Ujué and its fortress church

Ujué is a medieval village hanging from a hill east of Olite, at 815 metres above sea level and with about 200 inhabitants, part of the Most Beautiful Villages of Spain network since 2017. Its narrow, steep streets of limestone houses climb to the church of Santa María la Real, a fortress-church with a wall-walk from which, on clear days, you can see the Pyrenees to the north. It is one of the prettiest excursions from Olite and deserves half a day.

A little history

According to the University of Navarra's Heritage Chair, the present village was born at the end of the 8th century or the start of the 9th around a fortress, a defensive outpost of the kingdom of Pamplona. Legend tells that a dove guided a peasant to the cave where the image of the Virgin was hidden, and that is where the name would come from. The kings of the House of Évreux were closely tied to the shrine: Charles II wanted his heart to be deposited here, Charles III gave a silver chalice that is now kept in the Museo de Navarra, and Queen Blanche I instituted in 1436 the novenas to the Virgen de Ujué.

The fortress church

Santa María la Real was built between the 11th and 14th centuries, with a Romanesque part and a Gothic one, and has been a National Monument since 1936. It has a single, very wide nave, with a transept and triple apse, and capitals decorated with plant, animal and human motifs. The 14th-century Gothic doorway is considered a masterpiece, with archivolts decorated with grape-harvest scenes. Of the crenellated towers that surrounded it, the Four Winds Tower and the Picos Tower survive.

Around it runs the wall-walk, a passage that circles the church and works as a viewpoint over central Navarre. The old castle courtyard, with its cistern, is also preserved.

How to visit

The church and wall-walk are visited from Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 18:00, approximate hours; on Mondays, check. It costs €2. On Sundays there is Mass at 11:00. The Reyna de Copas wine shop runs in Ujué a 90-minute guided visit with a glass of wine and live music, for €18. Dogs may walk on a lead through the streets, but may not enter the church.

Getting there

From Olite it is about 20 km by mountain road, passing San Martín de Unx, which has a Romanesque crypt: allow half an hour. You get there by the NA-5311 and there is a paved car park at the foot of the walled enclosure, from where you walk up through the village. The slopes are steep: with a pushchair, a baby carrier is better. To round off the day, the Pitillas lagoon and the monastery of La Oliva lie to the south, in the same region.