Chapelle Saint-Nicolas d'Harambeltz

Ostabat-Asme

Harambeltz, "the black valley" in Basque, is a hamlet of four houses gathered round a chapel, in the woods before Ostabat. It is here, a few kilometres away, that the Book of Saint James makes the three roads of the north converge before the pass of Cize. The hospital of Saint-Nicolas existed before the chapel: a bequest of a hundred sous morlans, in 1059, in the will of Loup-Eneco, father of the first viscount of Baïgorry, then a rent in 1106, where it is named Hospitale sancti Nicolai de Arambels. Rarely, it depends on no order: four families of donats — Sala, Etxeberria, Borda and Etxeto — hold it and elect their prior, a notable who sits in the Estates of Navarre. The chapel, built at the end of the 12th or in the 13th century, is a plain rectangular room of thirteen metres by eight, with a flat chevet, whose round-arched door carries a Romanesque tympanum decorated with a chrismon. Inside, a homogeneous decoration of the 17th century: a gallery with balusters, a panelled vault painted with the four evangelists, a great retable of Saint Nicholas of Bari hiding a painted cross of the 16th century. The priory-hospital disappeared in 1784, when the king suppressed these small establishments; sold as national property, it was bought back in 1795 by the descendants of the donats, who are its owners still. The hospital building, drawn by Odilon Redon in 1866, has since disappeared.

Wikipédia — Chapelle d'Harambeltz ↗

Getting there : From Saint-Palais or Ostabat by the D 933, then the small road to the hamlet (signposted); or on foot by the GR 65, the Aroue-Ostabat section being inscribed on the World Heritage list. The chapel still belongs to the families of the hamlet: it is open only for accompanied visits (Saint-Palais tourist office, in season) — enquire before coming.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound