Rioja Alta: Briones

The road continues and once left behind the endless Castilian plains, the bittersweet knightly stories of Don Lope and the humble Mudejar charm of the Olmedine temples, the pilgrim heads his steps to another legendary land, known throughout the world for the brilliance of the treasure magenta that gushes out of the veins of her fortunate land: La Rioja.

On one side there are also the mountain mystics, gorges and gorges of the north of Burgos - the proximity of the Pancorbo gorge, the memory of the pilgrim brings the emotion of previous trips - as well as the proximity of another land that is no less mythical, Euskalerría, and a plain, the Alava, whose sanguine sap shares protagonism, if not rivalry, with the previous one. Rioja Alta

The first point of destination is a city, Briones, on whose genesis run innumerable sources of sweet and sour flavor that converge in the sea of history. Not in vain, seen as a whole from a distance - for example, at the height of one of its most renowned winemaking complexes, the Bodegas Vivanco - the historical center of Briones, raised on a mound, like its predecessors, the old forts, it resembles a small and sleepy bulwark beached in a clearly medieval space-time.

It emphasizes, settled over the old walls, towards the left and oriented to the east, the attractive design of the hermitage, of octagonal plant, of Santo Christ of the Remedies - and in fact, quite similar, in general lines, to the hermitage of the Vera Cruz de Sigüenza - built in the seventeenth century on the ruins of the old Romanesque church of San Juan Bautista, and in whose interior, apart from the venerated carving of the dolorous Christ and the memory of a Black Virgin par excellence, that of Guadalupe, the pilgrim has the opportunity to meet another venerable character, closely linked to the Camino de Santiago: Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

More oriented towards the center of the old town and located next to the Plaza Mayor and the Town Hall -an old palace house of the eighteenth century, which once belonged to the Marquises of San Nicolás, whose shield, you can see the significant figure of a tree at whose foot remains a fierce winged dragon, as well as lily or fleur-de-lys highlights the impressive mass of the church-collegiate church of Santa Maria, also known as the Assumption, inside which, superb and painted on one of the canvases of the ship, the gigantic Christoforos or San Cristóbal, remember, as a notice of attention to navigators, the same service to Christ that the one that already lent Hércules previously to Dionysos.

As if the Templar bauceant were - comparatively speaking - light and penumbra keep the charismatic dream of a Virgin Teothokos, that of the Star, who eternally reigns over the Main Altarpiece, not far from a monumental equestrian sculpture of Saint James, or of the artistic cenotaphs that guard the tombs of some relevant member of the powerful Mendoza family, together with the allegories, full of pagan references -as in the cathedral of Astorga, place of forced passage also of the pilgrim- that among mythical branches and other herbs to keep , they form the lintel of access to the different chapels.

Allegories, especially in terms of references to ancient cults-remember, that Christianity was considered a succession since the time of the first Popes-present in the many green men who, for example, also share the leading role of the choir with an apostolate that plays with the language of symbols based on the objects or utensils that characterize them.

Symbolism, not absent, in any way, not even in that magnificent baptismal font -probably of late Romanesque or Gothic origin-, which is kept in the chapel of Santo Cristo, together with two objects that are beginning to be seen little: the bustos-reliquary which, as the name already implies, at some point contained - or perhaps still contain - some holy remnant capable of scratching the faith and the heart of the believers.

But probably, what best defines, both La Rioja and this city, is that fantastic painting on a gigantic scale, that travelers and pilgrims meet when they enter the city: a magnificent Cup or Grail, from which it springs, like a torrent irresistible, life, abundance and prosperity in the form of a charismatic city: Briones itself.

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NOTICE: although unpublished in Steemit, was originally published in my blog MEMORIES OF A PILGRIM. Both the text and the photographs are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, where you can check the authorship of juancar347, can be found at the following address: https://jc347.blogspot.com/2015/05/briones.html

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