Unzué / Untzue - Navarra Media

At the foot of the towering Peña Unzué

Unzué/Untzue is a municipality in the Valdorba Valley at the foot of the towering Peña Unzué. This mountain, which rises up 987 metres, not only looms over the landscape, but also strengthens the symbolic link with the Olentzero, who legend has it lives alone in the mountains and comes down to the towns and villages on Christmas Eve. The Peña’s rocky silhouette, visible from much of Central Navarre, adds a mythical touch.

The landscape around Unzué is made up of ravines, alternating with scrub and pasture land, with native forests of gall oaks, Aleppo pines, oaks and beech in the Sierra de Alaiz mountains.

The biodiversity includes wild orchids and fauna such as roe deer, boars and birds of prey.

The first recorded reference to Unzué dates back to 1093, in the Privilegium Magnum of King Sancho Ramírez of Aragon. In 1264, King Teobald II of Navarre made unintentional homicide not punishable there and in 1335, its royal possessions were ceded to Teresa Almoravid and Pedro Ibáñez de Leet. The book Unzué, sus casas y sus gentes [Unzué, its Houses and its People], the result of over ten years’ research, narrates the local history from its origins to the 20th century.

Unzué’s rich heritage lies in its Church of San Millán, with a medieval structure extended in the 16th century and the 17th-century Baroque altarpiece, and in the Aljibe Cistern, a Romanesque structure dating back to between 1180 and 1250; it stands at the entrance to the town and was rediscovered and restored in 2017.

The Artusia rock shelter, a Mesolithic site excavated between 2009 and 2010, connects the municipality with Navarre’s prehistoric origins. Recent digs on the summit of Peña de Unzué have been searching for Guerga Castle, a medieval fortress that continues to be an essential part of the town’s historical identity.

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