Nájera () is a small town, former bishopric and now Latin Catholic

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

, former capital of the

Kingdom of Navarre The Kingdom of Navarre (; , , , ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona (), was a Basque kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France. The medieval state took ...

, located in the "Rioja Alta" region of

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...

, northern Spain, on the river

Najerilla The river Najerilla is a tributary of the river Ebro, Spain's most voluminous river. The Najerilla rises in the province of Burgos and then flows through La Rioja. Archaeology The valley has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Two Iron Age E ...

. Nájera is a stopping point on the French Way the most popular path on the

Way of St James The Camino de Santiago ( la, Peregrinatio Compostellana, "Pilgrimage of Compostela"; gl, O Camiño de Santiago), known in English as the Way of St James, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint ...

History

The area attracted the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, who built the town of ''Tritium ''on land which now falls within the boundaries of Nájera and the neighboring municipality of Tricio. Subsequently, the area was under

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

rule and the name Nájera (''Naxara'', meaning "town between the rocks") is of Arabic origin. The town, while still an Islamic possession, was the location of the legendary 3-day struggle between

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

, one of Charlemagne's nobles, and the Islamic giant Ferragut. The town was conquered by Ordoño II of Leon for

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

in 923. Nájera was the capital city of the

kingdom of Navarre The Kingdom of Navarre (; , , , ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona (), was a Basque kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France. The medieval state took ...

until it was conquered by Castile in 1054 after the

battle of Atapuerca The Battle of Atapuerca was fought on 1 September 1054 at the site of Piedrahita ("standing stone") in the valley of Atapuerca between two brothers, King García Sánchez III of Navarre and King Ferdinand I of Castile. The Castilians won and Ki ...

. However, it continued to be multicultural. For example, in 1142 the French abbot

Peter the Venerable Peter the Venerable ( – 25 December 1156), also known as Peter of Montboissier, was the abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Cluny. He has been honored as a saint, though he was never canonized in the Middle Ages. Since in 1862 Pope Pius IX c ...

used his visit to Spain to commission translations of important Islamic works, including the first translation of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

into a European language, and it has been suggested he met with his four translators at Nájera. From the tenth century onward, Nájera had a prosperous

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish community, which was granted relatively favorable legal status after the Christian conquest.

Edward, the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...

fought in the

Battle of Nájera The Battle of Nájera, also known as the Battle of Navarrete, was fought on 3 April 1367 to the northeast of Nájera, in the province of La Rioja, Castile. It was an episode of the first Castilian Civil War which confronted King Peter of Casti ...

in 1367, intervening in a

Castilian Civil War The Castilian Civil War was a war of succession over the Crown of Castile that lasted from 1351 to 1369. The conflict started after the death of king Alfonso XI of Castile in March 1350. It became part of the larger conflict then raging betwee ...

on behalf of Pedro I of Castile. :''See also Najara family, a Sephardic Jewish family, originally from Nájera.''

Ecclesiastical history

* Established in 923 as Diocese of Nájera, on territory split off from the suppressed

Diocese of Calahorra In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

. * Gained territory twice : in 1077 from Diocese of Pamplona and

Diocese of Osma The Roman Catholic Diocese of Osma-Soria ( la, Oxomen(sis)–Sorian(a)) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in northern Spain. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolit ...

, in 1088 from the suppressed Diocese of Álava. * Itself Suppressed in 1170, its territory being used to establish the

, to which its last incumbent was appointed.

Episcopal ordinaries

(all

Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while di ...

) ;''Suffragan Bishops of Nájera'' * Gómez (1046–1064) * Munio (1065–1080) * Sancho (1080–1087) * Sigefredo (1088–1089) * Pedro (1089–1109) * Sancho de Grañón (1109–1116) * Sancho de Funes (1118–1146) * Rodrigo de Cascante (1146–1170); later Bishop of successor see

Calahorra Calahorra [] ( an, Calagorra, la, Calagurris) is a municipality in the comarca of Rioja Baja, near the border with Navarre on the right bank of the Ebro. During Ancient Rome, Ancient Roman times, Calahorra was a municipium known as ''Calagurris ...

(1170–1190)

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in 1969 as Latin

Titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

of Naiera (Curiate Italian and Latin; Latin adjective Naiaren(sis) / Nájera (Spanish). It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank : * Patrick Vincent Ahern (1970.02.03 – death 2011.03.19) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of New York (USA) (1970.02.03 – retired 1994.04.26) and on emeritate * Timothée Bodika Mansiyai, Sulpicians (P.S.S.) (2012.02.02 – 2016.11.19) as Auxiliary Bishop of

Archdiocese of Kinshasa The Archdiocese of Kinshasa (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Kinshasana''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Kinshasa'') is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its ecclesiastic territory includes the capital city ...

(

Congo-Kinshasa The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

) (2012.02.02 – 2016.11.19); later Bishop of Kikwit (Congo-Kinshasa) (2016.11.19 – ...) * Bernard Edward "Ned" Shlesinger III (2017.07.19 – ) as Auxiliary Bishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta (USA)

Politics

Main sites

The church of Santa María la Real was founded by

García Sánchez III of Pamplona García Sánchez III ( eu, Gartzea III.a Sanoitz; 1012 – 1 September 1054),''Europäische Stammtafeln'': II #56, III.1 #145; Moriarty, ''Plantagenet Ancestry of King Edward III and Queen Philippa of Hainault'', p80, 109 nicknamed García from ...

in 1052. It is the burial-place of kings of Navarre. The monks had to abandon the annexed monastic complex in the 19th century, as a result of the anti-clerical reforms of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal. Other sights include : * Bridge on the Najerilla river, rebuilt on Roman bridge foundations in 1090 by San Juan de Ortega and remade in 1880 Gitlitz & Davidson, The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago: The Complete Cultural Handbook, 2000, St Martin's Press, * Excavations of the

Alcázar An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gov ...

(Moorish fort), abandoned in the 16th century * Monastery of Valvanera, from the town, built in the 11th century, but restored in Gothic style in the 15th century as it became a residence of queen

Isabella I of Castile Isabella I ( es, Isabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''la Católica''), was Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504, as well as Queen consort of Aragon from 1479 until 1504 b ...

(Isabella of Spain). * Convent of St. Helena (18th century) * Najerillense Museum.

Notable people

* Felix Morga *

Urraca López de Haro Urraca López de Haro ( – c. 1230) daughter of Count Lope Díaz de Haro, Lord of Biscay and his wife countess Aldonza, founders of the monastery of Cañas was Queen consort of León (1185/1187–1188) following her marriage to King Fe ...

* Diego López II de Haro *

Esteban Manuel de Villegas Esteban Manuel de Villegas ( Matute, La Rioja, 5 February 1589Nájera, La Rioja, 3 September 1669) was a 17th-century Spanish poet. Biography Villegas studied grammar in Madrid and later enrolled at the University of Salamanca on 20 November ...

* Pedro González de Salcedo * Ángel Hidalgo Ibáñez

Sources and external links

GCatholic - ecclesiastical history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Najera Municipalities in La Rioja (Spain)