RONCESVALLES

French Roncevaux, also called Orreaga, village, Navarre provincia and comunidad autnoma (autonomous community) of northern Spain. It lies 3,220 feet (981 m) above sea level in the Pyrenees, northeast of Pamplona, near the French frontier, and is known in relation to the Pass of Roncesvalles, or Puerto de Ibaeta, which lies above it at an elevation of 3,862 feet (1,177 m). This pass is the traditional site of the Battle of Roncesvalles (Aug. 15, 778), the Basques' massacre of the rear guard of Charlemagne's army, which forms the basis of the legend of the hero Roland recounted in the epics La Chanson de Roland and Roncesvalles. Charlemagne, campaigning against the Muslims in Spain, ravaged several towns south of the Pyrenees and razed Pamplona before returning across the mountains to Aquitaine. In the mountains, the Basques ambushed and totally wiped out the rear guard of the Frankish army, which was led by the seneschal Eggihard, the count palatine Anselm, and Roland, prefect of the March of Brittany. In La Chanson de Roland the attackers are the Moors, and the rear guard is commanded by Charlemagne's nephew Roland, accompanied by his comrade Oliver and by Archbishop Turpin. Roland, urged by Oliver to sound his horn to recall the main army, is too proud to do so; when the blast is at last blown, it is too late for the returning army to do anything but avenge their deaths. A similar fate was avoided (811) by Louis I the Pious, or le dbonnaire, then king of Aquitaine, who forced the wives and children of the local inhabitants to go through the pass with his army. At the summit of the pass are the remains of an early chapel of San Salvador (called Charlemagne's Chapel) and the Charlemagne Monument (1934). In the village is an Augustinian abbey, founded jointly about 1130 by Sancho de la Rosa (bishop of Pamplona) and the king of Navarre, for the use of pilgrims, especially those en route to Santiago de Compostela. The main church was built c. 1230 by Sancho VII the Strong of Navarre and contains his tomb and that of his wife, Clemencia. A 13th-century statue of the Virgin of Sorrows (wood covered with gold) stands in the centre of the altarpiece. Roncesvalles is the scene of an annual procession of penitent pilgrims, each carrying a heavy cross and wearing a black hood, on the Wednesday before Whitsunday. Pop. (1981) 44.