La Rioja (autonomous community)

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Comunidad Autónoma de La Rioja


Flag	Coat of arms

Capital

Logroño

Official language(s)

Spanish

Area
– Total
– % of Spain

Ranked 16th
5,045 km²
1.0%

Population
– Total (2005)
– % of Spain
– Density

Ranked 17th
301,084
0.7%
59.68/km²

Demonym
– English
– Spanish

riojan
riojano/a

Statute of Autonomy

June 9, 1982

Parliamentary
representation
– Congress seats
– Senate seats

4
4

President

Pedro Sanz Alonso (PP)

ISO 3166-2

Gobierno de La Rioja

La Rioja is a province and autonomous community of northern Spain. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and Nájera.

It is bordered by the Basque Country (province of Álava), Navarre, Aragón (province of Zaragoza), and Castile and León (provinces of Soria and Burgos). The Río Ebro flows through this region, as does the Río Oja, for which it is known.

Municipality boundaries of La Rioja

The territory of La Rioja (the name appeared in a charter of 1099) was formerly known as the province of Logroño for the fortified site around which it developed. The 12th-century church Iglesia de Santa Maria de Palacio recalls its original as a chapel of the administrative palace. Logroño was a borderland disputed between the kings of Navarre and the kings of Castile starting in the 10th century; the region was awarded to Castile in a judgement by Henry I of England and annexed in 1173 (1177?). Its importance was that here the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino de Santiago, crossed the River Ebro on the stone bridge, the Puente de Piedra.

La Rioja was taken by Napoleonic forces in the Peninsular War and remained solidly in French hands until 1814. The Constitutional Cortés declared La Rioja an independent province at the time of the Liberal Constitution of 1812, and in January 1822 the province of Logroño was created by royal decree, taking in the whole of the historical geography of La Rioja. However, Ferdinand VII soon annulled these decisions and split up the territory amongst the surrounding provinces.

It was made into an autonomous community during the reorganization following the democratic transition following the death of Francisco Franco, owing to its economic distinction from the surrounding regions. It is the second-smallest autonomous community in Spain and has the smallest population; fully half of its 174 municipalities have populations under 200. Nearly half of its citizens live in the capital.

It is known for its production of Rioja DOCa wines (although the Rioja viticultural region extends slightly into the neighboring administrative regions of Álava and Navarra).

[edit] History

In Roman times the territory of La Rioja was inhabited by the tribes of the Berones (central country), Autrigones (upper country, extending also north and west of it) and the Vascones (lower country, extending also north and east of it). It was part of the province of Hispania Tarraconensis.

In Medieval times La Rioja was often a disputed territory. The Visigoths created the Duchy of Cantabria that probably included most of La Rioja, as border march against the Vascones. After the Muslim invasion of 711, La Rioja fell into the Muslim domains of Al Andalus.

In the early 10th century, Sancho I of Pamplona conquered most of the territory, being the lower region around Arnedo under control of his allies the Banu Qasi of Tudela. La Rioja remained being part of the Kingdom of Pamplona serving Nájera often as capital of the kingdom.

After the independence of Castile in 1035, this new kingdom fiercely fought against Pamplona for the possession of Bureba, La Rioja and other territories. In 1076, after the murder of Sancho VI, Navarre was divided and Castile obtained La Rioja and many other Navarrese lands.

Nevertheless, since 1134, García VI the Restorer and his son Sancho VI the Wise fought bitterly with Castile for the recovery of the former Pamplonese domains. Only in 1179 would they reach a peace agreement by which La Rioja went definitively to Castile.

The territory remained divided between the provinces of Burgos and Soria until the administrative reform of Riego in 1822 that created the province of Logroño.

In 1980 it changed its name to province of La Rioja and in 1982 it was constitued as uni-provincial autonomous community with that name.