The next few days we are staying in Ezcaray, a small village in the La Rioja region. This is Spain’s largest wine producing region. The La Rioja is an autonomous community as well as a wine region. The wine region spans 3 autonomous communities – La Rioja, Navarre and Euskadi (basque).

We drove there, via the Sanctuary of Arantzazu. It is located high up in the mountains and is very beautiful.

The sanctuary was built over 500 years ago in honor of the Virgin Mary that supposedly appeared there to a local shepherd in the 14th century. The Franciscans (locally they are called “the friars of Arantzazu”) have remained with the Andre Mari for more than five centuries (1501). Without them, this place would have only been an anecdote.

The new impressive basilica and crypt was built in the 1950s on the edge of the mountain and is one of the best example of Basque avant-garde architecture. The stone tips of the exterior towers represent the hawthorn bush and the sculpture of the Pieta stands still by the question of suffering at the top and below the 14 apostles representing all men and women.

What is amazing about the basilica and crypt is the avan-garde style and how very unusual and different they both are to all other Catholic churches in Spain.

The basilica and the crypt are both amazing, very beautiful and quite moving.
The murals in the crypt were painted by Nestor Basterretxea and depicts the evolution of mankind and the resurrection of Christ.

Worth the drive up the mountain.

We drove back down to have lunch at a traditional family run, Basque restaurant. Again decided to go with the menu del dia for €15 and thankfully the serves were small so great value. I asked for sidre (cider) one of the drink choices and expected a glass as usual, and they gave me a bottle, so that was fun. The placemats included a table of basic euskara (basque) words and the equivalent words in Castillano, Catala, Galego, Francais, English. Great way to show how very different the euskara language is and also so we can learn some basic words to use while there.