THE GOLDEN GRILLE

La Reja Dorada has the name of a jewel and the spirit of a winery:
is a 16th century house in the heart of Rúa Vieja, a living example of those cellar-houses that mixed housing, business and a cool subsoil for wine. The most spectacular thing is “downstairs”: a large ashlar masonry vault with barrel vault, without transverse arches, built to last and to conserve. When you enter (or imagine it), you understand why wine and stone get along so well: the stone keeps the temperature, the wine keeps the conversation going.

In addition, this place has a very logroñés historical wink: it appears linked to Jacinta Martínez de Sicilia (Espartero’s wife) as a property with a wine cellar in this same street. In other words, it is not only wine that has slept here: important names have also lived here.

Architecture to look at: the stone barrel vault is a solution as old as it is effective, almost “medieval engineering” applied to daily life. The aim was not luxury, but function: the roof had to hold up, the air had to circulate, the vats had to be at ease. And then, upstairs, the facade brings you back to the old town: narrow streets, the rhythm of portals, the sensation of walking inside a story.

Fun plan: if you come with kids, tell them it’s a “giant fridge” from centuries ago. And if you come with adults… well, that works too.