Ujué / Uxue

This beautiful charter town has kept its original medieval feel in its streets, structure and its houses. The Basilica of Santa María looms over the town and a maze of cobblestone streets descend from there like a lava flow. This Romanesque building was constructed on a pre-Romanesque one, of which only the triple apse remained.

King Charles II of Navarre later had the large Gothic nave built and the church surrounded with parapet walks and crenellated towers (of which only two remain: the tower of the Four Winds and the one of the Spikes) which make it more fort-like. The church – and this is no longer a legend – has in its safekeeping the heart of a king, Charles II the Bad, who wanted his heart to rest in the basilica forever as a sign of his great devotion to the Virgin Mary. This is one of the main places of Marian devotion in Navarre.

And as comes as no surprise whatsoever, Ujué, home of shepherding traditions, proudly preserves ‘the migas’, the traditional shepherd’s meal of fried breadcrumbs and chorizo sausages; so much so that thousands of people visit this charter town on the Day of the Migas, organised to maintain and promote our culinary pride.