Artazu - Navarra Media

Underground traditional wineries and a strong wine-making tradition

Artazu lies surrounded by vineyards and clings to the Santa Cruz hillock on the right bank of the River Arga. This small town overlooks a large and fertile floodplain that has produced ‘an average amount of grain, some oil and wine galore’ as the old texts tell us.

Its hamlet located behind the parish church is home to the emblazoned houses which still house the traditional wineries that prepared the wine that Altadill described as ‘deeply coloured and with a high alcohol content’. Artazu has always had ties with the culture of wine, and there were ‘up to 415 hectares of vines before the phylloxera’. This tradition led to the underground wineries in the town’s houses, some of which are still in use.

The Parish Church of Artazu is dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel. It is a medieval building from the 13th century, which was extensively refurbished in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Romanesque sculpture of Christ Crucified, from the start of the 17th century, is noteworthy inside the church.

It celebrates its traditional patron saint’s festivities in mid-July.

Every two years, Artazu organises the Day of the Wine and Land, an opportunity to relive its wine-making past; the old habits and customs are showcased throughout the town, the vineyards are worked as in yesteryear, and its residents become sarmentaderas, collecting the pruned vine shoots, pruners or esporadores, who remove diseased leaves.

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