ARTAJONA, the most complete walled enclosure in Navarra

DESCRIPTION AND WHAT TO SEE IN ARTAJONA

Artajona is a town of 1.600 inhabitants famous for its Cerco at the top of the hill, which preserves its walls and nine of its fourteen towers. Entering the Siege is taking us back to the Middle Ages to imagine battles and sieges. Construction began in 1805 under the auspices of the canons of Saint Sernin, of Toulouse, and the works were completed in 1109. The church of Saint Saturnin dominates the complex, which is more than a church, it is a fortress, with its high walls, its tower lookout and its curious cover that includes a promenade and inverted vaults covered in stone to channel rainwater to the cistern.

The Siege of Artajona

In the highest part of Artajona stands one of the most important fortifications of medieval Navarra. This walled complex, which dates back to the 11th century, is known as “El Cerco” and inside it preserves the church-fortress of San Saturnino (13th century), declared a historical-artistic monument. Read more

The medieval fortress is made up of 14 crenellated towers, although currently only 9 remain distributed along the wall, and to access its interior, the visitor must go through one of the two primitive portals that are preserved, that of San Miguel and the one from Remahua. Walking through its interior allows the visitor to go back in time to medieval times and imagine the place full of kings, nobles on horseback, minstrels and bishops dressed in heavy robes. The stately image of the walls is crowned by the church-fortress of San Saturnino (2), an imposing and solid building built in the XNUMXth century on the ruins of a Romanesque temple. This church was also part of the defense, as reflected by its robust walls and buttresses, the walkway over the vault of the nave that served as a dungeon, the water well, the use they made of the sacristy as a prison and the prismatic tower. of the s. XIV used as a guard post in the s. XV. The fortress church of San Saturnino (open only on specific days) preserves on its façade a monumental Gothic doorway from the late XNUMXth century. Twelve archivolts of rich and varied decoration serve as a frame for a beautiful, carefully carved tympanum. In it appear images of the martyrdom of Saint Saturninus and Queen Juana of Navarra and her husband Philip the Fair.

Basilica and hermitage

At the exit of the town, on the road that leads to Pamplona, stands the Basilica of Our Lady of Jerusalem, a baroque building built between 1709 and 1714. Read more

in which a Romanesque carving is preserved, in enameled copper that, according to legend, was brought by an Artajonese from the crusades of the Holy Land. To visit the hermitage you have to ask the friars who live in an adjacent building for the key. For its part, the hermitage of San Bartolomé is far from the town, on the road that goes to Tafalla. Although the current building dates back to the 1235th century, its existence has been documented since XNUMX, and inside it houses a monumental carving of Saint Bartholomew, from the XNUMXth century.

The bells of the Siege

Artajona boasts of being the only place in the world where the bells are banded upside down. It currently preserves four bells, two of them Roman. The oldest dates back to 1735 and the largest weighs 1.801 kilos. Since 1896, all Navarrese bell ringers have ringed the bells of Artajona at some point.

Dolmens

The dolmens of Portillo de Enériz and de la Mina, which are accessed by a path at the back of the cemetery, are one of the richest samples of Roman megalithic culture in Navarra. They have a separation slab and a double chamber and are located on mounds 20 m in diameter. There are also remains of the Neolithic huts of Dorre and Farangortea, from the first millennium BC