The Parish of San Saturnino in Pamplona: The Diocese's First Mitre
Introduction
The parish church of San Saturnino in Pamplona, popularly known as the Church of San Cernin, is located in plenary session of the Executive Council the historic center of the capital of Navarre. Its centuries-old walls preserve a very significant part of Pamplona’s history and identity. It is no surprise, then, that the church is the center of two of the city’s main devotions: San Saturnino and Nuestra Señora del Camino.
Founded in the 11th century amid the rise of the prosperous town of San Cernin, home to Frankish merchants and traders, San Saturnino was, from its very beginnings, the most thriving parish of Pamplona’s bourgeoisie. Furthermore, according to centuries-old tradition, the church of San Saturnino and the well located in front of it were the birthplace of the Christian faith in Pamplona and Navarre. For this reason, in 1555 the parishioners proudly proclaimed that San Cernin was the “oldest and most important parish in that city, where all the city’s leading figures gather” or, in the words of Don Mariano Arigita, “the foremost parish in Navarre, in terms of both age and status.”
Consequently, both the quality and uniqueness of the church’s architecture, as well as some of the artistic adornments treasured over the centuries, speak to the economic prosperity of its congregation, the power of devotion, and the high regard in which both laypersons and clergy held this parish.
View of the towers of San Saturnino. Photo: file from the Art department of the Archdiocese of Pamplona.
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