In the beginning was the bridge, said the Navarrese historian José María Jimeno Jurío who, among other works of interest, we must thank an excellent monograph about the neighboring octagonal hermitage of Santa María de Eunate (1).

But apart from the Bridge and of forming that Axis Mundi Jacobeo where all the Paths become One, Puente la Reina is a symbolic bastion that attracts the perception of the pilgrim throughout the length and breadth of its immemorial High Street.

The symbolic journey, like an imaginary play of that immemorial Game of Walkers, begins just behind the hostel of the Repairing Fathers, already located at the entrance to the Templar church of the Crucifix (2), where the pilgrim feels integrated in a lucky move, which indicates that he has the right path, when he glimpses, on the first capital of the left, a sign of success and progress: two geese happily joined by their necks.

Then, approximately in the center of the semicircular arch, and among a great variety of symbolic figures, he will glimpse a curious face, with his mouth open, in an attitude of blowing that, in a figurative sense, will breathe him breath or vital force to continue his path.

But he will never, before entering the church and meditate a few minutes in front of another of the Primordial Symbols of Puente la Reina and the Jacobean Way: the Rhenish Christ of the fourteenth century, crucified on a cross in the shape of Pata de Oca.

The Journey, far from finishing, becomes purely argonáutico from here, and continues a few meters further, never leaving that ancestral Calle Mayor, which as a dear aya -who knows more by old than by aya- leads us to the doors of another temple of inescapable visit.

A temple where Maitre Jacques, the patron saint, receives us in his acceptance of Beltza - or as any of the three ancient Maris would say disappeared (3), do not be surprised, daughters of Jerusalem, that my skin is black, is that the sun has roasted it - and this color, the black one, is present again with the twinning that exists between this city of Puente la Reina and Segovia, with the bond of a fourth Black Virgin, the Soterraña, who lives in the depths of the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nieva and reminds us again of the ancient mysteries.

Mysteries that continue even lower, at the beginning of that bridge with the shape of an ass-don't forget that the donkey, although less elegant perhaps than the horse, has always fulfilled, like this one, an important mission as a carrier of Knowledge- where We will not see the Virgen del Puy who guarded the Arga river, but where we must always pay attention in case some day fortune gives us the opportunity to meet, already converted into authentic pilgrims, with that magical Txori, who cleanse the face and relieve us of the sufferings of the Way.

And if after this small initiatory journey, we want to meditate in peace about everything real or imaginary we have contemplated during our visit, nothing better than doing it comfortably sitting on a terrace, in the company of a good glass of vodka with orange and surrounded by Friends of the I walk with those who, even if a word does not cross, a simple glance is enough to know that, after all, Everyone - and sorry for the redundancy - we are walking in the same direction.

Puente la Reina-Gares: an unforgettable place.

Notes, References and Bibliography:

(1) José María Jimeno Jurío: 'Eunate, singular Jacobean landmark', Panorama Collection nº26, 1st reprint, Lizarra Graphics, 2003.
(2) Formerly, it was called Santa María del Orzs, de los Huertos, and it belonged to the Temple until years after the extinction of the Order, when it became the property of the Hospitalarios.
(3) Santa María de Eunate, Santa María de los Huertos and the other one that resided at the beginning of the bridge and received each sunrise the visit of the Txori bird that cleaned his face, the Virgen del Puy.

NOTICE: originally posted on my blog MEMORIES OF A PILGRIM. Both the text and the photographs that accompany it are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, where you can check the authorship of juancar347, can be found at the following address: https://jc347.blogspot.com/2011/06/puente-la-reina-gares.html