Pamplona – Citadel

Pamplona is the historical capital city of Navarre, the Basque part of Spain that butts up against France. It’s most famous for the running of the bulls during the San Fermin festival in July each year that was given literary renown by Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926, and is commemorated in this sculpture.

Pamplona and the Basque region both have a fractious and chaotic history, primarily due to their location up against the French border and on the edges of one or another contentious culture. The Visigoths from the north saw it as a way to push into Spain and the Cordovans similarly saw it from the south as a way to consolidate Spanish territory. Muslim and Catholic differences also played a role. Further complicating the situation was the constant fighting among the three boroughs that made up the city, giving the city the character of a continuously changing fortress. Its location above the Arga river gave it the prospect of a strong, defensible site; and the old city still sits there. Our apartment, marked by the red dot, was just outside the old city quarters.

In the early 16th century King Charles III unified the three boroughs into one city; but the constant potential threat of attack from France led to the continuous building and rebuilding of the city as primarily a fortress.

This included the “star fort” above, authorized by King Philip II, designed as an almost perfect pentagon by Giovan Paleari and Vespasiano Gonzaga and continuously enlarged and strengthened as armaments became more powerful. Eventually, the capability of early 20th century artillery made the citadel irrelevant; and though large parts of it remain today, the area is only used as a park, surrounded by the modern city.

But what a park. The citadel was strengthened by adding layers of moats, embankments and cannon-guarded walls in large geometric patterns around the original fort. Much of this is not immediately apparent from the exterior; so the scale really becomes obvious once you pass through the exterior into some of the inner layers.

We didn’t know it at first; but there’s a pedestrian causeway – formerly a carriage road – that takes you across the moat areas to the inner fort.

Several gatehouses guard this route.

The intricacies of planning cannon warfare – being able to repel attackers and also prevent them from getting close to the walls – resulted in some pretty intricate geometries.

There’s not a lot of water to be seen in the moat areas today – this area is now a modest bird area for ducks, geese, and the occasional peacock.

Equally impressive was the way in which the park is used today. The center of the complex includes sculpture, both permanent and temporary.

The day we gave ourselves a self-guided tour a photographer was shooting a couple of young girls getting ready for their first communion.

Inside the citadel we happened on this series of events – first some sort of performance.

The young dancers on the left, accompanied by a woman playing both a flute and drum, were serenading the couple on the right with a traditional Basque dance. It turned out that the couple had just gotten married in one of the citadel buildings in the center of the pentagon. They were obviously pleased with what may have been a surprise performance.

And then when we thought things were all over, along came couple number two

No dancers here, just family and friends. We didn’t stay to see how many other couples there would be. We took a ramp to the top of the walls for a look around.

From that vantage we got a clear sense of how the city has grown up around the old fort – and the contrast between the two.

One final element, mostly hidden beneath the park, showed us how modern Pamplona makes use of its historic spaces while also respecting them. Along the east side of the park, in a quiet one-story linear building the city has built its central bus station and parking garage.

Since most of it is below ground, the entrance could be quite simple,

and the circulation quite direct – including a view back to the park.

At the bottom we found a very efficiently laid out terminal,

which we appreciated, because we used it to travel to San Sebastian on a day trip.

There’s more to the fortress part of this city; but today it’s a series of pieces tied together for tourists like us; so we’ll show it to you as we explore more of the city.