Cañas (La Rioja)

Cañas municipality
Cañas - the townscape with the Iglesia de NS de la Asunción
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Help on coat of arms
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	La Rioja
Comarca :	Nájera
Coordinates	42 ° 24 ′  N , 2 ° 51 ′  W Coordinates: 42 ° 24 ′  N , 2 ° 51 ′  W
Height :	655  msnm
Area :	9.72 km²
Residents :	102 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	10.49 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	26325
Municipality number  ( INE ):	26040
administration
Website :	Cañas

Cañas is a place and a municipality ( municipio ) with only 102 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the west of the northern Spanish autonomous region of La Rioja . The municipality belongs to the poorly populated Serranía Celtibérica and the wine-growing region of the Rioja Alta . The place is considered the home of St. Dominic of Silos .

Location and climate

The place Cañas is located on the Río Tuerto in the hilly landscape of the Rioja about 40 km (driving distance) southwest of Logroño at an altitude of about 655  m . The distance to Burgos is approx. 82 km to the west; the neighboring towns of Nájera and Santo Domingo de la Calzada, which are worth seeing , are approx. 15 km to the east and approx. 12 km to the northwest. The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 590 mm / year) falls mainly in the winter half-year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2002	2018
Residents	304	277	321	125	97

The phylloxera crisis in viticulture, the increasing mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting unemployment have led to a significant population decline since the middle of the 20th century ( rural exodus ).

economy

Agriculture (growing potatoes, wheat, barley and beets) still plays the most important role in the economic life of the small community; dairy farming and poultry farming are also carried out.

history

The first written mention of the square dates back to 922 and refers to the transfer of the Santa María Monastery to the Abbey of San Millán de la Cogolla ; It is not known whether the place already existed at that time or whether the small monastery was isolated. Another document from 1047 confirms the ownership. In 1170, just a few years after the death of St. Bernhard von Clairvaux (1153), Count Lópe Díaz de Haro and his wife Doña Aldonza Ruiz de Castro donated the two neighboring country estates ( villae ) Cañas and Canillas to the nuns from the Benedictine monastery of Las Ayuelas near Santo Domingo de la Calzada , who belong to the order of the Cistercian women had joined. The count's daughter Doña Urraca López de Haro y Ruiz de Castro , the first abbess of the monastery buried in the chapter house , began construction work on the church and the chapter house in the first half of the 13th century.

Attractions

Cistercian convent of Santa María de San Salvador

• The single-aisled parish church of La Asunción, built mainly from bricks, looks badly pieced together from the outside, as it contains components from the 12th, 16th and 18th centuries. The altarpiece (retablo) also combines parts from different eras.
• The Cistercian convent of Santa María de San Salvador was founded in 1170; it stands on the northeastern edge of the village. The eastern half of the church, completed around the middle of the 13th century, is one of the earliest examples of Gothic architecture in Spain. The unadorned cloister was mainly built in the 18th century, only the Gothic chapter house was completed in the middle of the 13th century. The nave of the church was not completed until the 16th century under the direction of Abbess Leonor de Osorio ; she also commissioned the large altarpiece (retablo) , which contains both carved parts and picture panels. Other parts of the cloister and the monastery buildings are the work of the 17th to 20th centuries.

Surroundings

• Outside the village is the small hermitage Ermita de Santa María from the 16./17. Century. The building houses a small altarpiece with two paintings ( Annunciation and Visitation of the Virgin ) from the 17th century.

Personalities

• Dominikus von Silos (approx. 1005-1073), saint

Web links

Commons : Cañas (La Rioja)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Cañas - Photos + Info (Spanish)
• Cañas; Sights - photos + information (spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
2. ↑ Cañas - climate tables
3. ^ Cañas - population development
4. ↑ Cañas - Church
5. ↑ Cañas - Ermita