The Pamplona City Council has presented Pampilona Urbs Regia, a work by Alejandro Aranda, graduate and PhD in History from the School of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Navarra. The book, which traces the evolution of the ceremonial of the Consistory from the sixteenth century to the present, has its origin in his doctoral thesis Art, party and ceremonial in the Pamplona of the Ancient Regime. La imagen de la ciudad, defended in 2019 and recently awarded the award Extraordinary doctorate of the Program at Arts and Humanities.

Directed by Professor Ricardo Fernández Gracia, director of the Chair de Patrimonio y Arte Navarro, the thesis "addresses the protocol and the label of the Cortes Generales, the Diputación del Reino and the City Hall, institutions that embodied the Kingdom of Navarre and the city of Pamplona during the 16th and 18th centuries," explains Aranda. The opportunity to publish the book arose when the City Council became interested in the part corresponding to the Consistory. As María García-Barberena, Councilor for Culture and Equality of the Pamplona City Council, pointed out in her presentation to the media, "the protocol and the civic rituals have been fundamental in the construction and definition of the identity of the cities and this work reflects their importance".

goal With the aim of "disclosing an important part of the history of the City Hall through the visual signs of corporate representation; highlighting the role played by the ceremonial; andcontributing to the knowledge, protection and conservation of intangibleheritage ", Aranda addresses the history of the municipal protocol , its construction process and its development, which began in the sixteenth century and reached its maximum splendor in the next two hundred years. Thus, in five chapters, he analyzes the art, festivities and ceremonies of the Pamplona Consistory over the last five centuries. 

In the first chapter of the work, the context in which the research is framed is offered. As the author explains, "we reflect on what the degree scroll de Cabeza de Reino meant for Pamplona from the political, institutional, historical point of view... Also on the importance of ceremonial as an image and internship of power, as well as on the process of construction of the protocol pamplonés". The second section focuses on the ordinary functions of the City Council, framed in an annual calendar of events: "It was much tighter than today. It included the votive functions, the celebrations around the patron saints, the particular functions of the city, the church and the monarchy, as well as the ceremonial government and the employee by the Consistory in festivities such as bullfights," Aranda points out.

The third section deals with extraordinary functions that were not in the calendar, such as rogations and acts of grace, beatifications and canonizations, inauguration of temples, attendance to festivities of parishes and convents, arrival of relics and devotional images, missions and doctrines, events in the life of the viceroys, and other functions such as tributes by the City Council to distinguished personalities of the city. The fourth chapter focuses on the relationship between the city and the king or viceroy: "Here we deal with the royal proclamations, the royal entries into the city, the reception of the viceroys, the royal obsequies, or the participation of the City Council in the Cortes de Navarra, which was also surrounded by a meticulous ceremonial," explains the author. Finally, Aranda focuses his research on the evolution of municipal ceremonial, from the nineteenth century to the present, "echoing those political upheavals that characterized much of those centuries and that the ceremonial, as a reflection of the political status , will catch".

"This project wants to be in tune with the recommendations of international organizations such as UNESCO, which constantly warn of the threats to intangible heritage and living cultures as a result of globalization. That is why we hope that this publication will contribute to the knowledge of these realities and, consequently, to their greater protection and conservation", he concludes.