El High of Forgiveness o Puerto del Perdón is 770 meters away. altitude and is framed in the Sierra del Perdón, or Reniega / Erreniega, in Basque, is located in the Foral Community of Navarra and located about 13 Kms from Pamplona. We will be able to see, along this mountain range, the first wind farm that was built in Navarra, marked by 40 “windmills”
According to many organizing companies of the Camino de Santiago It is one of the most representative points of the French Way, an obligatory step that is between the stage that runs between Pamplona and Puente la Reina, which is the one carried out by most of the pilgrims who make the Camino de Santiago from Roncesvalles.
Índice de contenidos
MEANING OF THE HIGH OF FORGIVENESS
Apparently, the name of “Forgiveness” comes from the old route that in the XNUMXth century ascended to Alto, from the town of Astrain, and which was known as “Perdonanza bidea” (I walk towards him Forgiveness), which involved the completion of the Camino de Santiago, receiving the name by which it is known today.
MONUMENT TO THE PILGRIM
From this viewpoint you can see magnificent views of the Navarrese Pyrenees and the farmland in the direction of Estella. Erected in it, we have a sculptural group that is one of the most photographed of all the complete itinerary of the French Way. It is a “Monument to the Way ”built, with metal sheet, in 1996 by the sculptor Vicente Galbete.
Represents a pilgrims caravan, all times, as well as some animals that accompany them to Santiago guided by the Via Láctea, where the following text reads: “Where the path of the wind meets that of the stars”, reference made to the privileged place where pilgrims and wind meet.
LEGEND OF THE SOURCE OF RENIEGA IN THE ASCENT ALTO
Before reaching the Alto del Perdón and after having passed through the town of Zaraquiegui, we find one of the many legends that we can find along the Camino de Santiago, the one that took place in the place known as “Fuente de Reniega”, also called Gambellacos.
This legend tells us the temptation suffered by a thirsty and exhausted pilgrim on his ascent to Alto del Perdón, by of the Devil, so that he would renounce his Christian faith, as well as God, the Virgin Mary and Santiago Apóstol, offering him water to drink from a nearby stream, to which after numerous attempts the pilgrim denied.
Immediately, the young man prepares to pray to heaven imploring help and that’s when the devil, under a sulfur cloud, vanishes and in his place appears the Apostle Santiago dressed as a pilgrim and guides him up to the hidden crystalline fountain and gives him a drink of the water in his own scallop shell.
In the vicinity of this emblematic monument, on the way to Puente la Reina in the town of Muruzábal, we cannot avoid deviating from the route to visit one of the most templar Romanesque jewels beautiful and esoteric of the Camino de Santiago Frances as is the church of Santa Maria de Eunate.
