Pamplona (Spanish pronunciation: [pamˈplona] ⓘ; Basque: Iruña [iɾuɲa]),[a] historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain.

Lying at near 450 m (1,480 ft) above sea level,[5] the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood plain of the Arga river,[6] a second-order tributary of the Ebro.

[12] During the Germanic invasions of 409 and later as a result of Rechiar's ravaging, Pamplona went through much disruption and destruction,[13] starting a cycle of general decline along with other towns across the Basque territory, but managing to keep some sort of urban life.

[17] At the time of the Umayyad invasion in 711, the Visigothic king Roderic was fighting the Basques in Pamplona and had to turn his attention to the new enemy coming from the south.

By 714–16, the Umayyad troops had reached the Basque-held Pamplona, with the town submitting apparently after a treaty was brokered between the inhabitants and the Arab military commanders.

[18] The position was then garrisoned by Berbers, who were stationed on the outside of the actual fortress, and established the cemetery unearthed not long ago at the Castle Square (Plaza del Castillo).

During the following years, the Basques south of the Pyrenees do not seem to have shown much resistance to the Moorish thrust, and Pamplona may even have flourished as a launching point and centre of assembly for their expeditions into Gascony.

In 755, though, the last governor of Al-Andalus, Yusuf al Fihri, sent an expedition north to quash Basque unrest near Pamplona, resulting in the defeat of the Arab army.

Although sources are not clear, it seems apparent that in 778, the town was in hands of a Basque local or a Muslim rebel faction loyal to the Franks at the moment of Charlemagne's crossing of the Pyrenees to the south.

This regional revolt was shortly after suppressed by the Cordovan emir Hisham I, who re-established order, but failed to retain his grip on the town, since the Pamplonese returned to Frankish suzerainty in 806.

[22][23] Following a failed expedition to the town led by Louis the Pious around 812, allegiance to the Franks collapsed after Enecco Arista rose to prominence.

The new kingdom, inextricably linked to the Banu Qasi of Tudela, strengthened its independence from the weakened Frankish empire and Cordoban emirate.

The bishops of Pamplona recovered their ecclesiastical leading role; during the previous centuries, isolated monasteries, especially Leyre, had actually held the religious authority.

During the late 15th century, Pamplona bore witness to power struggles between the Beaumont and Agramont confederacies and external military interventions.

Queen Catherine I was a minor and often absent from Pamplona, but eventually she married John III in 1494, an event celebrated with joy in the city.

Starting in 1569, King Philip II built the fortifications at Pamplona, to designs by Giovan Giacomo Paleari and Vespasiano Gonzaga.

The modernization of the walls was intended mainly to keep locals in check[30] and strengthen the outpost Pamplona had become on the border with independent Navarre, a close ally of France.

During the Peninsular War of the Napoleonic Wars, French troops occupied the city - by launching a coup de main (surprise attack) and seized the city in 1808, and remained in it until the French forces were compelled to surrender on 31 October 1813 due to starvation, having been blockaded in the town for four months by the Spanish army under Enrique José O'Donnell.

Furthermore, building in the closest area to the walls was banned to avoid any advantage for a besieger; thus the city could only grow by increasing its housing density.

After a slight modification of the star fort allowed an expansion of just six blocks in 1888, the First World War demonstrated that the fortified system of Pamplona was already obsolete.

In October 2014, working with the city of Bayonne, Pamplona hosts an international conference 'Fortified Heritage: Management and Sustainable Development', the website is in English, French, and Spanish.

Population growth has been the effect of an intense immigration process during the 1960s and 1970s: from the Navarrese countryside and from other less developed regions of Spain, mainly Castile and León and Andalusia.

Due to global warming and stronger summer heat waves in the 21st century, it is also on the boundary with a humid subtropical climate (Cfa).

The urban expansion of Pamplona exceeded the administrative limits of the city and involved municipalities like Barañáin, Burlada, Villava, Ansoain, Berriozar, Noain or Huarte in a larger metropolitan area.

Its area of influence is not beyond the province, except for the University of Navarre and its teaching hospital, which provide private educational and health services nationwide.

Following the 2023 municipal election, the mayor of the city is Joseba Asiron (EH Bildu), also supported by the Socialist Party of Navarre, Geroa Bai, and Contigo Zurekin.

The most remarkable twentieth century religious buildings are probably the new diocesan seminary (1931) and the classical-revival style memorial church (1942) to the Navarrese dead in the Nationalist side of the Civil War and that is used today as temporary exhibitions room.

The oldest civil building today existing is a fourteenth-century house that was used as Cámara de Comptos (the court of auditors of the early modern autonomous kingdom of Navarre) from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

The most notable architect in twentieth century Pamplona was Víctor Eusa (1894–1990), whose designs were influenced by the European expressionism and other avant-garde movements.

Other notable sports teams in Pamplona include MRA Xota (futsal), water polo and fencing (Campo de Deportes Larraina).