Bob and I walked into Logroño, a bustling city on the banks of Río Ebro. Wheels screeched. Music blared. People hollered. Buildings of steel and glass rubbed against their stone counterparts. It was a mix of the modern and the medieval, a blend of Spain’s yesterday and today.
Modified image courtesy of Good Earth.
As was our practice, we found bunks in the early afternoon. Our choice was a one-star stop but we were optimistic, given its name, the Entresueños, or “between dreams.” This hostel was slightly nicer and slightly more expensive (10 euros per person per night) than some others where we had rested between nightmares. It was also centrally located in Logroño’s historic downtown district and adjacent to its main street for all things tapas, or, snacks galore (for more on tapas, see the post here). We were hungry. We cleaned up and went exploring along the Calle del Laurel.
Downtown Logroño.
A Roman settlement hunkered down here at the navigable limit of the Ebro.* It is named in the classical sources as Varea (or Ouaria).** In Rome’s struggle with Carthage to dominate the Western Mediterranean, Varea is remembered as the strongest city in the district and a distribution center for Roman supplies. Wine vessels found in abundance suggest that contemporary recognition of Logroño as a capitale de la gastronomie et du vin is hardly new.
It was a short walk from “Between Dreams” to the nerve center of the city, the Plaza Mercado. On one side of this open space stood the Santa María de la Redonda Cathedral. Sidewalk cafés clustered in the shadows of the plaza.
We spotted several trail mates resting at tables. They called and waved. We pulled in and joined them. Kay, Daniel, and Martin had been with us, more or less, from the beginning. Kay was a school teacher from Oklahoma City. She had dined with us in Roncesvalles. Daniel was an artillery officer in the Danish army and Martin was a stonemason from Copenhagen. The two Nordic adventurers showed off their blisters and recounted tales of sleeping on the ground and being caught in the hailstorm outside of Los Arcos. If that weren’t enough, Martin talked of returning to Pamplona for the running of bulls. I encouraged him to take the bus.
Martin, Daniel, and Kay. And Bob.
Later, we found Harpo-Honi and Suzie from Essex. Both had swollen knees. Harpo-Honi had seen a medic who told him his Camino was over. He would return to France. Suzie from Essex was debating the idea of riding the bus going forward, at least for a time. We would not see either of them again.
The solo hiker and chinche-fighter Greg also appeared (see the post here). Ever the talker, he told us that he was in trouble because he had been seen in the company of a man smoking marijuana. Greg was afraid that the priest would throw him out of the hostel. Not surprisingly, it was the last time we would see Greg. I wonder if he ever finished his second Camino?
The plaza and the Santa María de la Redonda Cathedral, Logroño. Sidewalk cafés lined the shadows.
Refreshed and caught up on all the Camino gossip, Bob and I went to visit the Santa María de la Redonda Cathedral. The cathedral began as a Romanesque chapel in the 12th-century, but achieved its present shape in the centuries leading up to our own. The twin towers, each housing bells, rise high above a detailed (and amazing) façade.
Schoolgirls beneath the cathedral façade.
We went inside. Unlike their heavy Romanesque-style predecessors, Gothic-style buildings take advantage of slender columns, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses. These lighter “skeletal”-systems allow for greater use of vertical space.*** The impact of this height is dizzying. You cannot help throwing your head back to look up!
The retablo in Logroño was amazing.
My interest in visiting the church, however, was prompted not by the ornate retablo but by a display found in a vault in the back wall of the church. It was a small painting of the crucifixion, not more than a foot or so in size. The artist? A man more familiar as a sculptor than painter (apart from his Sistine Chapel Ceiling, of course). His name was Miguel Ángel Buronorotti or Michaelangelo.
The painting depicts Christ on the cross with several figures around him.
Cuadro del Calvario by Miguel Ángel Buronorotti (mid 16th c).
As the story goes, a young woman by the name of Vittoria Colonna lived in Italy and was a friend of the artist. Her husband was from the region of Logroño. After his death, Vittoria asked Michaelangelo to paint her a crucifixion scene to help her in her prayers. Several sketches were made by the artist, these ending up in the British Museum and the Louvre. Eventually, the painting was produced with the figure of Mary Magdalene at the base of the cross. The face of this famous biblical figure is none other than Vittoria.
The painting was purchased a generation later and brought to Logroño. There, it was locked in a chest and forgotten. Only in the second half of the 20th century was it rediscovered and put on display.
Bob and I stood in this huge Spanish cathedral admiring the small work of art. The darkness made it difficult to see details. We put a coin in a small pay-box. Focused lights came on. For a euro we were able to fully appreciate the strokes and story of the Cuadro del Calvario by Miguel Ángel Buronorotti.
*See the article by Pepe Castillo, “The Navigability of the River Ebro: A Reason for Roman Territorial” (available digitally here). Castillo masterfully scours the classical sources for helpful tidbits and demonstrates the importance of the Ebro as an axis for Roman control of the region.
**The site is mentioned in Livy, Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy. See the entry in Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography here.
***Just for fun, if you want to read some fiction about the engineering struggles in the transition between Romanesque- and Gothic-style architecture, check out Ken Follet’s best-seller, The Pillars of the Earth (Macmillian, 1989).
With travel restrictions easing, we have a full slate of Bible Land trips ready to launch in 2022. Check out a complete list by clicking here or perusing under the heading “Find your Trip.” For more information on how to join one of these trips or if you are interested in helping to craft a unique trip for your own group, church, or school, contact me at markziese@gmail.com.