Pilgrims on the Way

The town of Estella is nestled in a steep river valley. The banks rise up into craggy hills throughout the town, giving it a fairly vertical topography. There are quite a few places where streets suddenly give way to long flights of stone stairs. On the left of this photo is the shored up plateau on which sits the Iglesia […]

These four figures may be found on the façade of the Iglesia San Miguel in Estella. Who are they? Buoyed by the certainty that the rightmost figure was Saint Peter – the keys are a giveaway – I leapt to the conclusion that they were apostles. Unfortunately, the two center figures are wearing a crown and a miter, so that […]

After settling into our albergue, I ran over to the nearby church, also dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel. This is the view as you approach, but it’s nothing compared to the closeups. This is my third Saint Michael today: first the hermitage, then the albergue, and now the church. Turns out there would be fourth before the day was […]

As it enters Estella, the Camino follows the bank of the Río Ega, which winds its way through the town. We soon pass by the the unfinished and partially ruined Iglesia de Santo Sepulcro. Construction began in the early 12th century, when the church was the headquarters of a group called the Cofradía del Santo Sepulcro (Brotherhood of the Holy […]

The town of Estella is serious about pilgrim hospitality. After all, they’ve got to live up to their reputation! Of the four albergues listed, we headed over to the parroquial, which was named after Saint Michael. Seemed appropriate after spending quite some time in his hermitage earlier. In town, we ran into many of the pilgrims we’d been walking with […]

This pilgrim fountain is right before the town of Estella. The engraved words are those of Aymeric Picaud, a twelfth century monk and pilgrim. He is quoted in the Codex Calixtinus as saying that Estella had “good bread, excellent wine, plenty of meat and fish and every kind of happiness” for pilgrims. And indeed, it still does. Date: 05 April […]

Eamon says hello to a local horse as we pass through a farm, while a local canine feigns disinterest. We are crossing the last bits of rural countryside as we approach the large town of Estella, our destination for the night. The three of us, Eamon, Petra, and I, walk each of us alone and lost in our thoughts. Date: […]

The papers and notes that littered the floor and altar of the Ermita de San Miguel proved to be a kaleidoscope of prayers and other messages left by pilgrims over the last several years. They were written in every language you could imagine. This is a representative sample of the English notes, but there were thousands. I can’t speak for […]

The interior of the Ermita de San Miguel was plain and unadorned. I later learned that there had been some carved decoration, but that it had all been removed to a nearby museum. The thing that immediately struck us, though, was that virtually every elevated portion of the interior, and even parts of the floor, were covered with pieces of […]