Pamplona Saturday

It is said that if you ask (God) on the Camino, then you shall receive!  And I did, for a dear price.  I am used to T. J Maxx prices for luggage.  It doesn't pay to buy anything too fancy because the airlines just tear it up.  I went to El Corte Ingles which is a pretty nice department store and paid 189 euros (235 dollars) for good old American made Samsonite.  Desperation!  I was happy to have a workable suitcase at whatever price.  I do like that it opens in the center giving me two different sides.  Much easier to organize.  

I went in search of the Cathedral to give thanks and stumbled upon Saint Saturnin (Saint Cernin) of Pamplona.  As I walked in the priest was beginning mass and the cantor was singing "Hallelujah," the religious one.  Hallelujah seems to be my theme in Pamplona and I am feeling it.  I stayed for the entire mass and even though I only understood a few words, I was moved.  The priest was a grey-haired balding man with somewhat of a stoop.  Clearly, he had been at it for a while.  He had such a look of wisdom and joy that I was really drawn in.  It was a beautiful service.  Hallelujah.

Saint Saurnin or Saint Cernin as he is called in Northern Spain, was the first bishop of Toulouse (France) in the third century. He came to Pamlona and converted the first Christains, including St Fermin, who would become the first bishop of Pamplona.  Pamplona venerated him as their patron saint. The main altar  has a statue of St Saturnin in the center and is surrounded by John the Baptist, Stain James, Saint Fermin and Saint Honestus. Saint Saurnin was martyred in Toulous, France in 230 C. E. by pagan priests.  He as tied by his heels to a bull and dragged to his death.

This is the Chapel of our Lady of the Way (Virgen del Camino).  Supposedly, she (the Staute) was from a church somewhere else in Spain but kept turning up here in Pamplona.  She was returned to her home church numerous times but kept showing up in Pamplona.  Finally the church was built in her honor.

A close-up of Saint James.

According to Tourist Navarre "The City Hall is in the heart of the Old Quarter of the city, and its site is not a coincidence. In 1423 King Carlos III ("el Noble") of Navarre enacted a law called "El Privilegio de la Unión" (Privilege of the Union) to put an end to centuries of bickering and confrontations between the three boroughs and located the building on the spot where the three boroughs that existed at the time (Navarrería, San Saturnino and San Nicolás) came together." It is a beautiful ornate building.

Lunch was another tortilla. This one had green peppers, red peppers, onions and ham.  And as all tortillas it was full of potatoes.

I have seen this tortilla "sandwiches" (for lack of a better word) on occasion.  The center of this one is lettuce, tomato and seafood salad. It looked good. 

At long last, the Cathedral!The Pamplona Cathedral, also known as the Santa Maria de Real was built in the fifteenth century. It has a Neoclassical façade and a gothic interior. 

The main altar was enclosed with bars and I peeped through.  The kings of Navrone were all crowned here and many buried in the cathedral.

This is Saint Fermin,also known as Saint Fermin of Amiens was a bishop and martyr.  He is the co-patron of Navarre.  He is associated with the yearly feast for the Running of the Bulls.

It was (still is) raining good and hard in Pamplona which makes sight-seeing almost impossible.  It is also very cold.  I did stop long enough to take a photo of this little guy. He was peering, longingly into the window of the shop looking for his master. I snapped my fingers so I could get a photo of his face. He had his own raincoat!

This is Avenue Calos III, a European shopping street.  They say April showers bring May flowers.  I can only imagine how beautiful this street will be in May.

The Kingdom of Navarre Website says, "When a fleeting moment becomes everlasting, it conserves all the intensity of that which made it valuable. Perhaps this was the thought of the sculptor from Bilbao Rafael Huerta when he set about creating the sculpture in honour of the Bull Run of Pamplona... 

The paradox of 'frozen dynamism' is revealed before our eyes. It seems as if the bulls want to shake free of their bronze disguise to run through the streets of Pamplona one more time behind the courageous runners before returning to their perpetual mould."

The monument dedicated to Encierro which is the Spanish name for the Running of the Bulls

This is the Escolapios which best I can tell is also called the College of Compassion.  I thought the building was so interesting.  I believe it to be a school that runs from elementary school through high school and is run by some sort of religious order.