavesa with a square apse.

The Capuchin Convent was built in the 17th century over the former Jewish quarter. After the Mendizábal confiscations expelled its friars, it served as a prison, school and courthouse before being largely demolished in the mid-19th century for a Civil Guard barracks. Only the façade survives, fronting a plaza reached by a baroque staircase from Calle Mayor.

The town wall was ordered by the Navarrese king Sancho VII in the 13th century. It originally had four gates — Páganos, Mercadal, San Juan and Santa Engracia — and a fifth, the Puerta Nueva or de Carnicerías, was added in the 16th century. The walls were heavily damaged in the 19th-century wars and rebuilt on their original line. Two of the original towers survive, converted into church bell towers.

The main Plaza Mayor is arcaded and contains both the old and new town halls. The new one, built in the 20th century, displays the town coat of arms and a carillon clock whose automata perform a local dance at 12:00, 14:00, 17:00 and 20:00. The older town hall is Renaissance in style and carries an imperial coat of arms of Charles V on its façade.

The Casa de la Primicia is the oldest surviving civil building in the town, once used to collect the church tithe. The birthplace of the fabulist Félix María Samaniego is a palace from the 18th century, now housing offices of the Foral Deputation. A late 19th-century iron kiosk in oriental taste, built on a stone pedestal with a surrounding bench and steps, stands in the town as a notable example of Basque ironwork architecture; a bust of Samaniego occupies its centre.

The pre-Roman settlement of La Hoya is an important archaeological site spanning from the Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age, over a thousand years of continuous occupation.

The main way to reach Laguardia is by car via the A-124 motorway. Daily coach services connect the town with Vitoria-Gasteiz, Amurrio and Laudio. Several restaurants serve local Basque-Riojan cooking: Restaurante Castillo El Collado (Basque-Riojan cuisine), Restaurante El Medoc Alavés at the Hotel Gourmet (Basque cuisine, tel. 945 600 560), Restaurante La Huerta Vieja (Basque-Riojan and modern, tel. 945 600 203), Restaurante Martín Cendoya — Eguren Ugarte (traditional, tel. 945 600 766), and Restaurante Villa Lucía (traditional Basque, tel. 941 600 032 / 945 246 409).