Explore Euskal Herria: The País Vasco and Navarra
East of Pamplona, the Navarran Pyrenees bite a hundred-kilometre-wide chunk out of France. While the frontier itself is lined with jagged 2000m peaks, most of this area consists of lush green uplands rather than impenetrable mountain fastnesses. For travellers, it’s most readily explored as a driving day-trip from Pamplona, though several of the pretty and fundamentally similar villages along the way can also make appealing overnight stops. Each tends to have at least one little hotel, to cope with the steady trickle of pilgrims en route to Santiago.
Ever since the Middle Ages, the obvious route between Navarra and France has been to follow the Roncesvalles pass. As immortalized in the Song of Roland, Charlemagne was retreating this way in 778, after laying Pamplona to waste, when Basque warriors ambushed his forces and killed the noblest of his French knights, Roland himself.
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The Camino de Santiago in Navarra
The Camino de Santiago in Navarra
The Camino de Santiago crosses into Navarra from France via the foothills of the Pyrenees, descending steeply to the historic monastery at Orreaga-Roncesvalles. As the mountains peter out, the path passes alongside trout-filled rivers lined with beech trees and through traditional whitewashed Basque villages graced with Romanesque churches.
Navarra has invested considerably in this section of the route, and its twenty or so albergues – all with comfortable, if basic, facilities – are among the best along the camino. The path mainly follows dirt farm-tracks, although some stretches have been paved, which makes the walking less messy but leaves pilgrims prone to blisters.
Traces of Charlemagne’s tenth-century foray into Spain are everywhere in Navarra, from the pass before Roncesvalles by which he entered the country to a stone monument some 20km farther on that depicts the massive Stride of Roland, his favourite knight. The region also contains some of Hemingway’s much-loved haunts; the camino passes through his trout-fishing base at Auritz-Burguete, just 3km from Roncesvalles, and lively Pamplona, another 40km into the walk.
There are a couple of stiff climbs, notably the 300m up to the Alto de Perdón, just outside Pamplona. Here, legend tells of an exhausted medieval pilgrim who stood firm against the Devil’s offer of water in exchange for a renunciation of his Christian faith. The pilgrim was rewarded with the appearance of Santiago himself, who led him to a secret fountain.
Navarra boasts some of the finest Romanesque architecture in Spain, including the octagonal church at Eunate, 20km from Pamplona, thought to be the work of the Knights Templar, and the graceful bridge that gave its name to Puente La Reina, 4km farther on. The architectural highlight is undoubtedly the small town of Estella, where it’s worth spending an afternoon exploring the Palacio de los Reyes de Navarra and the many lovely churches. The route from Estella is lined with vineyards, and Bodegas de Irache’s free Fuente del Vino (wine fountain), just outside town, is said to fortify pilgrims for the journey on through the Rioja region to Santiago de Compostela.For more information, see Practicalities of the Camino de Santiago.
