San Vicente de la Sonsierra: the castle village on the Ebro

The walled enclosure crowns the hill above the village. A lower ring of walls was added in the 14th century so villagers could live safely inside. Today you walk it on your own, following QR codes along a loop of one to two kilometres. It passes the clock tower from 1675, the hermitage of San Juan and the remains of an old wine press and cellar. Climb the Torre Mayor at the top for the widest view over the Ebro.

This church was built inside the castle walls from the early 16th century, in late Gothic style. It has a single nave and a many-sided apse. The main altarpiece dates from around 1560, with carved figures from the workshop of the Beaugrant family. The church has been a national monument since 1933. It is often closed outside services, so ask at the tourist office when you can see inside.

The main square sits below the castle hill. The town hall on the square was finished around 1726. The fountain in the middle was designed by the engineer Amós Salvador in 1882. In the evening, the bars on the square put their tables outside. The village also keeps the 17th-century Gil Aguiriano palace.

The bridge crosses the Ebro just below the castle, on the old border between Navarre and Castile. Its oldest parts date from the 13th century. Nine arches survive, and they differ in shape: the three oldest are pointed. Heavy traffic now uses a new bridge downstream, so you can walk the old one in peace. Look back from the far bank to see the castle rise above the arches.

This small Romanesque hermitage stands alone in the vineyards below the Sierra de Cantabria, a few kilometres from the village. It was consecrated in 1137. Its founder brought relics back from the Holy Land, and the name recalls the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. Around the church, dozens of graves are cut into the bare rock. Panels and QR codes explain the site, and the tourist office runs guided visits of the interior.

More than twenty wineries work in and around San Vicente, from family cellars to larger estates. Some growers still make young red wine the old local way. They put whole bunches of grapes into stone tanks and let them ferment for about a week, which gives a fruity, soft wine. Most bodegas receive visitors by appointment only, so plan this before you arrive. Search for “bodega” around San Vicente on Google Maps, read the reviews, and email two or three a few days ahead. Some family bodegas welcome visitors who just knock, but only when someone is there. No visit booked? Taste Sonsierra wines by the glass in the wine bars on Calle El Remedio.

A waymarked route links the oldest traces of life in the Sonsierra. It starts at Santa María de la Piscina and passes the Neolithic Dolmen de la Cascaja. Along the way you find graves and wine presses cut into the rock, some of them more than a thousand years old. The last stretch follows the signs of the dolmens-and-hermitages trail.

Two marked circular walks leave from the village into the vineyards, with QR codes along the way. You pass viewpoints and the small stone huts, called guardaviñas, where farmers once kept watch over the grapes. Two more signposted walks, the Paseos por la Sonsierra, focus on heritage and landscape. The tourist office publishes all four routes.

Below the medieval bridge, the riverbank has picnic tables, barbecues and a wide lawn. It is a quiet spot for lunch after the castle, with the arches over your head and the castle on the hill above. The walk back up to the village takes about 20 minutes, and it is steep.