Tradition holds that this is the valley [val-] where Charlemagne's rear-guard, under the command of Roland, was slaughtered by Vascons at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778.
Tradition holds that Charlemagne's troops were returning across the Pyrenees and had become stretched thin.
Many of the local landowners, such as the owners of Curutzezahar, a family home one kilometre up the hillside from the village center, have turned their homes into bed-and-breakfast style lodgings for the growing rural tourism industry in the Basque Country.
There is a modern monument to the pilgrimage road near the city hall representing a recumbent pilgrim.
According to the locals, who make no apologies to Roncesvalles, which is located a few kilometres further along the road, Luzaide/Valcarlos is the true jumping off point for pilgrims in Spain who are travelling to Santiago.