Monasterio de Zenarruza

On the west gate of the Monastery is a relief carving of an eagle carrying a skull, not a traditional motif for any building but one that illustrates the story of the monastery’s early days. On the day of the Assumption in 968, residents of a nearby Munitibar (the next town on the camino) were celebrating mass when an eagle flew into an open tomb and made off with the skull. They tracked the bird to this spot, where he released the skull. Recognizing divinity when the saw it a church was built, which grew to sustain a town and by the 14th century work on the monastery had begun.