From Los Arcos to Logroño - Viajes Camino de Santiago

Information

Long stage in which we exceeded the barrier of 25 kilometers. We will leave Los Arcos towards Logroño, admiring the beauty of its countryside, walking between historic villages such as Viana or spectacular medieval villages such as Torres del Río. A road that runs downhill between vineyards and the Ebro Valley, starting our journey through La Rioja.

Logroño is an excellent opportunity to rediscover the attractions of the great historic capitals: heritage, gastronomy or the opportunity to replenish equipment add attraction to the end of the stage.

We will start our stage towards the capital of La Rioja leaving behind the chapel of San Lázaro. The first village we will find after leaving Los Arcos on our way to Logroño will be Sansol, where we will find a pharmacy, a hostel and a bar. We leave the village crossing the road and descend to a solitary house located in the middle of a bend. An arrow guides us to the left down a cobbled chute. We go through a tunnel, over a bridge and find a fountain that offers us water at the gates of Torres del Río.

Torres del Río is a small town famous for the church of the Holy Sepulchre (12th century) which has a tower attached to it that may have been used as a lighthouse to guide pilgrims in the Middle Ages.

After the stop, we continue to Viana on a steep and uncomfortable climb with a road surface that varies between asphalt, flagstones, gravel and dirt. We cross the road with caution several times until we reach the hermitage of the Virgen del Poyo. We go down again to the road that takes us to Bargota, where it is said that a sorcerer who was condemned by the Inquisition was given shelter. We continue straight on and descend to the Cornava ravine , with a steep slope of more than 125 metres, where we must take extreme precautions.

We continue along a path of pines and fruit trees, at the bottom of the ravine we see some plots of vineyards and olive trees. We continue between slides until we reach Viana, where we can visit the fabulous Gothic church of Santa Maria, which has an original Renaissance façade.

The stretch from Viana to Logroño is a walk for our already tired legs, although with more asphalt than we would like, forcing us to cross the road several times and extreme caution.

As a curiosity, in this section we will find the stall of another of these endearing characters of the Camino, Mrs. Felisa. Felisa was a hospitalera who lived her life on the edge of the Camino de Santiago, welcoming pilgrims from all over, offering them water and a snack (usually figs from her own fig tree). After Felisa’s death in 2002, her affectionate character and her willingness to help others remained so strong in her family that one of her daughters, Mari, has been doing this work for some time.

After the last road crossing, a comfortable path leads us to the entrance of Logroño, which we enter through a park. We cross the Ebro by the bridge of San Juan de Ortega and we put an end to our stage enjoying the attractions of this emblematic historical capital.