History

Pamplona: The Ancient History of Iruña and Pompaelo

An ancient highway for the first people of this area was created by the River Arga.  It begins in the Pyrenees and flows off the mountains through a valley where the river bends around a small hill on its way to meet with the river Ebro.

The peoples of ancient Spain settled on this hill where the Arga provided water and a natural barrier for the northern defense of the town. The surrounding valley would become one of the first points of entry into Iberia, for those ancient peoples that crossed the Pyrenees.

It isn´t known when the Basques first settled this region of Northern Spain (their origins remain a mystery and their language is completely isolated). But since before recorded history, this hill, and the Arga next to it, became such an important settlement that the Vascones made it their capital and very simply called it The Town, or Iruña, in the Basque language (a name still in use today).  Pottery fragments and other recent findings found on this hill have been dated to the 5th century BC.

The written record of Iruña begins with the Roman conquest of Spain, and in particular, with a renegade general and a fascinating figure of the first century BC named Sertorius. After conquering, out-maneuvering all of his enemies and essentially ruling Roman Spain as his own colony for a number of years, he civilized Romanized the land from his base in Osca, the modern city of Huesca (where he set up his own government, senate, schools and army.)

Hispania (the Roman name for modern Spain and Portugal) had always been one of the richest of the Roman provinces, and Roman Senate wanted to bring Sertorius under the law.  To that end, the general Pompey (the same man who would later become the famous rival of Julius Caesar) was given the mandate to bring his army to the province, with the idea of taking it back for Rome.  He departed for Hispania in 76 BC.

Towards the end of the year 75 BC, Pompey and his army came upon the same hill by the Arga that had been settled by the Basques and named Iruña.  We are told by ancient sources that he and his army spent the winter there, alongside the Basque settlement, where it was protected by the rivers’ natural defenses.  As was a common practice of Roman generals of the day, he renamed the town and burgeoning city Pompaelo, and did much to ensure its survival after he picked up the march against Sertorius in the spring of 74 BC.

The campaign proved very difficult.  Pompey (already perhaps Rome’s greatest general of the day) would spend the next 6 years in pursuit of Sertorius, another master-general, who could never be taken or defeated on the battlefield.   Sertorious’ campaign was only stopped by a group of conspirators in his own ranks, who stabbed him to death at a banquet in Osca.  Without Sertorious, the remaining army was easy to pick apart.  Pompey would return to Rome and never again set foot in Pompaelo, but had left his mark on the city which would come to remember Pompey for incorporating it into the Roman Empire and spawning one of the great cities of  Northern Spain.  The name Pompaelo would later become to be known as Pamplona.

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Today, that little hill by the river Arga is still under the area of the old town known as La Navarreria (the neighborhood closest to the Cathedral).  After over 2500 years of building upon the same area, little remains to be seen, but much of Ancient Pamplona still exists underneath. In the last couple years, the neighborhood of La Navarreria has become the focus of much archeological work.

Only a couple months ago a number of Roman mosaics were dug up (and as of November 2008 are still exposed) on Calle Curia (see article).  Archeologists familiar with Pamplona were greatly surprised with the extent of Ancient Pompaelo when Roman baths were discovered underneath the Plaza del Castillo.  It is known that the city consisted of a market and forum on the highest point of the city nearby the Cathedral.  There apparently existed a religious temple (possibly underneath the Cathedral), and another one dedicated to Diana (between the current Ayuntamiento building and the church of San Saturnino, there is a large mural of Diana which refers to ancient structure nearby).

Excavated Roman mosaic under Calle Curia, perhaps part of an ancient bath complex

The presence of the baths now seems to indicate that Pompaelo was a larger, more developed city than had been previously considered.  It is assumed that the mosaics recently found underneath Calle Curia form part of the same bath complex that was found on the southern end of the ancient city.  How far these ancient ruins extend in other directions of the city is not known.  New estimates must be made but they require more study and more efforts in conserving those parts of Pompaelo that surface.

Part of the bath complex underneath the Plaza del Castillo can be seen today on the first floor of the parking garage that was built beneath it.  The remainder of the complex was destroyed, a subject which turned very controversial upon the discovery of the ruins in 2001 (see article in El Pais).   In 2005, more ruins next to the church of San Fermín de Aldapa were found and then also covered up, adding another chapter to an ongoing controversy with Ayuntamiento.

There will doubtless be more findings in the years to come of Ancient Pamplona.  For the easiest visit, its best to see the first floor of the Museo de Navarra (on Cuesta de Santo Domingo).

Much of what you see today in the old part of Pamplona is from the town’s growth during the Middle Ages, a fascinating period which will be explored in another entry.