Logroño is a city in northern Spain, on the Ebro River. It is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja, formerly known as La Rioja Province.

The population of Logroño in 2008 was 153,736 and a metropolitan population of nearly 197,000 inhabitants. The city is a centre of the trade in Rioja wine, for which the area is noted, and also produces wood, metal, and textile products.

Logroño is located in the northern region of La Rioja, on the river Ebro, 384 m (1,259.84 ft) above sea level. The Camino de Santiago passes through the city. The geographical coordinates of the city are: 42° 27´ N, 2° 29´ W.

The city lies 152 kilometres (94 mi) from Bilbao, 172 kilometres (107 mi) from Zaragoza, 336 kilometres (209 mi) from Madrid and 468 kilometres (291 mi) from Barcelona.

The city's weather is moderated by its location in the valley of the river Ebro, and its weather conditions are typical of the continental Mediterranean climate. The average annual temperature is 13.5 °C (56 °F). The temperature in winter can drop to about five degrees below zero, while in summer it can exceed thirty-five degrees. The average annual precipitation is 400 mm (15.75 in). The winds that affect the city are as follows: the northerly Cierzo, the southerly Ábrego, the easterly Solano, and the westerly Castellano. Intermediate winds are the northeasterly Navarrico, the northwesterly Regañón, the southwesterly Burgalés and the southeasterly Soriano.

Gonzalo de Berceo (ca. 1190 – before 1264) was a Spanish poet born in the Riojan village of Berceo, close to the major Benedictine monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. He is celebrated for his poems on religious subjects, written in a style of verse which has been called Mester de Clerecía, shared with more secular productions such as the Libro de Alexandre, the Libro de Apolonio. He is considered the first Spanish poet known by name.

Gonzalo is recorded as being a deacon in his home parish in the early 1220s, and as a priest from 1237 on. It has been surmised that he may have studied in the nascent university of Palencia, and may have served in the curia of the bishop of Calahorra.

He wrote devotional and theological works. The devotional may be divided into two sub-sections: the Marian (the long Milagros de Nuestra Seňora (Miracles of Our Lady - perhaps influenced by Gautier de Coincy), the Duelo de la Virgen (the Mourning of the Virgin, a dialogue between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux) and Loores de la Virgen (the Praises of the Virgin, which is a type of salvation history); and the hagiographical (the Vida de San Millán de la Cogolla, Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos and the Vida de Santa Oria: the lives of Aemilian of la Cogolla, Dominic of Silos, and Aurea (Oria)). These three are saints have a strong regional attachment: Aemilian, a Visigothic saint, was patron of the near-by monastery; Dominic, 11th century abbot of Silos and one of the most important saints in thirteenth-century Spain, was born in the town of Cañas, near to Berceo; and Aurea was an anchoress who lived in the monastery of San Millán during the late eleventh century. He also wrote the fragmentary Martirio de San Lorenzo (the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, a Roman martyr of the third century), which may be connected to a shrine of Saint Lawrence supposedly built by Aemilian himself, at the top of the mountain below which the monastery of San Millán is situated.