Way of St. James: Ordoñana and Salvatierra-Agurain

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Agurain-Salvatierra

Once over the Zubizabal Bridge, leaving Zalduondo in Alava, the road heads through Ordoñana to Salvatierra-Agurain. On a nearby hillock, near Ordoñana, is the hermitage of San Millan, built in the Middle Ages and subsequently greatly reformed between the 17th and 18th centuries.

Ordoñana church has an interesting 13th century doorway bearing the typical black and white chequered archivolts of the Cistercian order. Its main altarpiece, the work of Diego de Mayora, from the stylistic school of Gregorio Fernandez, was commissioned in 1633. The only remains of the ancient medieval tower belonging to the Ordoñana lineage, one of the most important as far as nobility was concerned on the Eastern Plain of Alava-Araba, are its flat arch and coat of arms, depicting: a tower, two hounds at its door and the stoats identifying their relationship with the Gamboino faction of the Guevara family.

The road from Ordañana led to the Hospital of San Lazaro and Magdalena, a meeting point offering the alternative of climbing up to San Adrián through Araia. The hospital now stands beside the present road to Zalduondo, to the north of Salvatierra-Agurain outside the walled area. However a great many pilgrims never succeeded in entering Salvatierra-Agurain due to the meticulous searches obligatorily carried out by the town customs, as is confirmed by Jouvin in his “European Traveller”, published in 1672.

These people would take the road past Ventaberri cross, continuing along the west side of town to the Roadside shrine which now serves as the cemetery chapel, where we can admire an impressive Renaissance carving of a crucified Christ, and on to Gaceo.

Those who actually managed to get past the walls of Salvatierra-Agurain would find themselves in a traditionally medieval town, which was granted its population fuero in 1256 by the King of Castile, Alfonso X, after having suffocated the uprising of the Lord of Biscay, Diego Lopez de Haro, in Orduña. Hugging the slope on which it stands, the town is structured around its calle Mayor. The fortified constructions standing at eachcorner emphasized the warlike aspect of the town: the temples-fortresses of SantaMaria and San Juan.

Santa Maria has an excellent west-facing doorway in late-Gothic Burgos style withSpanish-Flemish touches. But its most outstanding works are the Plateresque choir, built in commemoration of the defeat of the Count of Salvatierra and the return of the town to royal possession, and the main altarpiece, work of the sculptor from Salvatierra, Lope de Larrea, commissioned in 1584.

At the other corner, and as well as its beautiful ambulatory and Baroque doorway, the late Gothic church of San Juan offers the most outstanding high altar of the 17th century, an early Baroque work still dominated by classical elegance. Not far from this church are the so-called Olbeas colonnades, where the town market is held.