Before continuing with the visit, it is worth sitting for a few minutes on one of the benches in the middle of the nave to contemplate the elements which characterise a surprising and unique space. It’s really not easy to understand. We are in the interior of a large single Gothic nave. Its proportions are magnificent, with a width of over 15 metres and a height of almost 20 metres. There are three sections of graceful cross-ribbed vaults.

If we turn towards the foot of the church, towards the west, a huge Gothic choir stands out, with a lower choir loft divided into three naves. If we look towards the other side, towards the chancel, the forms and scale change in a surprising manner. We observe three Romanesque apses of a much lower height than the nave. In its interior the heavy semi-dome and barrel vaults determine a somewhat narrow and dark space. In the centre of the central apse the image of the Virgin of Ujué, whom the temple is named after, acquires a determining presence.

Logically, the oldest part of the building is the chancel. In 1089 the king of Aragon and Pamplona Sancho Ramírez declared that «with complete freedom and spontaneity, we build the church of the Mother of God, Santa María de Ujué with its tithes, first fruits, offerings, and with all its full rights, so that these may be for the service of God and his Mother Holy Mary». This is the beginning of the monumentalisation of the sanctuary as we know it today.
The Romanesque chancel is formed by three semicircular apses practically aligned. Leire seems to be at the core of this proposal. Although today we see these very restored, the apses retain a good part of the original decorative elements. These move away from Leire’s model to evoke echoes of the Jaca cathedral . Behind the apses, only a section of the naves has been preserved. From the traces of pointed profiles that we see on the imposing wall erected to join the Gothic part with the Romanesque, it can be deduced that the temple continued with three naves that would complete the building, as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries progressed.
The sanctuary of Santa María de Ujué was consolidating itself as a devotional reference of the middle Navarre. The Ujué works had abundant donations and funds. It is very probable that, in the early fourteenth century, the monastery of Montearagón and the Bishopric of Pamplona were interested in the monumentalisation of the sanctuary, extending its splendour and attracting more faithful. Let us not forget that both institutions received a good part of the returns and offerings that the faithful deposited at the feet of Santa María.

It was then decided to build a new church of greater proportions and monumentality in a brilliant Gothic artistic language. At this time, the cloister of the Pamplona Cathedral was being built. The site is enlarged at the foot of the church. As the space at the mountaintop came to an end, sturdy foundations and extremely strong buttresses are added to underpin the section at the foot of the church. The work progressed slowly «capiella a capiella«, and three sections were managed to be built. The fourth section, which would replace the section of Romanesque naves that we contemplate today, was commenced. We are in the last third of the fourteenth century. To complete the Gothic project, it was necessary to demolish the Romanesque chancel. Only in this way could the new and spectacular Gothic structure be completed.
But then the advent of the terrible black death of 1348. It is estimated that Navarre lost at least a third of its population and the kingdom’s economy suffered. The income of the workers would be progressively reduced. And much remained to be done. Perhaps already at the end of the fourteenth century it was decided to drop the Gothic chancel project and to merge the Gothic work with the Romanesque work. To do this, the light of the great Gothic vault was closed off with an enormous wall that rests on the Romanesque vaults of the chancel The sanctuary is considered completed. The last keystone, the easternmost, bears the coat of arms of Ramón de Sellán, Abbot of Montearagón between 1359 and 1391. It is very likely that it was placed before 1385, the year in which the abbots of Montearagón permanently lost the tenure of the sanctuary to the bishop of Pamplona. A year later, Charles II died, who together with his family had been providing resources for the execution of the new temple for years.
We are now going to head towards the chancel gate, to access the main chapel, the nerve centre of the religious and historical content of the building. When we are there, in front of the image of the Virgin, press number 4.