Navarre

Geography of Navarre. Navarre is not a large province but can be divided up into three very distinct main areas: la Montaña, the mountainous north, la Zona Media, the Middle Zone, and la Ribera, the Ebro basin in the south of Navarre. These areas have subdivisions. The Mountains, for example, comprise the Atlantic Pyrenees in the west, also called the Pirineos Húmedos; the Pyrenean Valleys, which include the Irati Forest, the second largest in Europe after the Black Forest; and the pre-Pyrenees, where deep gorges called foces have been formed by fast-moving tributaries of the Ebro. The Zona Media is Navarre's agricultural area, particularly suitable for market gardening, and the peppers and asparagus grown there are highly esteemed. It consists of the Tierra Estella, the land around Estella, south-west of Pamplona, and the Navarra Media Oriental, directly south of Pamplona, with the town of Olite at its centre. In spite of its watery-sounding name, the Ribera in the south of Navarre is an arid region: the landscape of the Bardenas Reales, in particular, is often described as "lunar," and really is otherworldly.

Travel in Navarre

Places of Interest

Pamplona. The capital of Navarre and its conmarca, county, lie in the basin of the River Arga between the foothills of the Pyrenees to the north and the Zona Media to the south. Pamplona is an atmospheric though provincial city, with an extensive historic centre encircled by new or newish high-rise suburbs. It is always an interesting place, but at no other time of year matches the ecstatic revelry of its annual fiesta, the incomparable San Fermín. See the Spain and Portugal for Visitors Pamplona page for more information.

Navarre Province

Pyrenees of Navarre. The hills and mountains in the north of Navarre are in turn divided into different areas, all gorgeous: from the Atlantic Pyrenees to the west, the Pyrenean valleys with their focos, gorges, the beech-thick Irati Forest, the second-largest in Europe, or the Larra massif, where the High Pyrenees begin.

Zona Media. The rolling countryside to the south of Pamplona is divided into two: the cereal-producing Tierra Estella to the west, and the wine-producing Navarra Media Oriental, capital Tafalla, to the east, with its historic towns and the fortress-palace of Olite. The Zona Media is very much on the Camino de Santiago which crosses it from east to west, and is thick with mediaeval villages and Romanesque churches.

Southern Navarre: La Ribera

La Ribera is the basin of the River Ebro in Navarre, and in spite of its name is a dry area, particularly its otherworldly badlands, the Bardenas Reales.

Las Bardenas Reales. It is rare for an area not to fall within a municipality in Spain, but the Bardenas are no-man's lands. Their spectacular lunar landscapes are the result of a combination of erosion and extreme aridity, but the fact that they have historically been used by surrounding villages for winter sheep-grazing shows that they are not quite true desert.

Tudela. The capital of the Ribera, in the less arid far south of Navarre, was founded by the Moors in 802, which is why it has the remains of, not one, but two juderías, Jewish quarters, as well as a morería, Moorish district.