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Points of interest in Briones

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Christ Chapel

The hermitage of San Juan or Santo Cristo de los Remedios is a beautiful building with a centralized structure located in the center of the historic center of Briones. It was built between 1737 and 1748 over the old hermitage of San Juan. On the façade there is a niche with the image of San Juan, the patron saint of the primitive temple. The hermitage that we can see today was built by the master builder Juan Bautista Arbaizar, assisted by his son-in-law Ignacio de Elejalde. It is remarkable for its octagonal plan inscribed in a rectangle and its large central dome. In its interior are preserved altarpieces, paintings and carvings of the time. Inside it houses an exhibition of liturgical costumes, the oldest dating from 1570. The three altarpieces of the chancel are of rococo style of the XVIII century, it has images of virgins and saints. The Christ of the Remedies is in this Hermitage from the Cross of September until the Cross of May, the rest of the year the hollow is empty because the Christ is in the Parish of the town. The small side altarpieces are neo-classical and contain Santo Domingo de La Calzada and La Virgen de Guadalupe from Mexico. Inside there is an interesting museum of liturgical ornaments among which stand out the green and red tomes with almost half a millennium old and a collection of relics or reliquaries of different styles. It also highlights a canvas of the Descent from the Italian school of the seventeenth century.

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Palace of the Marquis of San Nicolás.

The palace of the Marquis of San Nicolas is a characteristic building of the civil baroque architecture of La Rioja in the 18th century. It was built by Ignacio Elejalde by order of D. Esteban de Francia, the main balcony has on its base a Victor with the date 1755, alluding to the year in which it was completed. At present the palace is owned by the Autonomous Community of La Rioja, used as the seat of the City Council and as the ethnology section of the Museum of La Rioja under the name of "La Casa Encantada" (The Enchanted House). Inside you can visit an ethnographic museum of a typical Riojan house from the 18th to the 19th century.

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Casona in the Plaza

It is considered to be the oldest civil work in La Rioja. It stands right on the corner of the square with Bergareche Street. Organized in two floors, the lower one of ashlar masonry and the upper one of brick overhung on wooden beams with carved heads and reinforcing struts, its main façade has a semicircular entrance with escutcheon in the keystone.

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Quincoces Palace House

Some argue that it was in this mansion where Don Enrique II of Castile and Carlos II of Navarre stayed to arrange the marriage of their children, this building was built in the mid-sixteenth century, possibly by Juan Martinez de Mutio and Juan Perez de Solarte, while they were busy in the works of the parish church. The facade of this palace is articulated in two asymmetrical floors, flanked by cantilevered cubes that are used as a defensive resource. The main entrance has a semicircular arch between Tuscan pilasters with reliefs of angels' heads in the voussoirs and medallions with busts of the former owners in the spandrels, following classical models. It is one of the most singular civil constructions of the northern renaissance.

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Tower of Homage

The old fortress of Briones is located in the N-W corner of the town, whose urban configuration was born from the defensive character that throughout history had this privileged place, border between Castile and Navarre. We know that in 1240 the castle of Briones and several others that D. Diego López de Haro had, were demolished. Diego López de Haro, were demolished by Fernando III. The granting of the Fuero to the town by Alfonso X, in 1256 would bring with it a new repopulation of the place. It probably existed before; castle, walls and access doors to the town, since in the year 1076 we passed from being Navarrese territory to Castilian, establishing Briones as a border town. The enclosure of the castle was completed with that of the urban center by means of walls in which 6 doors were opened. It extends from northeast to southwest following an elongated trapezoidal layout. Of the enclosure of the castle only part of the outer wall is preserved, of which there is a canvas, 2 meters thick, set on the rock and built in masonry with reinforcing ashlars. At the southwest end the enclosure was closed with the Torre de Homenaje, built in ashlar masonry with three floors and crowned by a cornice on canes of matacán, it collapsed in 1940 although three cloths that were restored in 2005 are preserved, in which some openings can be seen: on the east wall, a pointed one that shelters another three-lobed one, at the height of the third floor; on the south wall, another opening, smaller than the previous one, linteled on the exterior and semicircular, wider, on the interior, and on the west wall, a loophole, flared on the interior.

