Araia is a village in the province of Álava, Basque Country, Spain. It is the capital of the municipality of Asparrena. It has a population of 1,218 inhabitants (2006) and has an altitude of 604 meters. One of medieval roads from the port of San Adrián to the Plains of Alava passed through Araia. It was an important pilgrimage and trade route.
Araia is a starting point for mountaineers who ascend to the nearby Altzaina and Entzia mountains. Near to Araia there are the Ilarduia and Egino climbing schools. The Leze Provincial Park are worth admiring. Here is a ravine of the caves of the same name and the entire Peñas de Egino area in which the most authentic climbing school in Álava is located. Also important for the village is the natural landscape of the river Zirauntza, which was one of the incentives for establishing in the village, along with the Santa Ana Bolueta of Bilbao, the first Basque steelworks.
One of the events that taint Araia history is what happened on the morning of August 17, 1961, when one of the blast furnaces at the Araia plant exploded, sweeping away the lives of several young people who worked in the town. For the 50th anniversary, on August 17, 2011, the villagers performed a tribute to those killed in the Ajuria Urigoitia factory placing, in the Araia meadow, one of the wagons that were used in the factory. They placed it on a block of limestone in the quarry of the village. The municipal band and Araia choir performed at the ceremony.