Author: Thom

Although we had intended to take a full rest day in Pamplona, after touring the cathedral, both Francine and I had itchy feet. We had to get moving again. Before we left the city, we purchased some bocadillos to eat en route, and I bought a Basque beret. I think it’s rather fetching. I haven’t had a lot of opportunity […]

This is a shop in Pamplona, near to the Cathedral. I saw the name, and I immediately thought of my friend Fr. Jacob Maurer. One of his cats shares the name of this shop, and I thought he’d get a kick out of it. Date: 02 April 2016 Place: Pamplona (Navarra, Spain)

We spent a chunk of the morning exploring the Pamplona Cathedral and the attached museum. I took literally hundreds of photos there, and you can see them on my Flickr page here. This stairway is located in the museum, which used to house the Cathedral Canons. I was particularly struck by the beauty of the workmanship and the light streaming […]

Francine stands in the cloisters overlooking the garden of the Cathedral in Pamplona. You can get a good idea of the scale of this place. It’s big! She’s looking at the tomb of one of the countless clerics buried within the Cathedral complex. Date: 02 April 2016 Place: Pamplona (Navarra, Spain)

This is the layout for most of the side altars at the Pamplona Cathedral – indeed, in most of the larger churches we saw in Spain. They are tucked into side niches, perfectly open to the main part of the church with perhaps only a rail separating them from the nave. This is somewhat similar to most Catholic church designs […]

This is a closeup of the altar of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, the photo of which I posted yesterday. Note the Jacobean Cross and shell! That Santiago certainly gets around; you will see his symbols everywhere on the Camino, sometimes in likely places, and sometimes in the most unlikely. Date: 02 April 2016 Place: Pamplona (Navarra, Spain)

Pamplona’s Cathedral contains a slew of side-chapels. Most are altars set into niches in the Cathedral’s Gothic interior, but a couple are actually full chapels in their own right. This one contains the tabernacle containing Jesus Himself. I spent a moment here after Mass and before touring the Cathedral and Museum and taking about 200 photos… Date: 02 April 2016 […]

The interior of Pamplona’s Cathedral of Santa María la Real is about as solidly Gothic as anything. It does not have the massive stained glass windows of other Gothic Cathedrals in Spain and France, but what it lacks in glass it makes up for in stone. This is a shot of the ceiling in the nave. The Mass was lovely, […]