Estella

Estella, known in Basque as Lizarra, is a municipality in Navarra situated on the Ega river. The town was founded in 1090 by King Sancho Ramírez of Navarra specifically to support pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, making it one of the few cities in Europe conceived explicitly for the pilgrimage.

The architectural heritage is exceptional. The Palace of the Kings of Navarra, a twelfth-century Romanesque secular building with an arcaded ground floor, is one of the finest surviving examples of Romanesque civic architecture in Iberia. The church of San Pedro de la Rúa has a remarkable Romanesque cloister, and the church of San Miguel on the opposite bank has an elaborate carved north portal.

For pilgrims, Estella is one of the major historic stops on the Camino Frances, a full-service town with the architectural density of a medieval city rather than a village, and a natural rest point before the wine fountain stage ahead.