RONCESVALLES

 

RONCESVALLES 

The origin of roncesvalles:

Roncesvalles was always a way of passage to enter the Iberian Peninsula.

The Celts, the Vandals,the Goths who settled along the Duero basin and Charlemagne mainly penetrated through Roncesvalles during the 8th century. Charlemagne, given that he was defeated in Zaragoza, decided, on the way back to his kingdom, to reduce the capital of the Basques, Pamplona, ​​to ruins.The Cantar de Roldán, written somewhere in France towards the end of the 11th century, conceived the disaster in the plain, between Roncesvalles and the town of Burguete, and the attackers were no longer Basques, but Saracens, who never really got to expand his dominions so far north. And the same Roman road served as a gateway for the first pilgrims.

 Beginning of the road:

Roncesvalles is a small village and municipality in Navarre, northern Spain.

This is one of the seven beginnings of the road (also is the most important too).

Many pilgrims decide to start the Camino de Santiago from Roncesvalles, that is, the French Way, despite the fact that this French route begins in the town of Saint Jean Pied de Port, located in France.

Actually, Roncesvalles is the second town after St. Jean Pied de Port and the first stop on Spanish territory. So if it's the second stage.

Church of Roncesvalles:

The church of Santiago or of the Pilgrims located in the town of Roncesvalles located in Navarra, Spain. Is a small Gothic church from the 13th century, located next to the "Silo de Carlomagno".

It is a simple rectangular-shaped factory with two sections 

Include a straight head and a simple ribbed vault.

 Columns with a cylindrical shaft 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.

 The church has large and big windows.

The materials they use for building the church

Glass, stone, wood, dark paintings,thick walls...

It was used as a parish until the 18th century. It remained without worship for a long period until it was restored by Florencio Ansoleaga in the 20th century, who opened a small oculus over the door and incorporated the mythical and legendary bell that guided the pilgrims in the chapel that was on the Ibañeta pass; the chapel of San Salvador.

City of roncesvalles: 

Roncesvalles (in Basque Orreaga and officially Orreaga / Roncesvalles) is a Spanish town and municipality of the Foral Community of Navarra, located in the Sangüesa merindad, 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 

The port of Roncesvalles formerly corresponded to the axial col of Ibañeta,a natural passageway that was used since prehistory to access the Iberian Peninsula. The highest point of the municipality is the top of Mount Orzanzurieta, at 1567 meters above sea level.

The houses and religious institutions and care for the pilgrims of the Jacobean are in the town of Roncesvalles, located at the foot of Ibañeta, where the famous plain begins in which the songs of deeds 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 the Aragonese Way.