The last remaining trace of the ancient settlement of Ajuarte.
The Chapel of San Román de Ajuarte is the last trace of the ancient La Rioja settlement of Ajuarte. Located in the cereal fields surrounding Casalarreina, the chapel was donated by Alfonso I the Battler to the church of Santo Domingo de la Calzada in the 12th century.
ADDRESS: Calle el Monte, 42, 26230 Casalarreina, La Rioja – How to get »
The building is made up of a nave with a quadrangular sanctuary and wide buttresses in the corners, illuminated by just two points of light. The triumphal arch of the chapel ends by giving space to the building’s belfry, comprising a first body with two identical spaces or spans and a second body with just one smaller span. Years after its construction, a masonry nave covered in wood was added, together with a square apse from the Romanesque era, covered by a dome with ribbed vaulting.
Over the last few years, after periods of private ownership, it has been used as a storage space, a granary and a cattle shed. Its poor state of conservation means that an intervention in the building is necessary to achieve, at least, that this historical heritage resource remains standing and can be visited and discovered by lovers of culture and history.
