Elciego brings together the wine-making heritage around Marqués de Riscal, churches, historic homes and an exhibition space dedicated to jazz history. Visitors choosing the town for a stay can explore a range of themes: the connection between the winery and modern architecture, architectural history, or local festival traditions.
Wine-making and architecture
The Marqués de Riscal complex brings together the original winery and a new building designed by Canadian architect Frank O. Gehry. Together, they form Elciego’s Ciudad del Vino. The name captures the relationship between the winery and the new architecture without making the two buildings into a single structure.
The Gehry building is 24 metres high and has four floors. These details give the design a concrete sense of scale: its height and number of floors are among the new building’s distinctive features alongside the original winery.
Churches and historic buildings
The parish church of San Andrés was built from ashlar stone in the 16th century. Its architectural history encompasses different styles: the earliest construction phases are Gothic, while the new sacristy is Neoclassical. Ashlar refers to dressed natural stone; here, the range of styles points to different parts of the building, rather than a uniform appearance.
The church stands on the banks of the Río Mayor, on a large levelled platform. The setting is particularly impressive when viewed from the river. The location and platform are defining aspects of the building, adding a specific relationship with the riverbank to the way its architecture can be appreciated.
The Ermita de la Virgen de la Plaza dates from the 18th century and may stand on the site of an earlier Gothic building from the 14th century. The chapel preserves a 14th-century Andra Mari carving of the Virgen de la Plaza. The present building and an older religious artwork thus come together in the same place, while the earlier construction phase should be understood explicitly as a possible predecessor.
Other buildings make their own distinctive contributions. The Palacio Ramírez de la Piscina is listed as a monument in the Basque Government’s category of qualified cultural heritage. The Casa de los Hierros is a Baroque mansion known for its wraparound corner balcony and ironwork. The comparison shows two different approaches: one is a designated heritage category, the other distinctive architectural details.
Music history and planning your visit
At Espacio Cifujazz, visual recreations show Juan Claudio Cifuentes’s work in television and radio. An exhibition of his awards and honours leads to the area where his record collection is kept. The exhibition layout thus brings together depictions of his work, his honours and his collection.
Elciego’s tourist office offers a guided walking tour of the town centre. The tour visits the Iglesia Parroquial de San Andrés and the Ermita de la Virgen de la Plaza. Advance reservations for this guided visit are required by telephone or email. Anyone wishing to see both churches as part of a guided tour of the town should include this reservation in their visit plans.
The festival in honour of the Virgen de la Plaza on 8 September includes a procession, a solemn mass, various offerings, music and traditional dances. Elciego’s dances are associated with this date and devotion to the Virgen de la Plaza. For visitors interested in religious traditions, the festival offers a different thematic perspective from architectural history or the jazz exhibition.
The Día de Gracias marks the end of one wine production cycle and the beginning of a new one, after the grapes have been harvested, transported and pressed. Its connection with wine-making lies in the sequence of work: it follows several specific processing steps and also represents the transition to a new cycle.
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