Pamplona is the political, administrative, economic and cultural de Navarra. Marked by the San Fermin and the Camino de Santiago, the old walled city today runs on the Arga River and is adjacent to continuous urban municipalities, home to a quarter million people. Apart from the appeal of the historic center, the traveler finds in Pamplona a dynamic, varied urban, modern architecture mostly restored in the old towns, with a diverse and active trade, numerous green areas and meeting places.

A basic walk to see the city begins with the Baroque façade of the Town Hall in Old Town. We will, on the right, Merchants Street, to follow Curia to the cathedral, imposing in his great neoclassical facade, but inside and wonderful French Gothic cloister. Once seen, by the square of San Jose in the west, we headed toward the stronghold of the Redin, to watch from a balcony on the walls portal or Zumalacárregui France. Or if we wish, after resting in medieval recreation of the White Horse inn, walk the walk round until you reach the Piazza Santa Maria la Real, where the building is baroque Archbishop’s Palace.

In France ends portal Carmen Street, which meets in a small square of irregular Navarrería chaired by the baroque facade of the palace of the Marquis de Rozalejo and one of the sources of Paret opened for the first water supply to the city in the second half of the eighteenth century. Returning to the confluence of streets Navarrería, Mañueta, Curia, Boiler and Merchants, Town Hall way we will run first, with most of the streets of Pamplona bullfighting, that of Estafeta, the most famous stretch of the San Fermin bull running, and second with the slope of Chapitela, leading to the Plaza del Castillo.

Again in the City, to his left begins the village of San Cernin, the employer who is dedicated to the Gothic church, fortified towers in the past. If you find your door closed, maybe get in through the side of the street Ansoleaga, leading to the chapel of the Virgen del Camino, Baroque and raised in the grounds of the former cloister of San Cernin or San Saturnino.

At the junction of Mayor Street, Campana and Jarauta, an inscription on the floor indicates the well where, according to tradition, St. Saturnin baptized the first Christians of Pamplona. Main Street comes to the church of San Lorenzo, where the chapel of San Fermin and Recoletas Square, opposite the gardens of the Taconera. Before we can admire the magnificent Baroque facade of the palace Ezpeleta.

If, instead of down Main Street, continue through the Ansoleaga to the square of San Francisco, pass by the Counting House, the only civil Gothic building in the city today continues to fulfill the same purpose for which it was built in the Middle Ages. Two buildings flanking the plaza monumental: the municipal schools of San Francisco, preceded by a sculpture dedicated to the saint of Assisi and the beautiful building of The Farm, home of the Main Library.

Another possibility is to go down the street Jarauta at least lowering, the start of the Rue de los Descalzos, to the Museum of Navarre, which has a baroque facade belongs to the old Hospital. It is worth visiting for its magnificent collection of mosaics and Roman remains, its Gothic frescoes and the Hispano-Arabic casket of ivory and the picture of the Marquis de San Adrian, Francisco de Gaya. It is also emblematic host temporary exhibitions.

From the Museum, leaving the left the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and the newly renovated building by Rafael Manea Royal Palace, now the headquarters of the Royal and General Archive of Navarre, descended to the church of the Dominicans and the Baroque facade. Opposite are the rear of City Hall and, on one side, the flirtatious market of Santo Domingo, recently renovated. On the same side of the Dominicans, but the other end, is the seminary of San Juan, also rehabilitated building, which houses the Municipal Archives and Museum Pablo Sarasate, with memories of the great violinist and composer.

It remains to cross the last of the towns that made up the old Pamplona: San Nicolas, located at E. the San Cernin. First traversal outer edge Chapitela up the street to the Plaza del Castillo. It is a typical square with arcades, full of lively terrace in fine weather.

Opposite opens a wide avenue, that of Charles III, which begins with the neoclassical palace of the Provincial Council, the seat of Government of Navarra.

Following the arcade, here called «arcades», you enter a beautiful boulevard chaired by the statue of the monument to the Privileges of Navarre, erected by public subscription in 1903 as a manifestation of the decision to keep the spirit of the private laws of the kingdom against to attempts by the Finance Minister Gamazo. It’s called «Gamazada» which took place between 1893 and 1895.

Or stroll the boulevard de Sarasate linking the old with the new Pamplona city created by the Second Eixample. In the center of his right side stands the church of St. Nicholas, which alone holds important Roman remains and transition. Sarasate’s Walk is closed with the eclectic building of the former Audiencia, today seat of the Parliament of Navarre, one of several that have been preserved specimens of the «First Eixample» of the city. The axis of the village street was and is the Shoe, which conserves stately buildings, among which Guendulain Palace, whose facade facing the square of the Council, which is another source of Paret surmounted by a Neptune with his angelic trident. It is near the aforementioned San Francisco. They also stress the eighteenth-city palaces of the numbers 40 and 50. Near the Paseo de Sarasate, behind the Parliament of Navarre, stands the Palacio de Congresos y Auditorio de Navarra Baluarte, a culture icon due to musical and theatrical Mangado Francisco architect laureate.

The Avenida de Carlos III, that part of the Castle Square is a shopping street, where, in addition to the Palacio de la Diputación, are emblematic buildings like the Theater Gayarre, or architecturally interesting as the Savings Bank Navarra. Here you can admire the monument to King Carlos III, where the avenue was born, and the monument to Confinement, at the intersection of Roncesvalles Avenue and cross the square and the Merindades-circular garden with a fountain in the center – and, closing the avenue on the east, Plaza Conde de Rodezno and the monument to the Fallen, already quoted, and which now houses art exhibitions.

But the most important hub of the city, which crosses from north to south is constituted by the Avenue de la Baja Navarra, which continues in the Army and the Avenue of Bayonne. This, finally, links the district of San Juan to St. George, on the one hand, and the Ermitagaña-Mendebaldea and Barañáin municipality, on the other. 

The transition from old to Pamplona Iruña art is through the green belt formed Taconera gardens and parks of the Citadel and Vuelta del Castillo. The first, the oldest, is a typical romantic spacious park rides and cozy corners. It contains the remains of the old site of St. Nicholas and, among others, the monument to the tenor Julian navarro Gayarre. The park is also a botanical garden and its pits have been transformed into a small zoo, where they live deer, peacocks, ducks and swans.

Another park ancient, romantic, is the Crescent, which stretches from the Plaza de Toros, first by the Bastion of San Bartolomé and then along the cliff over the river Arga loamy until the Seminary building. It is the monuments to Juan Pablo Sarasate and Huarte de San Juan and various pergolas and ponds.

Modern design, based on fields of grass and trees, are the Biurdana, bordering the suburb of San Juan, on the Arga, the Vaguada, as completion of the Avenue de Sancho el Fuerte to the NO, the beautiful campus garden of the University of Navarra and the newest of Yamaguchi-due to the Japanese city twinning with Pamplona, which hosts one of its limits, near the garden created in the style of the East, the Planetarium, and the new district of Pamplona Mendillorri, raised around a beautiful lake and a turreted palace of the seventeenth century. Very popular and crowded is the Arga River Park, a trail beside the river that runs through the city following its meandering course.

Good Luck!