San Esteban de Deyo
San Esteban de Deyo, also called the Castillo de Monjardín, is a ruined castle on a hill overlooking Villamayor de Monjardín in Navarre. The castle lies at an elevation of 890 metres. The castle has a Roman 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 and Roland found in the 12th-century Codex Calixtinus, 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 hermitage, the Ermita de San Esteban, in the 17th century. The ruins of San Esteban de Deyo were named a Bien de Interés Cultural de Navarra on 25 June 1985.
History
The medieval name of the original Castle of San Esteban de Deyo, documented in 1143, became common in the 13th century. The name "Mont Jardín" likely comes from a popular interpretation of “Mons Garzini,” linked to a legendary Charlemagne victory in the History of Turpin. The term "Garzin" remains unclear but is possibly connected to “Garcianis,” a patronymic of Sancho Garcés I, the Navarrese king who seized Deyo from the Banu Qasi and was buried in San Esteban.Occasionally, the fortress was directly entrusted to an ecclesiastic, such as the sacristan of the Pamplona chapter Lope or the archdeacon Gaucelmo. King Sancho VI the Wise seized it in 1194, and Sancho VII the Strong obtained its cession from Bishop Juan de Tarazona. The jurisdictional conflict was finally resolved with the bishopric's definitive renunciation in favor of the Crown in 1319. The fortress likely became a "tenencia" or honor under the bishops of Pamplona, including nearby villages like Adarreta, Azqueta, Igúzquiza, Labeaga, Lúquin, Urbiola, and Villamayor.
11th century
A charter from 1045 documents the gift of the Santa María de Yarte monastery by García V, King of Navarre, to the Irache monastery in return for the castle of San Esteban.The noble Medrano family, ancient lords of Igúzquiza, ricohombres of Navarre, became the governors of the famous Monjardín castle, whose prodigious cross is said to have been collected by one of these knights when it appeared to one of his shepherds. The Medrano family were tasked with overseeing one of the kingdom's crucial defenses, namely the defensive perimeter around Estella. Shortly after the city's establishment in the late 11th century, both Igúzquiza and San Esteban de Deyo castles were constructed under the command of the Vélaz de Medrano family. Their duty was to safeguard the routes leading from Álava and Logroño.