To the south of Navarra and about a hundred miles to the west of Burgos, the Ebro River flows through a fertile vale called the Rioja, famous for its claret. It is little frequented by strangers or tourists, and yet it is well worth a visit. The train runs down the Ebro valley from Miranda to Saragosse. A hilly country to the north and south, well wooded and gently sloping like the Jura; nearer, and along the banks of the stream, _huertas_ or orchards, gardens, and vineyards offer a pleasant contrast to the distant landscape, and produce a favourable impression, especially when a village or town with its square, massive church-tower peeps forth from out of the foliage of fruit-trees and elms. Such is Upper Rioja--one of the prettiest spots in Spain, the Touraine, one might almost say, of Iberia, a circular region of about twenty-five miles in radius, containing four cities, Logroño, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Nájera, and Calahorra. The Roman military road from Tarragon to Astorga passed through the Rioja, and Calahorra, a Celtiberian stronghold slightly to the south, was conquered by the invaders after as sturdy a resistance as that of Numantia itself. It was not totally destroyed by the conquering Romans as happened in the last named town; on the contrary, it grew to be the most important fortress between Leon and Saragosse. When the Christian religion dawned in the West, two youths, inseparable brothers, and soldiers in the seventh legion stationed in Leon, embraced the true religion and migrated to Calahorra. They were beheaded after being submitted to a series of the most frightful tortures, and their tunics, leaving the bodies from which life had escaped, soared skywards with the saintly souls, to the great astonishment of the Roman spectators. The names of these two martyr saints were Emeterio and Celedonio, who, as we have seen, are worshipped in Santander; besides, they are also the patron saints of Calahorra. The first Bishop of Calahorra took possession of his see toward the middle of the fifth century; his name was Silvano. Unluckily, he was the only one whose name is known to-day, and yet it has been proven that when the Moors invaded the country two or three hundred years later, the see was removed to Oviedo, later to Alava (near Vitoria, where no remains of a cathedral church are to be seen to-day), and in the tenth century to Nájera. One hundred years later, when the King of Navarra, Don Garcia, conquered the Arab fortress at Calahorra, the wandering see was once more firmly chained down to the original spot of its creation (1030; the first bishop _de modernis_ being Don Sancho).