Picture courtesy of the Tourist Office of Santo Domingo de la Calzada
INFORMATION
PROVINCE: La Rioja
AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY: La Rioja
DISTANCE TO SANTIAGO: 561 km
TOURIST OFFICE
Calle Mayor, 33
26250 Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Tel.: [+34] 941 341 238
contacto@santodomingoturismo.es
Website
LINKS OF INTEREST
USEFUL NUMBERS
- Health Centre: [+34] 941 297 729
- Civil Protection: [+34] 941 341 586
FESTIVALS AND OTHER EVENTS
- Procession of “Pan del Santo”: led by a child carrying a bread figurine of a hanged pilgrim, followed by maidens.
- Medieval market: during Constitution Day long week-end.
The town emerged and developed around the pilgrim hospital that Santo Domingo founded on a plain on the banks of the Oja river. The hospital and the Jacobean route itself turned it into an artistic, religious and economic node of great importance.
Services
MUST-SEES
- Cathedral of Santo Domingo: typical pilgrimage church and a model of proto-Gothic architecture. The main altarpiece is a gem of Renaissance sculpture. There is coop inside the building with a live cock and a hen that recall the miracle of the hanged pilgrim.
- Interpretation Center of the Way of Saint James: 40-minute sensory tour from Puente de la Reina to Santiago de Compostela, plus permanent exhibition.
- Church of Las Bernardas: within the 17th-century Cistercian abbey of Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación. Magnificent altarpiece in the main chapel, an instance of Riojan Baroque style.
- Parador de Santo Domingo de la Calzada: former pilgrim’s hospital from the 12th century, located in the Plaza del Santo next to the Cathedral.
- Parador Nacional de Turismo Bernardo de Fresneda: located in the old pilgrim’s hospital. In the same complex we find the church of San Francisco, in Herrerian style.
- Walls: the largest walled enclosure in La Rioja, it dates from between the 12th and 14th centuries.
PILGRIM’S MENU
Restaurante 'El Hidalgo': €12 on weekdays and €15 on week-ends.
NEARBY POINTS OF INTEREST
- Baptismal font of Redecilla del Camino in Burgos: from the 12th century, made of limestone, it represents the 'heavenly Jerusalem'.
- Valdezcaray: ski resort.
- La Demanda Mountain Range: it has the highest peak in the region: San Lorenzo at 2271 m above sea level. Mixed forest home to all the different plant species present in La Rioja. Bird watching point.
- Hermitage of Las Abejas (“of the Bees”): rebuilt in the 18th century after a fire. Wooded area crossed by a stream.