Porte Saint-Jacques de Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port owes its name to its situation: at the foot of the "port" of Roncesvalles, the pass of Cize of the Book of Saint James, which the three roads of the north cross together to pass into Navarre. Capital of the Lower Navarre, the upper town surrounded itself in the 13th and 14th centuries with an enclosure pierced by five gates; the porte Saint-Jacques, the easternmost, is the one by which the pilgrims coming from Ostabat arrive. They then go down the rue de la Citadelle, between the houses of pink sandstone with dated lintels, cross the Nive by the pont Notre-Dame, beneath the church, and come out again by the porte d'Espagne for the climb to the pass a thousand metres higher up: some twenty-five kilometres to Roncesvalles, the longest and the hardest of the stages. In the 17th century Vauban endowed the town with a citadel and reworked the porte Saint-Jacques in 1685, the only one of the five to have been altered. A plain sandstone arch in a wall, it was classified with the enclosure in 1986 and inscribed in 1998 among the components of the roads of Saint James in France: not for its architecture, but for what it has seen pass. It still sees, every morning of the fine season, walkers who have just collected their pilgrim's credential there and set off towards the mountain.

Wikipédia — Porte Saint-Jacques ↗

Getting there : Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is served by train from Bayonne. The gate is at the top of the rue de la Citadelle, freely accessible at any hour; the pilgrims' reception is in the same street. From the gate one goes down the paved street to the pont Notre-Dame over the Nive, then out by the porte d'Espagne towards the road to the pass.

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

Ambient sound