Pamplona

Pamplona (Basque: Irunea / Iruñea) is the capital city of Navarre, Spain. It has a population of 171,150, and is 92 kilometres from the town of San Sebastián, and 407 kilometres from Madrid.

Pamplona is famous for the San Fermín festival, in July 7, also known as The running of the bulls or encierro.

Ernest Hemingway made Pamplona famous and was duly rewarded for it by having a street named after him, Avenida de Hemingway.

The area around Pamplona is hot, dry, arid and very similar to the landscape found in parts of Southern California and Northern Mexico southwards. But cold and dry and very similar to the landscape of New Zealand's forest northwards. The city itself is very green: together with the old section of the city, which hosts San Fermin, with its cobbled streets, it is a pleasant tourist destination.

Located at an altitude of 444m above sea level on a hill overlooking the Arga River and which overlooked the surrounding valley, Pamplona was populated from very remote times. In the winter of 74-75 B.C., the area served as a camp for the Roman general Pompey. He is considered to be the founder of "Pompaelo" (Pamplona).

By the 2nd century, Pamplona was a significant Roman town with a forum and hot baths. By 409, however, Pamplona was controlled by the Visigoths - it serves as an episcopal see from the end of the seventh century - and from the eighth century, it was under domination by the Moors. After his expedition to Zaragoza in 778, Charlemagne tore down the walls surrounding Pamplona.

In 781 Abd al-Rahman reconquered the city. Destroyed by Abd al Rahman III in 924, Pamplona was reduced to a small country village also called Iruña and later Navarreria .

By the 10th century, Pamplona was benefitted from pilgrimages to Santiago, and gave rise to new city areas beside the original Navarreria site: the "Burgo de San Cernin", supported by the Kingdom of Navarre and mainly inhabited by Franks and merchants, and the village of "San Nicolás". These three independent towns, being placed so close together, were almost always engaged in quarrels among them, until the King of Navarre Charles III the Noble united all of them in the single city of today by the "Privilegio de la Unión" signed in 1423.

In 1515 the area of Navarra associated itself with the Castiles and became an autonomous kingdom with its own institutions and laws. By the 17th century, Pamplona became a fortress on the edge of the Pyrenees.

During the 18th century, several beautiful palaces were built in the capital of Navarra such as the Casa Consistorial or Town Hall in 1752.

The neoclassic facade of the Cathedral was undertaken in 1783.

The city did not escape the regional wars of the 19th century. French troops occupied the city after a surprise attack, pretending to be citizens playing nearby with snow balls, remained in Pamplona until 1813. During the Carlist Wars (1833, 1872) Pamplona supported the Isabelian monarchy, as opposed to rural Navarra which fought in favor of the pretender to the throne, Don Carlos.

Pamplona has maintained the medieval outlay of the town, but expanded to include suburbs in the past 100 years. The city is home to two universities: the Universidad de Navarra in 1960, founded by the Opus Dei, and the Universidad Pública de Navarra, created by the government of Navarra in 1987, also the UNED, (universidad a distancia)

Pamplona has the highest quality of life level in Spain. The industry is based in Missing image
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the Volkswagen factory located in Landaben. In 2003, the population was 183,000 because of the inmigration, specially from South America. Pamplona is well urbanized and some of the suburb towns include Baranain, Burlada, Cizur Mayor, Cizur Menor, Villava and the town were wealthy people tend to move to Gorraiz, a town with a golf club. The people rely on their feet or in the well organized public buses, villavesas. Missing image
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Sports

Club Atletico Osasuna is the local football team. Osasuna's stadium is called El Sadar.

Another popular sports with some top clubs from Pamplona include handball Portland San Antonio Europe's championship winner 2001, futsal MRA Xota and waterpolo Larraina.

The most famous sportman ever from Pamplona is Miguel Induráin, who won the Tour de France five times. -

External links

The City Hall has a web page at pamplona.net (http://www.pamplona.net).

An alternative demonstration against the running of the bulls: Encierro Humano (http://www.encierrohumano.com/) (in Spanish)be:Памплёна ca:Pamplona de:Pamplona es:Pamplona fr:Pampelune nl:Pamplona pl:Pamplona sv:Pamplona