Legend has it that, during the Reconquest, the domains of the Moorish Queen Zuleya were isolated in the middle of the territories recovered by the Christians. She then decided to convert to Christianity, but none of the towns in the area wanted to baptise her, and only Sajazarra opened its doors to her. In gratitude, Zuleya gave the village a bell which from then on it was known as the Moor’s bell. More recently, a project has been carried out to create a mosaic in the shape of this bell, which includes photos of the inhabitants of the municipality.
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Legend has it that, during the Reconquest, the domains of the Moorish Queen Zuleya were isolated in the middle of the territories recovered by the Christians. She then decided to convert to Christianity, but none of the towns in the area wanted to baptise her, and only Sajazarra opened its doors to her. In gratitude, Zuleya gave the village a bell which from then on it was known as the Moor’s bell. More recently, a project has been carried out to create a mosaic in the shape of this bell, which includes photos of the inhabitants of the municipality.
This is one of the many stories in Sajazarra´s memories, a small and pretty village that has gone through many ups and downs over the years.
Its castle, so beautiful and so well conserved, was built in the fifteenth century and also had its legend: it turns out that the young servant Juan Martínez, a devotee of the Virgin of Vico, was locked in the dungeons by the lord of the time, he spent half of the night praying and feeling sorry for not being able to attend the mass he never missed the following day. Eventually, he fell asleep, and when he woke up, he found himself next to the sanctuary, leaving an empty cell to the astonishment of the prison guards. As you can see, teleportation is not exclusive to the future.
Older than the castle, which by the way you will only be able to see its exterior since it is private property, is the Church of Santa María de la Asunción. It dates back to the end of the twelve century when King Alfonso VIII founded a monastery here. Elements were added to the temple in later times, as always happens, and the most striking one is its Baroque tower, built around the year 1700.
At the end of that century, the renewing winds of the enlightenment were blowing, and Sajazarra was a founding member of the Real Sociedad Economica de la Rioja, one of those institutions created to disseminate and promote the scientific and technical knowledge that Carlos III loved so much.
Luckily, that modernity to which the town was heading, could coexist very well with the mystery and even poetry side that places with so much history usually have. An excellent example of this is the surprise you are going to find in one of the streets near the beautiful Plaza del Castillo. From its walls spring two arms that try to join their hands and will never succeed. It is almost inevitable to think of two lovers separated by force, but if you prefer, you can invent another less tragic story, because Sajazarra is a perfect place to let your imagination run wild.
