Naiara Ardanaz, professor of Art History at ISSA School of Management Assistants and PhD in History, has just published a book article that delves into the origins and history of Aldama-Enea, the village where ISSA University of Navarra's classes have been held during the first fifty years of the school.

The article appears in the issue 5 of the Magazine of the department of History of Art and Music of the University of the Basque Country(UPV). It covers the life of the Marquises of Aldama, the career of its architect, José María Mendoza Ussía, as well as the structure, history and decoration of the building.

"In 1963 -summarizes the author- Aldama-Enea was built, recreational villa of the Marquises of Aldama in Donostia-San Sebastian and work of the prestigious Madrid architect José María Mendoza Ussía. The building has a great unity in all its decorative elements, among which the Ruiz de Luna tiles and the stained glass windows of the Maumejean house stand out. Later, the Donostia architect Eduardo Lagarde also intervened in some of the renovations. The large estate included other buildings among which is Etxe Zuri, former headquarters provisional of the General Assembly of Guipuzkoa".

According to the author, the marquises, who lived in the center of the capital of Madrid, were forced to part with the villa in 1925. The estate, which consisted of a hotel or main house, stables, carriage houses and garages, porter's lodge, farmhouse, fort, walks and gardens, was renamed Eva-Enea. It was acquired by the Arocena family who, living in Cuba, rented it to the Portuguese ambassador in Spain, Teotonio Pereira. In 1960 the Arocena family got rid of it and it was acquired by the Diputación and the University of Navarra.

The article, graduate "Aldama Eena 1913-2013. An example of neo-Renaissance architecture in San Sebastian" collects details such as the price of the land, changes in the facade and differences in the distribution of the rooms. "Until the 1970s the walls of the hall were lined with red silk paper," specifies Ardanaz.

The researcher dedicates a section to the baseboards and stained glass, "all belonging to the French commercial signature Maumejean House", which makes a brief historical tour. Among them highlights the skylight of the hall, which depicts an allegorical scene with Zeus and Hera as protagonists, hand in hand, "in a clear allegorical sense that makes reference letter married love". For the composition of topic, where the sky is represented with gods of the Greek pantheon and the earth with its human and mythological inhabitants, four or five paintings by Rubens were used.

By way of summary, the author concludes that the villa "was characterized by having all the elements of modernity that a bourgeois house of its characteristics could have: rooms with a clearly defined functionality, also distributed by floors also following criteria of representation, intimacy, hygienism, in addition to light, water, toilets, telephone, etc.".