Pamplona

Pamplona is the first major city on the Camino. It is beautiful and worth spending sometime in. If you have forgotten anything this is the place to buy it. The cathedral is only a short distance from the main albergue and worth visiting.

The albergue here is run by nuns and English is not spoken well. Use the little (or a lot) spanish you know. It is not safe in this albergue to leave any valuables while you go out walking. While almost all albergues are very safe this one is less so. There have been many reports of stolen goods from here. It is too easy for people to walk in from the street and walk around.

The tapas bars here are the best you will find until Santiago, not cheap though. The main square is surrounded by cafes and peaceful in the early evening for coffee and cake.

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards and foreign tourists gather every year in Pamplona for the San Fermin Festival – the town’s world-famous running of the bulls fiesta. It takes place between the 7th and 14th of July every year. You will NOT find a hotel or any other commercial room for the night during this time, unless you have book it well in advance. The bull runs move on to all other towns along the Camino after Pamplona is finished. Every town will have their own fiesta – all shops will be closed on fiesta days.

Pamplona (Basque: Rune / Iruñea / Iruña) is the capital city of Navarre, Spain. It has a population of 171,150, and is 92 kilometres from the town of San Sebastián, and 407 kilometres from Madrid. From the 9th century up to the 12th century, Navarrese country was known as the Kingdom of Pamplona.

Pamplona is famous for the San Fermín festival, on July 7, also known as The running of the bulls or ‘encierro’. Ernest Hemingway made this feature of Pamplona famous in his writings and was duly honored by having a street in the city named after him, Avenida de Hemingway.

The area South of Pamplona is hot, dry, arid and very similar to the landscape found in parts of Southern California and Northern Mexico. Northwards, however, it is cold and dry and very similar to the landscape of New Zealand’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 2000 years. In the winter of 74-75 B.C., the area served as a camp for the Roman general Pompey. He is considered to be the founder of "Pompaelo" (Pamplona).

By the 2nd century, Pamplona was a significant Roman town with a forum and hot baths. By 409, however, Pamplona was controlled by the Visigoths – it served as an episcopal see from the end of the seventh century – and 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 also called Iruña and later Navarreria.

By the 10th 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 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 1515 the area of Navarra associated itself with the Castiles and became an autonomous kingdom with its own institutions and laws. By the 17th century, 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 in 1783.

The city did not escape the regional wars of the 19th century. French troops occupied the city after a surprise attack when they had pretended to be citizens playing nearby with snow balls, and remained in Pamplona 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, including a star fort, but expanded to include suburbs in the past 100 years. The city is home to two universities: the Universidad de Navarra, founded by Opus Dei in 1952, 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 Baranain, Burlada, Cizur Mayor, Cizur Menor, Villava and the town where wealthy people tend to move to – Gorraiz, a town with a golf club. Residents benefit from well-organized public buses called villavesas. Much employment is based at the Volkswagen factory located in Landaben.