Lapuebla de Labarca

Lapuebla de Labarca is a town and municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain. Today Lapuebla de Labarca is a town of 868 inhabitants, dynamic and marked by its agricultural economy related to the production and sale of wine of Denomination of Origin Rioja Alavesa.EtymologyLapuebla de Labarca owes its name to the fact that at that point of the Ebro river there was anciently a boat that was used to ford the river. The use of such boat disappeared with the construction of a suspension bridge across the river. The current bridge which is made of cement, dates from 1939 and is still used to cross the river.HistoryThe town was born as a necessity of the town of Laguardia,, of having a boat passage that would communicate the Sonsierra of the Kingdom of Navarre with Castile.Lapuebla de Labarca, which is undoubtedly one of the youngest towns of Rioja Alavesa, named after the boat with which that river named before was crossed and subsequently replaced by a wire suspension bridge, until it was built the one used nowadays in 1939.At first, its population was poor -in 1369 had only 5 neighbors who paid contribution-. Its progressive increase in population was due to its good location, appropriate climate and the richness of its soil fundamentally. Thus, in the seventeenth century King Philip IV gives the town its independence from Laguardia and gives the title of town, on June 11, 1631.The primitive population of Lapuebla de Labarca developed around the church. In the old town, the main street forms a horseshoe that opens next to the church. From this Lapuebla de Labarca started to expand, in the nineteenth century to the neighborhood of "El Castillo" at the north and in the twentieth century another expansion that developed westward from the square “El Plano”. The neighborhood of the wineries, popularly known as "Cuevas" is at the top of the village. Today Lapuebla de Labarca is a town of 868 inhabitants, dynamic and marked by its agricultural economy related to the production and sale of wine Denomination of Origin Rioja Alavesa. It also has companies directly related to winemaking.