Pamplona
For other meanings, see Pamplona (disambiguation).Pamplona (
Basque:
Iruñea or
Iruña) is the capital city of
Navarre,
Spain. It has a population of 171,150, and is 92 kilometres from the town of
Donostia, and 407 kilometres northwest of
Madrid. From the
9th century up to the
12th century, Navarrese country was known as the
Kingdom of Pamplona.
Iruñea is the Basque name proposed by the
Royal Academy of the Basque Language, but the Basque name recognized by the Government of Navarre is
Iruña, "the city".
The historical center of Pamplona is on the right bank of the Arga, a tributary of the
Ebro. The city is famous for the
San Fermín festival, on
July 7, also known as
The running of the bulls or
encierro.
Ernest Hemingway made this local fiesta of Pamplona world-famous in
The Sun Also Rises (1926). He was honored by having a street in the city named after him, Avenida de Hemingway. Three-quarters of Pamplona's city walls remain as they were rebuilt in the sixteenth century.
The area south of Pamplona is warm, dry, arid and very similar to the landscape found in parts of
Castile. Northwards, however, it is cool and dry and very similar to the landscape of
Aquitaine's forest. The city itself is very green: together with the old section of the city, which hosts the San Fermín festival, with its cobbled streets, it is a pleasant tourist destination.
Located at an altitude of 444 m above
sea level on a hill overlooking the
Arga River and overlooking the surrounding valley, Pamplona has been populated for more than 2,000 years. In the winter of
74-
75 BCE, the area served as a camp for the
Roman general
Pompey. He is considered to be the founder of
Pompaelo also noted as
Pompelo (,
Ptol. ii. 6. § 67;
Strabo iii. p. 161, who makes the name equivalent to
Pompaeopolis ), which became Pamplona. It was the chief town of the
Vascones in the Roman province of
Hispania Tarraconensis, on the road from Asturica (modern
Astorga) to Burdigala (modern
Bordeaux) (
Antonine Itinerary p. 455), and a
civitas stipendiaria in the jurisdiction of Caesaraugusta (modern
Zaragoza). (
Pliny the Elder iii. 3. s. 4.)
By the
2nd century, Pamplona was a significant Roman town with a
forum and
baths. From
409, however, Pamplona was controlled by the
Visigoths; it was conquered by the Franks under
Childebert in 542 and served as an episcopal see from the end of the seventh century. From the eighth century, it was run by the
Moors. After his expedition to
Zaragoza in
778,
Charlemagne tore down the
defensive walls surrounding Pamplona.
In
781 Abd ar-Rahman I reconquered the city. Destroyed by Abd ar-Rahman III in
924, Pamplona was reduced to a small country village.
By the
11th century, Pamplona benefitted from
pilgrimages to
Santiago de Compostela, and gave rise to new city areas beside the original Navarreria site: the "Burgo de San Cernin", supported by the
Kingdom of Navarre and mainly inhabited by
Franks (term used to address "foreigners", irrespective of their real nationality) and merchants, and the village of "San Nicolás". These three independent towns, being placed so close together, were almost always engaged in quarrels among themselves, until the King of Navarre
Charles III the Noble united all of them into the single city of today by the "Privilegio de la Unión" signed in
1423.
In
1512 southern Navarra was invaded and assimilated by the Kingdom of Castile and became an autonomous kingdom, with its own institutions and laws, but ruled by the King of Castile first and later by the King of Spain. Northern Navarra, the Merindad of Ultrapuertos, was occupied -and later assimilated- by France. The Basilica de S. Ignacio commemorates the spot where
Ignatius Loyola was wounded in defending the place against André de Foix in 1521. The citadel, south-west of the city, was reconstructed by order of
Philip II; Pamplona became a fortress on the edge of the
Pyrenees. During the
18th century, several beautiful palaces were built in the capital of Navarra such as the Casa Consistorial or Town Hall in
1752. The neoclassic facade of the Cathedral was undertaken to designs of Ventura Rodriguez in
1783.
The city did not escape the regional wars of the
19th century. During
Napoleonic Wars French troops occupied the city in
1808 and remained in it until
1813. During the
Carlist Wars (1833, 1872) Pamplona supported the Isabelian monarchy, as opposed to rural Navarra which fought in favor of the pretender to the throne,
Don Carlos.
Pamplona has maintained the medieval layout of the town and its
star fort, but the rural center of about 28,886 in 1900 has expanded to include suburbs. The city is home to two universities: the
Universidad de Navarra, founded in 1952 by
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer and is a Corporate Work of
Opus Dei, and the
Universidad Pública de Navarra, created by the government of Navarra in
1987. There is also a local branch of the UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia).
Pamplona has been listed as a city with one of the best standards of living in Spain. In 2003, the population was 183,000 showing an increase because of immigration, especially from
South America.Pamplona is well urbanized and some of the suburb towns include
Barañáin,
Burlada,
Cizur Mayor,
Cizur Menor,
Villava and
Gorraiz. Residents benefit from well-organized public buses called
villavesas. Much employment is based at the
Volkswagen factory located in
Landaben.
CA Osasuna is the local football team. Their home stadium is called
Estadio Reyno de Navarra, known as
El Sadar until January,
2006.
Pamplona's bull ring was rebuilt in 1923. It seats 19,529.
Other popular sports with some of the top clubs in Pamplona include
handball (
Portland San Antonio, Europe's championship winner 2001),
futsal (
MRA Xota) and
water polo (
Larraina).Pamplona's favourite son may well be
Miguel Induráin, five time
Tour de France winner.
*
* The City Hall has a web page at
pamplona.es.
*
Gallery of bull-running in Pamplona during Fiesta de San Fermin*
Camino de Santiago which passes through Pamplona*
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: "Pamplona"
*
Webcam
