Salinillas de Buradón is a small town located in Rioja Alavesa, belonging to the Labastida City Council. Located in the southern part of Álava, it stands out for its well-preserved defensive wall, its medieval layout and its spectacular natural setting at the foot of the Sierra del Toloño. It owes its name to a saline spring, which was an important source of wealth for the town until the 19th century, to which its spectacular popular architectural ensemble attests.
It retains a large part of its walled fence and two of the four gates it once had. raised by order of Alfonso X the Wise "because it is the border between Navarre and Castile" in the 13th century, they were enlarged during the 16th to 18th centuries. They are raised in masonry surrounding the town. They are a national monument of Euskadi.
We enter the town through one of its gates, the north gate or Toloño gate. Well preserved and formed by a semicircular arch, on which the arrow slits that defended it can be seen. the door was raked shut.
Brief historical notes
Although its origin can be found in the castro and the castle of Buradón, inhabited since the Iron Age and which already in the 9th century had served as a defense for the Kingdom of Navarre against Muslim power, its current settlement next to the spring and the salt pans, It dates from 1264. The year in which it was founded as a town by King Sancho IV of Castile due to its great geostrategic and economic importance. For several centuries it was a border town between the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Navarra.