EN: History & Prehistroy of Navarra (Pamplona)

From its beginnings Pamplona has shown a determination to dominate the surrounding territory. From the very start it appears to have been located strategically above the River Arga.

When the Roman Empire arrived in the first century BC, a Roman city was imposed on the primitive Basque village. In 75 BC General Pompeyo set up a camp called "The City of Pompeyo” that over time became Pamplona. Christianisation and the Roman cultural presence affirmed Pamplona as a religious and political capital. Excavation work carried out around the cathedral has proved that it was a developed city with an infrastructure of services. The Museum of Navarre has relics dating from when this primitive Basque village fell into the hands of the Roman Empire.

In the 6th and 7th centuries Navarre, and especially Pamplona, were constant military objectives for the Visigoths. Their attempts to control the area were generally unsuccessful. Nevertheless, it should be stated that, for the Visigoth Kings, this was a distant and remote reach.

The Muslims arrived in Pamplona as early as 714 AD, although their presence was short-lived, as they preferred the Ribera, the southern part of Navarre. The Muslims settled in and around Tudela for four hundred years, until 1119 AD.

In 778 AD after visiting Muslim Zaragoza Charlemagne, who had territorial ambitions, occupied Pamplona and destroyed the city walls. Immediately after he suffered an overwhelming defeat in Roncesvalles at the hands of the Vascons, inhabitants of ancient Basque territory of Vasconia This frustrated his attempts to create a Carolingian area in the Ebro Valley, which would have been similar to his Hispanic area in Catalonia.