Pilgrimages to Ujué

Several Central Navarre towns and villages continue the tradition of going on a pilgrimage on foot to Ujué/Uxue on the Sunday after 25 April every year. What was mainly a religious event centuries ago, and which still holds that same importance for some people, has become for most a community event that ends with a lunch or meal as a reward for the kilometres travelled. Most people leave their village in the early hours of the morning and walk to the Fortress Church of Ujué/Uxue to visit the star of the proceedings: the statue of the Virgin Mary. An effigy shrouded in legend and whose name is the same as the town where it is kept.