Roncesvalles

San Juan Gate, Roncesvalles.

Roncesvalles (in Basque Oreaga and officially Orreaga/Roncesvalles) is a Spanish town and municipality in the Autonomous Community of Navarra, located in the merindad de Sangüesa, in the Auñamendi region and 47.7 km from the capital of the community, Pamplona. Its population in 2019 was 22 inhabitants: 12 men and 10 women (INE).

Its name is orreagatarra, both masculine and feminine.

Physical geography

The port of Roncesvalles formerly corresponded to the axial pass of Ibañeta (1066 m), a natural passageway that was used since prehistoric times to access the Iberian Peninsula. The highest point in the municipality is the top of Mount Orzanzurieta, with 1567 ms. no. m..

The houses and religious institutions and those for the care of Jacobean pilgrims are found in the town of Roncesvalles, located at the foot of Ibañeta, where the famous plain begins in which the songs of deed locate the battle against the Carolingians. Roncesvalles, after time, continues to be a fundamental enclave for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. The so-called French Way enters through Ibañeta and Roncesvalles, the same one that Aymeric Picaud traveled in the 12th century, which merges in the town of Obanos, very close to Puente la Reina, with the other that comes from Somport de Huesca, also in the Pyrenees, known as Camino Aragonés.

Neighboring towns

The municipality of Roncesvalles limits to the north, in the Ibañeta pass, with that of Valcarlos, a trans-Pyrenean Navarrese municipality, and to the south with that of Burguete, which was the first town in the region, then called Burgo de Roncesvalles. To the east it limits with the municipality of Orbaiceta.

History

Chains located in the school of Roncesvalles that were inspired to form the coat of arms of Navarre.

Roncesvalles was always a transit route to enter the Iberian Peninsula. It is identified with the mansio Summo Pyreneo (Ibañeta), in the Antonino Itinerary A-34 Ab Asturica Burdigalam, where the itineraries that Roman officials made as travel guides are collected. The Celts, the Vandals (409), the Goths who established themselves along the Duero basin and Charlemagne during the 8th century mainly penetrated through Roncesvalles. Charlemagne, since he was defeated in Zaragoza, decided, on his way back to his kingdom, to reduce the capital of the Basques, Pamplona, to ruins. It was on his return, in the Pyrenees, between the Ibañeta pass and the Valcarlos hollow, where he had to suffer a forceful ambush by parties of native Basques, who found it easy to cause a general disaster by throwing rocks and darts. The Cantar de Roldán, written somewhere in France towards the end of the 11th century, conceived the disaster on the plain, between Roncesvalles and the town of Burguete, and the attackers were no longer Basques, but Saracens, who never really got to expand their domains that far north. And the same Roman road served as the entrance path for the first pilgrims.

Demographics

Population developments

Graphic of demographic evolution of Roncesvalles between 1842 and 2020

Rule population (1842-1897, except 1857 and 1860 which is a de facto population) according to population censuses of the centuryXIX.Population of law (1900-1991) or resident population (2001-2011) according to population censuses of the INE.Population according to INE's 2020 municipal standards.

Transport and communications

Intercity transport

Roncesvalles is connected by road by buses to and from Pamplona and other towns in Navarra. In addition, there is a taxi service from several surrounding towns.

Economy

The economy of Roncesvalles is based on the income obtained from the municipal lands (mainly forest exploitation), from some existing agricultural-livestock exploitation in the municipality and above all from hotel activities.

The local economy is nowadays oriented to the attention of pilgrims and tourists, due to the condition of Roncesvalles as the traditional first stage in Spain of the Camino de Santiago.

Despite its sparse population, the town has a remarkable lodging offer: a hotel, a tourist apartment building, two hostels and a pilgrims' refuge that depends on the Collegiate Church. Roncesvalles has a tourist office, a museum and a pilgrim's office. The hotel and the hostels also have a bar-restaurant.

In any case, the maintenance of the historical-artistic complex exceeds the municipal resources and requires the economic contribution of official instances.

Politics and Administration

Municipal administration

These are the last mayors of Roncesvalles:

Heritage

Religious monuments

Pilgrims Hospital

Mausoleum of Sancho VII "El Fuerte" of Navarre located in the Colegiata de Roncesvalles.

The Hospital founded by the Bishop of Pamplona Sancho de Larrosa, with the collaboration of the King of Aragon and Pamplona Alfonso Sánchez (better known as Alfonso I the Battler) and thus following the tradition of his father King Sancho Ramírez, I of Aragon and V of Pamplona and that of his stepbrother Pedro I of Aragon and Pamplona to promote and protect the path of the saint together with some noblemen. The Popes took it from the beginning under their protection. Since its foundation, it has been governed by a Chapter of regular canons of San Agustín. In 1984 it became dependent on the Archbishopric of Pamplona. The Prior continues to hold the medieval title of Grand Abbot of Cologne. The position of "hospitalero" is carried by a canon. In the 17th century, 25,000 rations were distributed annually among pilgrims.

