The albergue had to be vacated by 7am, so it was still dark as we departed and said goodbye to our friendly Breton hosts. I was amazed and rather disturbed to see our American friend standing outside the door with his girlfriend, preparing to leave with his large rucksack on his back. "Surely you are not walking to day are you?" I asked him and was told "Don't worry Doc - my foot still feels sore, but its a lot better since you treated it and we only plan to walk as far as Irache". I told him that the pilgrim side of me admired his fortitude, but that the podiatrist in me thought he was mad. I wished him a buen camino as he set off limping. From what I had seen of his foot the night before, I doubted he would get very far and felt he would have been better having it examined at the hospital, but he and his girlfriend had seemed very upset the night before at the thought of having to give up walking and I could understand their desire to carry on, though I thought it very unwise. I hope he didnt end up with a serious foot and leg infection!
We had arranged with Caroline Aphessetche from Expressbourricot.com to pick us up in her taxi minibus at 11.30 in the car park at the end of calle Rua, so that gave us plenty of time to look around Estella beforehand. We made our down to Plaza Fueros and had breakfast in a cafe under one of the colonnades: a gargantuan plate of tostada; delicious thick slices of crusty bread toasted on a hotplate and smothered in butter and marmalade, accompanied by cafe con leche. Suitably bloated we were ready to investigate Estella.
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| Plaza San Martin |
According to John Brierley's guidebook, Estella has a population of about 15,000 and is at an altitude of 425m. The original settlement developed north of the river and was called Lizarra (ash tree) in Basque. However, in 1090, King Sancho Ramirez, capitalising on the flow of pilgrims along the Camino, established the new burgo franco of San Martin south of the river and called it L'Izzara (Basque for star). This in turn later became Estella (Spanish for star) as the Camino is often traditionally associated with the Milky Way. The town has a long history of conflict; in a similar way to how Pamplona developed, artisans and craftsmen were encouraged to settle in the new borough which had special privileges, but this of course led to envy and disharmony with locals even after the two boroughs were unified in 1266. The town once also had a large Jewish community, but this was expelled in the 14th Century and even as late as the 19th Century, the town was a stronghold of the Carlists in the civil war which supported the succession of Don Carlos and his descendants to the Spanish throne - a long lasting movement which was the cause of several wars throughout the 19th Century and a factor in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's.
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| Another glass of red wine for Matt in Plaza San Martin! |
We made our way to Plaza San Martin which is the old administrative centre of the town. The plaza has an interesting assemblage of buildings; a delightful fountain at it's centre, the old Juzgado (Courts of Justice) which are now the Town Hall, and the 12th Century Palace of the Kings of Navarre which is now a museum and art gallery. The palace was never a residence of the kings of Navarre, but the place where his governor lived (usually a royal prince) and as far as I know was also the site of a royal mint. Unfortunately, the Palace was closed,like all public buildings on a Monday,but the exterior of the building was still interesting to look at as it is a unique example of Romanesque secular architecture in Navarre and features a wonderfully carved pillar capital of the legend of Roland fighting the Muslim giant Ferragut. I explained back in my post about Roncesvalles, how the semi-historical events surrounding Charlemagne and his nephew Roland fighting the Muslims in Northern Spain became written down in an epic called the Chanson de Roland, which became wildly popular in Medieval times. All sorts of additional myths and legends accreted themselves around the epic and the story of Roland fighting the Muslim giant Ferragut in a story reminiscent of David and Goliath at Roldan's Hill near the town of Najera is one of them.
