Roncesvalles

Roncesvalles, Orreaga in Basque, is a small village and municipality in Navarre, on the river Urrobi at some 900 metres in the Pyrenees, about four kilometres from the French border as the crow flies and twenty-one by road. For most people it is not a destination but a first night: it is where walkers coming over the pass from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port end the opening stage of the French Way, the most popular variant of the Way of St. James. The collegiate church and the pilgrim hostel are effectively the village. The pass is high enough that the route over it closes in winter weather.