‘Routes against oblivion’: the tourist initiative that revives the abandoned towns of La Rioja

La Rioja is the community with the highest percentage of abandoned towns in Spain. Many of them maintain a great beauty that, together with the architectural, cultural and historical valuemake them a new tourist attraction.

This is how a route company from La Rioja thinks it, headed by Diego Marraco, historian and disseminator, has established heritage-guided paths called ‘routes against oblivion’. In them, they show some of those towns without inhabitants for decades, but very attractive for tourists with more interest than the basic one of seeing wineries, cathedrals and beaches so that they become an unforgettable memory.

These are towns to which life got away decades ago. It is the way in which Diego Marraco rebels against institutional amnesia: “These places should not exist. The fact that there is a place like this town, abandoned, says a lot about how a part of Spain has been abandoned,” said the expert.

Now, tourists are enraptured by a heritage that could be lost if it continues like this. “it makes me a little sadbecause it could continue to exist and is already abandoned”, one of the tourists has indicated. In addition, on the routes of oblivion you can also enjoy a lunch with Riojan food. Quite an experience so that the memories of the population of La Rioja are not lost between the emptied Spain.