The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James

the blues that I was glad to hasten away and mount the hill towards the village of Lorca, where, according to Lacarra, there was in 1209 a hospital dependent on the Monastery of Our Lady of Roncesvalles. At Lorca I rested in a tavern, where I met a Good Samaritan: he gave me a seat beside him on his van and we soon reached the city of Estella.
    According to Aymery Picaud the third stage of the Jacobean journey by road ends at Estella. These stages vary in distance, but most of them are calculated for horsemen, for the fourth stage from Estella to Nájera is seventy-six and the fifth from Nájera to Burgos is ninety kilometres, both far beyond the day’s tramp of the most ambitious foot-slogger.
    Estella was universally popular among the mediaeval pilgrims, because there they found excellent bread, wine, fish and meat. According to Aymery, it was full of every blessing. The thirteenth-century writer, Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, in his book, De Miraculis, describes the town thus: ‘In the land of Spain there is a noble and famous castle, which, owing to its fair situation, and its fertile fields and its numerous inhabitants, surpasses all other castles in the neighbourhood. It is called Estella.’ In the fifteenth century the minstrels, who were always good judges, by experience, of the comparative virtues of the towns in which they sang and fiddled, praised the town calling her Estella la bella and the roguish Picara Justina quotes the proverb: Camarra y campanas: Estella la bella, Pamplona la bona, Olite y Tafalla, la flor de Navarra, y sobre todo, puentes y aguas (sheepskin and bells; Estella the fair, Pamplona the wealthy, Olite and Tafalla, the flower of Navarre, and above all, bridges and water).
    The pilgrims in the early centuries mostly sought their lodgings in the district of San Martin which was reserved for the francos —namely, the specially privileged foreigners, and this became the shopping and trading centre.
    There is an interesting story of how Estella came under the patronage of St. Andrew the Apostle. About 1270, the Bishop of Patras arrived at Estella carrying in his scrip in a casket a precious relic, which was a shoulder blade of St. Andrew who had been martyrized in Patras. The bishop arrived on foot, without any servants, for he was resolved to humble himself and mortify his flesh. At Estella he fell ill, and as he did not declare who he was, he lay among the crowd of poor pilgrims in the hospital, where he died after a few days, with the box containing the relic attached to his body. He was duly buried in the cloisters of the Church of San Pedro, and on the night following the funeral the sacristan noticed lights on the grave of the pilgrim bishop. On the following nights the same light was observed by the clerics of the church. When they exhumed the body of the bishop, they discovered next to his body the casket containing the relic of St. Andrew and other relics, such as the head of a crozier, two wine vessels for the Mass and silk gloves. The relic of the Saint was placed in a reliquary of gold by Charles II the Bad in 1374. *
    The pilgrims entered the city by the gate of San Agustín, where there was in the twelfth century a hospice, and they crossed the river Ega, one of the sweet-water rivers recommended by Aymery Picaud. The shopping street was called in the Middle Ages Rúa de las Tiendas, and today is called calle de la Rúa. This and the plaza San Martin constituted the economic centre of the city, which was full of francos or free men, many of whom were from across the Pyrenees. There were many Jews, too, in this quarter of the city settled by the sands of the riverside, which was called El Arenal. The Jews were driven out in 1266 from this quarter and established themselves in a ghetto around the castle which they fortified. It is interesting for Jewish historians to note than in 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Castile and Aragon, the King and Queen of Navarre, Catherine and Juan de Labrit, wrote to the city council of Estella, urging them to give the exiled Jews free passage and help, and recommending them ‘to settle as many in Estella as possible, for they are a docile people, easily subject to reason’. * Unfortunately the council had to give way to the general anti-Jewish feeling and drive them out. They were too prosperous, and the townspeople coveted their wealth. Also noteworthy was the Tabla de Cambio or Exchange Table of Estella, which was common in