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Church and Tower

The tower is in typical Riojan style, adjoining the main door and occupies the site of an earlier one from the 16th century. It was completed in 1760, after four years of construction by Matín de Beratua and Martín de Arbe. The intermediate space between the shaft and the belfry stands out in order to serve as a conjugatory, with the window on the south side, open towards the square. The main doorway opens on the fourth section of the Epistle side and is one of the most charming works of the Plateresque style of La Rioja. It is resolved in the manner of an altarpiece, with a semicircular arched entrance. In the iconography there is an abundance of Burgos influences derived from the circle of Juan de Vallejo, and whose purpose is to emphasize the symbolic figure of Mary, whose ownership the church held. The building was built in ashlar masonry, in a hall plan with an interior that keeps a real artistic treasure with samples of all styles. It has an octagonal chevet and three panels, covered with star-shaped cross ribs of different designs that form pointed arches supported by cylindrical pillars with octagonal base and capitals decorated with vegetal motifs. The main complex is in the Catholic Monarchs and Renaissance style, from the 16th century. It is documented that the chancel was built in 1521, from which date Miguel de Ezquioga was in charge of the first sections until 1536, since 1546 the work is linked to Juan Martinez de Mutio to build the last two sections, including the choir, staircase and doorway. The main altarpiece of the church of Briones is not only the most monumental classicist work in all of La Rioja, but also the most significant example of all those produced by the Cabredo Workshop during the 17th century. It is organized in a bank, three five-aisled hides with their corresponding plinths and attic. The design is by Hernando de Murillo (father) from 1626. At his death it was finished by his son Hernando de Murillo, helped by Juan Bazcardo and Diego Jimenez. It was finished in 1650. The sacristy is rectangular divided into four chapels by pilasters, finished around 1680 and decorated with fresco paintings by Juan Gallardo in 1791.

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Old Abbey

It is organized in two complementary volumes and forms, with the church tower, one of the most beautiful images of the town. The first floor has semicircular arcades, a useful resource to unify two structures perfectly differentiated from each other: the building on the corner of the Calle Mayor, from the second half of the 18th century, very much in keeping with the aesthetics of Juan Bautista Arbaizar (such is the case of those three balconies with linteled openings with mouldings of moulded ears and strong corbels and the adjoining one that faces the square, obeys very different motivations since its main floor is configured with a sequence of arches as an extension of the arcades of the base, attributing this part to Juan de Roan of the 17th century). XVII). It has not been an abbey as such, it is named after the house next to the church.

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Gates of the Villa

Of the six original doors of La Villa only two are preserved. One is the one in which we are, the access of the same is in the SO door of the Half Moon or of the Conception, giving exit of the street of the same name. The access is a semicircular arch, with an image of the Immaculate Conception from the XVI century in a niche inside the street, being the Immaculate Conception the patron saint of Briones. It is documented that by the year 1236 all the walls and gates to the town were already built, being very likely its construction around 1076, after the capture of La Rioja by Alfonso VI of Castile. The second gate that is preserved is the Puerta de La Villa, located at the mouth of the main street, has access from the outside in a pointed arch, with a vestibule covered by a barrel vault. The Briones coat of arms is sculpted on the doorway. A little more to the right and at the same height of the coat of arms, we can see a kind of closed window, in it was sculpted the coat of arms of the Girón family, who for so many years were lords of the Villa.

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Torreon

We find the remains of the old wall of Briones, built in ashlar masonry with perfectly carved and squared ashlars. At this point, on the corner, there is an old tower of the aforementioned wall, with a quadrangular floor plan. The tower was converted into a house in the 18th century, the ancestral home of the Sáenz de Cenzano family, better known in the town as the Torreón. From this point you can enjoy spectacular panoramic views, with the backdrop of Sierra Cantabria and the meanders of the Ebro. The tower of the Sáenz de Cenzano family was part of the town wall.

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