Villatuerta-Bilatorta (Navarra) (0)

Did you know that... Villatuerta - Bilatorta

Located in the middle of Navarra in the valley of La Solana, is divided into two neighborhoods by the river Iranzu. Villatuerta was born in history with the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago, which passed through this town on the Pamplona-Estella route, although two Roman funerary inscriptions have appeared in its municipality, one of them dedicated to Octavia, the daughter of Pudente, thirty years old, suggesting that it has Roman origins. In 1061 Sancho el de Peñalén donated to Leire the Monastery of San Miguel de Villatuerta, with all its lands and vineyards.

A little more history

Villatuerta was a fief that passed from one lord to another. Its inhabitants were peasants although it seems that there was also some noble lineage living in the village. Villatuerta lacked natural defences and medieval defensive bastions and was therefore razed to the ground in almost all wars, from the reconquest to the wars with Castile. The nineteenth century with the War of Independence, against the French, and Carlist wars, was not conducive either.

To discover What to see in Villatuerta - Bilatorta?

Of the importance of Villatuerta on the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago during the Middle Ages, there is the Romanesque bridge over the river Iranzu, dating from the 13th century, as well as the large number of hermitages built in the village, of which few remain standing. The one of San Román is inside the urban helmet between the two districts that compose the town, it is of medieval origin of Romanesque style of the year 1200, of the one of Santa Lucía only the ruins remain and the one of San Miguel, to half kilometer of the town to the exit of the Way, constructed at the end of century X, is the oldest monument of the town and only rest of the monastery of his name that was donated to Leire. Villatuerta also exhibits one of the crosses, which due to its circular shape and its cross, may be older than the numerous that mark the entire Jacobean route, which are usually Gothic in the sixteenth century.

Festivities

The patron saint fiestas are celebrated in honour of the Virgin around 15 August. The patron saint San Veremundo is honored and celebrated around the 8th of March, to honor the popular saying: Mientras el world es world, el 8 de marzo San Veremundo.​

Traditions

San Veremundo was abbot of the Monastery of Irache. The honour of being his birthplace was disputed by Villatuerta and Arellano and for this reason, when in 1839 the Benedictines were definitively expelled from Irache and the relics of San Veremundo transferred to Ayegui, Villatuerta and Arellano decided to take them, but it was two years later, in 1841, when the two villages agreed on the alternative of distributing the relics for five years, a tradition that still continues today, with the urn being moved solemnly every five years.

Curiosities

Villatuerta did not have defence, castle or tower, at least until the year 1200 and people were protected, in case of danger, in underground galleries of which there are still some vestiges.

The Legend

It is well known that San Veremundo was the patron saint of the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela and since 1969, patron saint of the Jacobean route in Navarra. Being the doorman of the monastery, his kindness and dedication to the pilgrims made him an authentic promoter of the Way. Having said this, legend has it that one day he carried some pieces of bread for the poor, hidden among the habits, and as when the abbot asked him what he was wearing hidden, he answered that he was carrying some splinters, then the abbot asked to see him and miraculously the pieces of bread had become splinters.