Navarrete

How long to stay?

An afternoon is enough. Coming from Logroño, you are here by midday after just over twelve kilometres, and that is enough time for the church, the lanes of the old town, a look into a pottery workshop and the ruins of the hospital. Navarrete is a quiet stage town with many albergues; if you want to move on early, you can make it to Nájera.

Navarrete in Ninja numbers

• 173.7 kilometres lie behind you since Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the Camino Francés, 602.4 are still ahead to Santiago.
• 12.6 kilometres it is from Logroño to here, with 238 metres of ascent.
• 1185 is when the pilgrim hospital of San Juan de Acre was founded, whose portal you see today at the cemetery.
• Around 90 years it took to build the church of La Asunción, begun in 1553.
• Until 1960 the women of Navarrete carried water into town in clay jugs; the figure of the Cantarera remembers them.

Arriving: up the Tedeón

Navarrete sits on a hill, the Tedeón. At the edge of town the ruins of the San Juan de Acre hospital lie on your left. Then the way climbs into the old town, past the pilgrim sculpture on Calle de Santiago, up to the church.

In brief: castle, wine and clay

Navarrete grew up in the 12th century inside a fortress on the Tedeón, a spot Castilians and Navarrese fought over more than once. At the end of the 12th century María Ramírez founded a pilgrim hospital here, which after her death passed to the Order of San Juan de Acre, who ran it until the 19th century. Later wine and clay made the town known. Navarrete is considered the last pottery centre of La Rioja, and several workshops are still working. Around 2,200 people live here.

Clay and stone: what to see

Everything lies along the way through town or at its exit.

• Iglesia de la Asunción: Begun in 1553 and finished after around ninety years, with three naves, a 17th-century tower and a stone pyramid spire. The high altar is a late Baroque retablo from the late 17th century. In the sacristy hangs a Flemish triptych of the Assumption by Ambrosius Benson from the early 16th century. Opening hours are limited.
• Ruins of the San Juan de Acre hospital: At the entrance to town from Logroño lie the remains of the hospital church, founded in 1185 as a pilgrim hospital.
• Cemetery portal: The Romanesque-Gothic portal of the hospital church from the early 13th century was moved to the cemetery in 1886; you pass it as you leave town. Its capitals show scenes from the lives of pilgrims.
• Old town with certijos and cocinos: Covered lanes on top of the medieval wall and narrow passages into which the old wine cellars open. The Bodega del Conde, a cellar from the 16th to 18th centuries, is now an exhibition space.
• Pottery workshops: Several alfarerías are still working; the Navarrete jug is typical.

Food and drink

There are bars, restaurants and a small supermarket on the main street, and a market on Wednesdays. The town is known for its Rioja wine.

Honestly

• The showers in the municipal albergue take some getting used to. Several pilgrims report semi-transparent glass in mixed rooms.
• The church is not always open. Opening hours are limited; not everyone gets to see the altar.
• The hospital ruin is by the road. It is not a quiet place but a piece of history next to the approach road.

Where pilgrims sleep

The Albergue de Peregrinos Navarrete belongs to the town, has 48 places and costs €10 (as of October 2026). It is open to everyone from 1 April to 31 October, outside that only to groups with a reservation. Pilgrims praise the warm welcome, the well-equipped kitchen and how quickly laundry dries outside. There are also many private albergues with dormitories at roughly €10 to €15, some of them open all year, such as the Albergue El Cántaro, plus guesthouses and hotels. There is no donativo albergue.

Ninja tips

• Walk through the cemetery gate on your way out. Look at the capitals: they show pilgrims like you.
• Buy a jug if you have room. Navarrete is considered the last pottery centre of La Rioja.
• Climb the Tedeón behind the church. A short climb, and you see the vineyards all around.
• Plan Nájera as your next goal. It is 17.0 kilometres, and the highest point comes at the Alto de San Antón.

Practical tips for pilgrims

• Post office: Monday to Friday 10:30 to 13:30.
• Market: Wednesdays.
• Festivals: the Virgin and San Roque in mid-August, San Miguel on 29 September, in the middle of the grape harvest. The national ceramics fair NACE takes place in July.
• Emergency: 112.

Onward: over the Alto de San Antón to Nájera

Past the cemetery the way leads through vineyards to Ventosa and up to the highest point of the stage at 667 metres at kilometre 182.2. Then it goes down to Nájera, 17.0 kilometres in all, with 241 metres of ascent and 266 metres of descent.

What awaits you tomorrow

Nájera, the old royal town on the Najerilla, with the monastery of Santa María la Real beneath red cliffs.

Deep dive: A founder and a gate

A short read, in case you want to learn more about Navarrete. About three minutes' reading.

A woman builds a hospital

At the end of the twelfth century, around 1185, a woman named María Ramírez had a hospital for pilgrims built on the road to Navarrete, with her own money and her own effort. After her death it passed to the Order of San Juan de Acre, a religious order of knights that ran it until the nineteenth century. Anyone coming from Logroño in the Middle Ages found a roof, a meal and a church here at the edge of town.

A gate moves house

Once the order was gone, the hospital fell into decay. Its church became a ruin. But the portal from the early thirteenth century survived, and in 1886 it was put up again at the new cemetery, at the other end of town. So today you pass the same story twice: at the entrance, the ruins of the hospital; at the exit, its gate.

Clay from the hill

For centuries Navarrete has lived from what is in its ground: wine and clay. The old wine cellars are dug into the hill, and from the clay the potters made the jugs the women of the town used to fetch water until 1960. A figure in the town, the Cantarera, remembers them.

What Navarrete gives you

In the morning you walk out of town, past the cemetery, through a gate that was once the entrance to a pilgrim hospital. On its capitals are pilgrims who walked the same way eight hundred years ago. They depended on hospitality. So do you.