The hospital that currently exists was designed in 1792 by the architect José Poudez, built between 1802 and 1807 with the criteria of neoclassical architecture. It consists of a large horizontal block with three floors facing the courtyard and four floors to the east, barely marked by quadrangular windows, and accessed through a portal with a semicircular arch framed by pilasters, a frieze and a triangular pediment.

Sancti Spiritus Chapel

Also known as Charlemagne's Silo because it is supposed that its origin is due to the burial of Frankish combatants who fell in 778, which is not implausible. It dates back to the 12th century, which is why it is considered the oldest building in Roncesvalles.

The Sancti Spiritus must be considered a funerary temple, but it was not a place of perpetual burial in the Middle Ages. It was the place where masses were celebrated for the pilgrims who died in the hospital who, buried in another place, after a while their remains were deposited in the ossuary under the free-standing chapel.

Church of Santiago or the Pilgrims

Small Gothic church from the 13th century, located next to the Silo of Charlemagne. It is a simple factory with a rectangular floor plan with two sections that include a straight head and a simple ribbed vault. Some cylindrical shaft columns serve as support for the roof. Inside there is a figure of the Apostle Santiago. The exterior has irregular ashlar walls, without buttresses, with a portal with a pointed arch and Crismón.

It was used as a parish church until the 18th century. It was left uncultivated for a long period until it was restored by Florencio Ansoleaga in the 20th century, who opened a small oculus over the door.

Although it is stated that the bell placed in its belfry is the mythical and legendary one that guided the pilgrims during the night or the mists, belonging to the chapel of San Salvador in the Collado de Ibañeta, it is not true. It has two inscriptions: 'San Román' and the date '1800'.

Church of the Royal Collegiate Church of Santa María

The collegiate church of Santa María is the most luxurious factory in Roncesvalles and the best Navarrese example of Gothic, not only French, but of the purest Gothic similar to that seen in the Parisian region known as the Isle-de-France. It houses a beautiful image of the Virgin from the 14th century.

The current temple was built thanks to Sancho el Fuerte (1194-1234), who chose it as a burial place. There are no specific data on the dates of the construction of the church, but it is known that it was at the beginning of the 13th century, between 1215 and 1221.

The Collegiate Church suffered significant damage, mainly caused by several fires that occurred in 1445, 1468 and 1626. At the beginning of the 17th century, its state of deterioration and almost abandonment led to its reconstruction, which included the entire collegiate area, especially the church and to the cloister. The Gothic interior was masked and it was given a Baroque form except in the presbytery and the section of the nave that precedes it, where the Gothic elements were exposed.

Sancho "el Fuerte" (Right of Navarre) in the Battle of the Navas de Tolosa in a window in Roncesvalles.

Chapel of St. Augustine

Square floor plan covered with a tierceron vault with more elaborate rib ligatures than those of the church and decorated keystones. The vault is supported by four large corbels that represent angels.

The exterior is presented as a cubic block of masonry, with a certain aspect of fortress; hence it is sometimes called the tower of San Agustín. Some buttresses attached to the corners that reach the pyramidal roof reinforce the ensemble, which dates from the 14th century. In the center of the chapel is the tomb of Sancho VII el Fuerte.

It is also worth noting a series of sculptures related to the works in the cloister of the Cathedral of Pamplona. These are two capitals that represent Original Sin and the Expulsion from Paradise, which may be thought to have formed part of the Gothic cloister.

San Salvador de Ibañeta Hermitage

Located in the Port of Ibañeta, it is currently a new building built in 1964 in the same place where it has been since the century XI a hermitage under the same dedication together with a hospital and a hostel for pilgrims.

Image Gallery

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  The Collegiate of Roncesvalles from Ibañeta

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  Interior of the church of the Colegiata

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  Chapel of Santiago

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  The call "Mesa de Roldán"

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  Sancti Spiritus Chapel

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  Chapel of Saint Augustine with the tomb of Sancho VII Fort

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  Itzandeguía, refuge of pilgrims

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  View of the church from the current hostel of pilgrims

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  Posada and hotel of Roncesvalles

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  Monument Battle of Roncesvalles

Civil monuments

Itzandegia Pilgrims Hostel

About a hundred meters from the Sancti Spiritus chapel, on the edge of a small hollow of green pastures, there is a building shrouded in mystery. Domenico Laffi had written that the funeral chapel was very close to the pilgrims' hospital. He located it to the west, which seems to coincide with the location of Itzandegia. “It is a large and beautiful hospital where pilgrims can stay for three days. They can eat and sleep, and they are treated very well."

