Ermita de San Bartolomé & the Camino del Perdón Ridge
A 40-minute drive southwest of Aoiz, the Sierra del Perdón ridge is crowned by one of the most photographed landmarks in all of Navarre: a line of cut-iron pilgrim silhouettes striding into the wind on the Camino de Santiago, with the entire Pamplona basin spread below them. Almost no tourists outside the pilgrim circuit know you can drive to within 15 minutes' walk of it.
The iron pilgrim monument
The Monumento al Peregrino — designed by sculptor Vicente Galbete and installed in 1996 — depicts a procession of medieval and modern pilgrims cut from rusted Corten steel, their cloaks and staffs silhouetted against the sky. The effect at sunrise or sunset, when the figures glow against a coloured horizon, is genuinely arresting and unlike anything else in the region.
The ridge also hosts a large wind farm, and the turbines' slow rotation adds an oddly meditative quality to the scene. Walk the crest path east toward the Ermita de San Bartolomé, a tiny Romanesque chapel that pre-dates the wind turbines by about 900 years, for a pleasing juxtaposition of medieval and industrial.
Combining it with a day from Aoiz
From Aoiz, take the NA-150 west toward Pamplona and follow signs to Uterga or Muruzábal; a track leads up to the ridge car park. The drive takes about 35–40 minutes and the short walk to the monument is well signposted.
Pack a picnic — there are no facilities on the ridge — and time your visit for late afternoon when the light is warm and the Pamplona basin below turns golden. On clear days you can see the Pyrenees behind you and the Ebro plain ahead, a panorama that neatly bookends a Navarrese road trip.
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