Obanos

A stele on the edge of the path that rises up to the Shrine Chapel of Santa María de Arnotegui now recalls what happened and that he is buried in the chapel. A pilgrimage takes place there on the Sunday after Easter Sunday and the Sunday before last of September. The skull of St. William, encased in silver, is kept as a relic in the sacristy of the Church of St. John the Baptist. One curious tradition is that water with wine, poured over the sacred relic, is distributed to the town people on the Thursday after Easter Sunday.

This church was built in the neo-Gothic style to replace an earlier one that was in the former cooperative building. Some materials of the portal, the portico arches, the tower and, lower down, the vaulting of the early main nave from the 13th century were used from the old church. There are two large Romanesque sculptures – one of St. John the Baptist from the 16th century and the other of Virgin and Child upright with St. John at her feet.

The population of Obanos is proud of its past and its relationship with the Junta de Infanzones, the Council of Lower Nobility set up in the reign of Sancho VII the Strong to defend themselves from the abuses of the aristocracy and the pillaging by wrongdoers. Tensions rose further in the two first decades of the 14th century to such a point that some leaders were fined, imprisoned and even executed. The monarchs Joan and Philip of Évreux agreed to swear to abide by the charter privileges and accept the traditional laws or charters; they demanded the dissolution of all the boards and councils. Thus, in 1329, the Junta de Obanos archive and seal were handed over to the royal authority.

As you stroll through Obanos, you will come across beautiful noble houses, such as the House of the Former Hospital, now the Obanos Mystery Play Museum.
Obanos celebrates its patron saint’s festivities on 27 August.