Almarza de Cameros: a mountain pass village in the Sierra de Cameros

High in the Camero Nuevo, the western half of the Sierra de Cameros in La Rioja, the tiny village of Almarza de Cameros sits at over a thousand metres on a sunlit hillside ringed by pine forest. Only a few dozen people live here now, a reminder of how heavily these once-busy highland valleys have emptied.

A crossing between valleys

Almarza's importance was always its position. Its very name, of Arabic origin meaning the pass, reflects its role as a crossing point between the valleys of the Iregua and the Leza, by way of the high mountain pass of La Rasa. For centuries this was a land of shepherds, and the great droving road of the Mesta passed close by, carrying the famous Camero flocks south each autumn and back each spring.

Stone houses and quiet trails

The village keeps the typical Camero architecture of sturdy stone houses with steep roofs built to hold the winter's warmth, gathered around the 16th-century church of Nuestra Senora del Campillo. Two former hamlets within its bounds, Ribavellosa and Cocera, now stand abandoned, and the surrounding hills offer walking in deep silence. Almarza belonged historically to the brotherhood of the Thirteen Towns of the Camero Nuevo.

Getting there

Almarza de Cameros lies about forty kilometres south of Logrono, reached from the N-111 road that climbs the Iregua valley.