Torres del Rio

Torres del Río is a municipality in Navarra, situated on a hilltop ridge facing Sansol across the Linares valley on the Camino Frances. The village is celebrated for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a twelfth-century Romanesque building of octagonal plan whose stellar ribbed vault is one of the most technically accomplished of the period on the Camino.

The church is attributed, like Eunate near Muruzabal, to the influence of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and shares the octagonal form that characterizes such constructions. The interior stone vault, with its eight-pointed stellar rib pattern, is exceptional and the reason most pilgrims make the short detour from the main path.

The village around the church is modest, and for most pilgrims Torres del Río is defined entirely by this single building, one of the architectural jewels of the Navarrese Camino.