The same great content and more in your pocket, the most up-to-date guidebook to the Camino del Norte available.
Wise Pilgrim APPThe Monasterio de Zenarruza is a Collegiate church and former Augustinian monastery set in a quiet valley between Bolibar and Munitibar. The cloister and church date primarily to the 14th and 15th centuries, though the foundation is older. The monastery has been restored and operates a pilgrim albergue — one of the more peaceful places to spend a night on the Norte.
The west gate of the monastery carries a carved relief of an eagle clutching a skull in its talons — an unusual motif that illustrates the foundation legend.
According to tradition, on the feast of the Assumption in 968, residents of nearby Munitibar were celebrating mass when an eagle flew into an open tomb and seized a skull. They tracked the bird to this spot, where it released its prize. Recognizing a divine sign, they built a church, which grew into a town and eventually the monastery. The 14th-century collegiate church preserves this origin story in stone on its west gate.
Beyond the monastery the camino turns right and into the forest again.
