Architecture

Given Rioja's deep roots in medieval history, and its rustic and timeless landscape, it's interesting that the region is emerging as a capital of avant garde winery architecture. Wineries in Rioja have been designed by innovative, international architects such as Frank Gehry, Santiago Calatrava and Zaha Hadid.

The trend toward cutting edge architectural design really started a little to the north of Rioja in Bilbao, where the fireworks of titanium panels that is Gehry's Guggenheim Museum has put that city on the architectural map.

The funky architecture is not limited to wineries, or foreigners for that matter. The distinctive work of Spaniard Santiago Calatrava, who most recently designed the gleaming new PATH train station at New York's Ground Zero, can be seen in the Bodegas Ysios winery in Laguardia as well as at the Sondica Airport and Campo Volantin footbridge in nearby Bilbao.

These architects have been praised for incorporating artistic elements drawn straight from the vineyard in their designs, such as Gehry's tumbling streams of titanium, or Calatrava's undulating pleated roof. This juxtaposition of rich history and local heritage with "the shock of the new" truly gives Rioja a character unique among both wine regions and international travel destinations in general.