San Esteban de Deyo, also called the Castillo de Monjardín, is a ruined

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

on a hill overlooking

Villamayor de Monjardín Villamayor de Monjardín (very exceptionally in Basque: ''Deio'') is a town and municipality located in the province and the autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat ...

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

. The castle lies at an elevation of 890 metres. The castle has a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

foundation, but was repeatedly rebuilt over the centuries. It was one of the last fortresses of the Banu Qasi, the local Muslim dynasty, before it was taken by King Sancho I of Navarre in 914. According to the '' Historia Caroli Magni et Rotholandi''—a legendary retelling of the lives of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

and Roland found in the 12th-century

Codex Calixtinus The (also ''Compostellus'') is the main witness for the 12th-century , or the Book of Saint James. It is a pseudepigraph attributed to Pope Callixtus II; its principal author or compilator is referred to as "Pseudo-Callixtus", often identified wi ...

—the castle was actually taken by Charlemagne from a Navarrese prince named Furré. Only the walls of the castle stand today. Many of the stones were taken to build a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

hermitage, the Ermita de San Esteban, in the 17th century.David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson, ''The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago: The Complete Cultural Handbook'' (St. Martin's Press, 2000), p. 111. The ruins of San Esteban de Deyo were named a Bien de Interés Cultural de Navarra on 25 June 1985.

Gallery

File:Villamayor de Monjardín - Castillo - DSC 9747.JPG, Well-preserved corner tower of the exterior wall File:Villamayor de Monjardín - Ermita del castillo - DSC 9757.JPG, Baroque hermitage constructed from the castle's stones File:Villamayor de Monjardín - Castillo - DSC 9734.JPG, Panorama of the surviving exterior wall File:Castillo de Villamayor de Monjardín.jpg, The castle, atop the hill on the left, would have dominated the landscape in the 10th century

Notes

{{coord, 42.6339, N, 2.1064, W, source:wikidata, display=title Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in Navarre Castles in Navarre Ruined castles in Spain