The building is a stone house measuring 32 x 12 meters. It consists of a single nave with six sections, whose roof supports five pointed arches that rest on the walls, which in turn are supported by ten buttresses, five on each side. It has two entrances, one larger, wide enough for carts to pass, turned with its back to Roncesvalles, raised almost a meter above the ground, a difference in level that would not exist until the semi-detached house was built. The other, smaller door, on the right side, allows access to the only floor, which in another time must have had a higher one.

It is a blind building, except for the scant light that is let through by six vertical and narrow loopholes at the top of the wall facing south. The last restoration ended with the Xacobeo in 1993. Most of the exterior buttresses had disappeared, as had the arches of the vault, "recovering on the model of the three that were still preserved," noted professors Miranda and Ramírez. But it doesn't seem like that, because some old photographs show how the medieval structure had been altered, adapted to the requirements of the rural farmhouse that it had become, with large windows, doors for different purposes and adjacent rooms. There weren't even the thick buttresses.

Museum and library

They occupy a building juxtaposed to the Priory House, forming a horizontal block. It consists of three levels in height and a small attic of oculos. In the second body an arcade opens on fluted pilasters.

The Library

It includes more than 15,000 volumes on all kinds of subjects, although works on theological, philosophical, and ecclesiastical history stand out. There are volumes in different languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Basque and even Chinese. Some of the most interesting pieces, such as the codex La Pretiosa (from the 14th century), are on display in the Collegiate Church Museum.

It still preserves an important section of the Historical Archive formed throughout the almost nine centuries of existence of the hospital, which includes parchments, administration books, documents related to the internal history and the external repercussions of the capitular life, etc.

The Museum

Ajedrez de Carlomagno.

Located on the ground floor of the building, it contains a large number of objects of art representative of the Collegiate Church, including sculpture, painting and goldsmithing, as well as furniture, tapestries, coins and books of great bibliographic interest.

In sculpture, the statue of a seated female figure stands out, Gothic from the 14th century, and a carving of Saint Michael dated in the second third of the 16th century. Likewise, some reliefs and statues that were part of the main altarpiece of the Collegiate Church, made between 1618 and 1624.

In painting, the most remarkable thing is the triptych of the Crucifixion (northern European school of the 16th century), ceded to the Collegiate Church in 1720 by Mrs. Jerónima Jiménez de Esparza, apparently of Flemish origin. A table of the Holy Family, made by Luis de Morales, which bears a similarity to that of the New Cathedral of Salamanca. The canvas of the martyrdom of San Lorenzo, baroque from the first half of the 17th century, as well as another of Judith carrying the head of Holofernes.

In goldsmithing, we must highlight a beautiful gilded silver casket, covered with fine filigree work and dated between 1274 and 1328. There is another partially gilt silver casket, which has been dated to the 16th century, whose interest lies in that take advantage of medallions and reliefs from medieval times.

There are also reliquaries and especially the so-called «Charlemagne Chess», named for its checkerboard layout. This piece, ascribed to the Gothic of the second half of the 14th century, is made up of a wooden core, lined with sheets of partially gilded silver, translucent enamels and glass.

The famous Miramamolín emerald, which is identified, according to legend, with the one that Sancho VII the Strong snatched from the Moorish king's turban in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, after which it was incorporated as a symbol, to the coat of arms of Navarre. The gospel in which the kings of Navarre swore allegiance, a work of Romanesque goldsmithing.

Culture

Notes on Roncesvalian toponymy

The Latin and Romance place names, used since the Middle Ages to refer to the Pyrenean enclave, are many and varied, although some must be considered partially erroneous due to misinterpretations by copyists and characters far removed from Navarra, to spellings derived from other mistakes or attempts to correct what was supposed to be badly written. Without exhausting the respective lists, here are some of the most frequent:

Parties

There is an important devotion to the Virgin of Roncesvalles throughout the Navarrese Pyrenees. On September 8, the Day of the Virgin of Roncesvalles, patron saint of Roncesvalles, is celebrated.

During Sundays and holidays in May and June, the parishes of the surrounding valleys and towns and even Pamplona usually attend the pilgrimage.

• May 1st: Aézcoa Valley and Chantrea district of Pamplona.
• First Sunday of May: Valcarlos.
• Second Sunday of May: Valle de Arce y Oroz-Betelu (joint rhyme).
• Third Sunday of May: Erro Valley.
• Fourth Sunday of May: Espinal village.
• Fifth Sunday of May/first Sunday of June: Burguete.
• June: Aoiz.
• On Wednesday before 8 September, the villages of the Baja Navarra are usually a pilgrimage.