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| The Juzgado |
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| Roland and Ferragut |
Opposite the Palacio, up a steep flight of steps is the church of San Pedro de la Rua. The church was the site chosen by the Kings of Navarre to swear special oaths and privileges. The steps lead up to another wonderful multilobed Mozarab-influenced entrance portal similar to those we saw at Puente La Reina and Cirauqui, but this portal was also decorated with interesting mythical beasts such a cockatrices, a two tailed mermaid and a Centaur archer. These motifs give us an interesting insight into the medieval world of arcane symbols. I was reminded of a doorway surrounded by carvings of centaur archers I had seen a few years ago at Visoki Decani Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo. In the ancient pagan world the centaur archer represented Chiron, who was raised by Apollo, God of the sun and was symbolic of animal and spiritual natures combined. The Christians adapted this symbol to represent Christ; God and Man combined and Heaven's sun. The two tailed mermaid is probably the freshwater changeling or fairy sprite Mesuline. Romances about her were very popular in Medieval times; how she was half fish or serpent and half human; how she was a daughter of the King of Albany (Scotland) and a fairy mother; and how her husband, Raymond of Poitiers had discovered her two tails when he secretly viewed her bathing, even though forbidden not to as a condition of their marriage. Pagan and medieval Christian symbolism combined on one wonderfully carved portal. Or was I looking too deeply and the the mermaid was just an early representation of the Starbucks logo? ;-)
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San Pedro de la Rua
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We spent a long time here in the peaceful interior; praying and reflecting on our amazing trip. As we sat reflecting, we saw the Hungarian guy we had shared a bunk cubicle at Roncesvalles doing the same. Afterwards we wandered around the marvellous 12th Century cloister. Two sides of it were destroyed when a tower of the town wall fell on it, but what remains is stunningly beautiful with ornate pillars and capitals and a rose garden in the centre. We were surprised to find outside the cloister entrance, a glass lift that took us down the side of the hill to the town's historic Main Street Rua de las Tiendas.
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| Ben in San Pedro Cloisters |
From here we crossed over the restored medieval bridge of Puente de la Carcel or Puente de la San Miguel and made our up the hill to the site of the now ruined castle from which we had impressive views across the town, spoilt only by the noise of the busy N111 running below us. It was on Castle Hill that Estella's important Medieval Jewish community had their synagogue, but a church of Santa Maria Jus del Castillo was built on the site in 1145.
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| Puente de la Carcel |
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| Castle Hill |
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| View of Estella from Castle Hill |
Below the hill was the 12th Century church of the Holy Sepulchre which I had passed when I entered the town the day before and which was being restored with scaffolding and cranes. Nonetheless the entrance portal could be seen with its detailed tympanum over the doorway showing the crucifixion, the empty tomb, the jaws of hell and the last supper. The statues of the disciples line either side of the doorway, including St James, dressed as a pilgrim. It all must have struck awe and reverence into the hearts of medieval pilgrims who walked past and stared up at it and we did the same, before sitting on a bench opposite by the rio Ega and reading some psalms and praying together. Whilst we did this I was astounded to see the same disabled young guy I had seen the day before as I descended from Cirauqui, resolutely struggling into Estella! I was immensely impressed!
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| The tympanum above the main door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre |
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| St James the pilgrim third from right |
Finally, there was just time to nip back to calle Rua and have a tortilla potata and a drink before our taxi arrived.
I found the drive back to Biarritz a culture shock; I had spent a week living life at a walking pace and suddenly we were flying along a the dual carriageway at what seemed like a ludicrous and obscene speed! Several day's walking were rewound unceremoniously in a few minutes; Estella to Puente La Reina took only 10 minutes and in an other 15 we had raced through the tunnel below Alto del Perdon and we passing Cizur Menor! I felt I could hardly take in how quick we could pass places that had taken hours to reach and it gave me much cause to consider the breakneck speed we live at in the modern world and whether it can be good for us; emotionally, physically or spiritually?
In an hour and a half we had reached the airport. En route the journey had been pleasant through the beautiful scenery of the Pyrenees and Caroline had explained to me with some regret, that although she was Basque, she only spoke French, as her parents for some reason had not felt the need to teach her the language, while the rest of her family, her cousins and aunts and uncles all spoke Basque. This seemed a shame.
Matt and I said goodbye to Ben at the airport, as his flight back to Stansted was before ours. I had to take Ben's walking pole as Ryanair would not allow him to take it on as hand luggage. On the plane as I looked down on a very clear view of Bordeaux and the river estuary of the Garonne, I reflected on how walking the Camino had been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I had been challenged physically, emotionally and spiritually in ways I had never imagined. I felt God was saying things to me about my life that I didn't as yet fully understand, except that he was calling me to take more time out to draw aside and seek him as I had done on this walk. I knew it would take me weeks or even months to fully process all I had experienced, but mentally I was already planning my next leg of the Camino from Estella onwards - March next year maybe?.....To be continued!
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