Ujué

Human settlement around Ujué predates the Romans — archaeological finds point to Basque-Vasconian communities scattered across the sierra, and Roman-era altars dedicated to Jupiter and a local deity called Lacubegi were found near the hermitage of Santa María la Blanca. Excavations in 2009 uncovered the remains of an earlier pre-Romanesque church and late-Roman burials beneath the current fortress-church.

The first written record of the place, as Santa María de Uxue, dates from the late eighth or early ninth century, when Íñigo Arista built the original castle as a forward defence of his kingdom against Islam spreading through the Ribera. The town became a royal settlement around 1076 under Sancho Ramírez, the first king of Pamplona and Aragón, who founded the fortress-church of Santa María and granted the town a charter guaranteeing its people freedom from lordship.

When Alfonso the Battler pushed the Muslim frontier further south, Ujué lost its strategic importance and many inhabitants left for the plains. Its fortunes revived under the House of Évreux: King Carlos II and his son Carlos III showed particular devotion to the sanctuary here. Carlos III organised regular pilgrimages from his court at Olite, a practice continued by his daughter Queen Blanca of Navarra, who asked in her will to be buried in Ujué's church — a wish that went unfulfilled due to the civil wars then tearing through the Kingdom of Navarra.

The centrepiece of Ujué is the fortress-church of Santa María, a Romanesque structure later remodelled in the Gothic style during the 1370s and 1380s. It combines a broad Gothic nave and choir with three Romanesque apses: the central apse preserves fine Romanesque arches, while the lateral ones feature columns with unusual carved capitals and blind arcaded windows. The church is encircled by a defensive wall with crenellated towers and walkways, of which two towers survive — the Torre de los Cuatro Vientos and the Torre de los Picos. A south-facing viewpoint gives wide views across the Ribera de Navarra.

Inside, behind Gothic ironwork, stands the Romanesque Virgin of Ujué, carved around 1190 and later covered in a silver casing. The church also holds the preserved heart of King Carlos II of Navarra in a small chest near the apse. The building was declared a National Monument in 1936.

To the north of the church, in an area known as the Castillazo, stand the ruins of what was to become Carlos II's university — construction was abandoned for lack of funds — along with a cistern and the site of the castle's keep. The parish house to the south, a five-storey building also associated with Carlos II, features arrow slits on its lower floors and two dramatic balconies supported by large corbels.

The village's stone houses reward a slow walk: doorways range from Romanesque round arches to Gothic pointed arches and later flattened arches, several dating back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Notable examples can be found in the Plaza Mayor and on streets including Calle Pilarraña and Calle Villeta. Windows throughout the village are typically small — built that way deliberately to keep out the wind — with the most decorative being the late-Gothic ogee-arched examples.

Other religious monuments include the ruined Romanesque-Gothic church of San Miguel in the lower part of the village, and the hermitage of La Blanca, 9 km away on the road to Murillo el Fruto. A carved stone cross from the sixteenth century stands at a road junction 1.5 km outside the village.