......I AM A PILGRIM.........

' I am a pilgrim, and a stranger.
 Travelling through this wearisome land........'

........Walking the Camino de Santiago , out of St Jean Pied de Port up to Roncesvalles , on to Pamplona and Puenta la Reina............the Camino is probably the most travelled pilgrim route in Europe , having being walked by pilgrims for more than a thousand years as they make their way across to Santiago de Compostela, and this year we walked parts of it..........

Well, maybe a few parts of it ; the routes pass fairly close to where we live in the Bearn , and about 10k south of us two or three routes join up just beyond Saint-Palais to take the path down to St Jean Pied de Port , the accepted starting point for the journey through Spain..........and all along the way are pilgrim chapels , churches and cathedrals , guiding the traveller on his wearisome way.

A mornings walk out of Saint-Palais , just before the refuge at Ostaba , we came across Saint Nicholas d'Harambeltz priory-hospital , of which the chapel and the four houses of the last brothers remain ; a respite and shade for the traveller.

A small stone-built chapel with no more than five or six rows of plain pews on either side , the ceiling was semi-circular , clad in timber boards and painted out with the sun and moon symbols either side of a medallion. The end wall was clad with the decorated screen as shown , the Virgin Mary flanked by two saints , the figure of Christ on the Cross over. The screen was showing signs of wear , the colours faded , but the peace and calm suggested a chapel much loved............very simple but very moving , and just to find it in the middle of the countryside. They say 100,000 walk the Camino every year , now , so I suppose it is not that isolated , but even so.......

Onwards through St Jean Pied de Port and after the long hard climb up the valley - a trek in one day of some 25k - you arrive at Roncesvalles , the Albergue and the Collegiate Church of St Mary, consecrated in 1219......the church is plain and simple , unadorned gothic - apart from the most splendid display of both large and small Rose windows.....and in a side aisle to the right of the alter a shrine to the Pilgrim , in a gilded alter piece.

...........and to the right of this shrine . in a chapel again to itself , a rather fine carving of Christ on the Cross.



The Spanish tradition / genre of religious polychromatic carvings is not at all well documented in the general history of western european art , and it was not until we visited ' The Sacred Made Real ' exhibition at the National Gallery in London at the start of 2010 that we were aware of it at all . The exhibition was an eye-opener ; this was the first time that many of the sculptures had been seen outside Spain, and the setting - the exhibition space for once quite dark and dramatic - added to the sense of mystery and wonder.

.....and having seen the exhibition in London , to now see the carvings here in Spain , the sculptures in their proper context , made the experience all the more rewarding. The relative darkness of the church after the brightness of the afternoon sun , the quiet , the sense of peace and contemplation.............

..........and so onwards , then , to Pamplona ........leaving the Church at Roncevalles you are confronted by the somewhat comforting site of a road sign announcing ' Santiago de Compostela 790 Km '........

...........onwards , then - at least untill the next blog................