Roncesvalles

Roncesvalles sits below the Ibaneta pass at about nine hundred metres, and it is where most walkers on the Camino Frances finish their first day after crossing from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France, a stage that climbs over 1,200 metres and is the hardest of the route. The collegiate church of Santa Maria, consecrated in 1219, is early French Gothic, unusual in Spain, with a silver-covered Virgin; beside it are the chapel of Sancti Spiritus, the oldest building on the site, and the chapterhouse holding the tomb of Sancho VII of Navarre, who was reportedly over two metres tall. The pass is also where, in 778, the rearguard of Charlemagne's army was destroyed by Basques, an event reworked centuries later into the Song of Roland.

What you actually see

• The Gothic collegiate church - a 1219 building in French style with a silver Virgin.
• The pilgrim hostel - a large modern albergue in the historic complex.
• Sancho VII's tomb - the burial of an unusually tall Navarrese king.
• The Ibaneta pass - the crossing point above the abbey.

When to go

May to October, the main Camino season, when the pass route from France is open and the hostel busy; the high route closes in winter and walkers are diverted. Autumn brings colour to the beech woods around.

Honest expectations

Roncesvalles is essentially the abbey complex and a handful of buildings, with no village to speak of. Accommodation is dominated by the pilgrim hostel and books through the Camino system. Weather here is wet and the pass can be dangerous in bad conditions.

Nearby

The Irati forest lies east; Pamplona is forty-seven kilometres southwest along the Camino.