Numerous institutions modified their uses and customs from the 17th century onwards, based on greater theatricality, pomp and sumptuousness, for the sake of sensory persuasion. In imitation of other Spanish cities, the municipal authorities of Navarre also baroque their protocol.

Uniformity in clothing

One of the laws emanating from the Cortes de Navarra, in 1795, established the obligatory use of the golilla costume for the mayors and aldermen of the localities with seat in that institution. Its content informs us about the use of that traditional costume, when it states: "That in this Kingdom has always been of great respect the dress and costume of golilla, and very proper of the people who have under their care the government of the towns and the administration of justice; and for this reason it is preserved and stilled with uniformity in the five heads of Merindad and some other exempt towns, not being able to present their mayors and aldermen in the City Councils and public and ceremonial Boards in any other costume but in the one of golilla".

The file Municipal of Pamplona preserves a drawing from 1817, studied by J. L. Molins in the light of the municipal documentation that, in 1833, argued that it was the costume "by law of the City Council", although it was only worn in protocol acts and not for the sessions, for reasons of comfort that advised the pants and the boot "in a wet and cold country like this". The drawing sample shows the alderman with stockings and open shoes, short breeches, a jacket with slashed sleeves, a shirt with a shirttail, a sash and short cape, a top hat and a sword.

We know that the costume of the regidores of Tudela consisted of gramallas at the end of the 16th century, although later the "golilla" costume was generalized, made of cloth in winter and silk in summer. It was made up of short breeches, silk stockings, booties, a jacket fastened at the front with open sleeves, silk and lace flights, a white lace ruff, a very short cape and a wide-brimmed hat leave , all in black, with white gloves. At a later date, in 1863, the City Council decided to stop using the golilla costumes, and the cathedral chapter suspended the traditional reception of the town councilors, judging that the new dress was not in keeping with that worn by the canons, which was more in keeping with the solemnity and the ceremony. Two years later, when the City Council returned to wearing the golillas, the chapter received them in the traditional manner.

The case of Los Arcos is of particular interest. The existence in its municipal file of a book of protocol, whose content has been kindly provided to us by Víctor Pastor Abaigar, provides an endless number of data about numerous aspects of the municipal protocol . Regarding the costume, he points out the numerous days it was to be worn, as well as some differences between the official costume ordered by the Cortes and the old costume of the local aldermen.

In Cascante, in 1743, a uniform costume had been established to "cause due respect", wearing a black coat, black breeches and stockings, a white tie and tie and a three-cornered hat. The mayor, as a distinctive sign, had to carry a marine reed cane. The reason was the celebration of the Cortes in Tudela.

Talking scallops in their iconographic motifs: some examples

A study of these very interesting signs of authority and identity is lacking. They are medals that the aldermen wore around their necks. The obverse side of the medals bore the coat of arms of the town, while the reverse side was reserved for the patron saint or a very important cult that coincided with an important celebration.

The oldest preserved are those of the Pamplona regiment that had their origin in the plague of 1599, when the commitment was established to wear on the chest the representation of the wounds and crown of thorns of the passion of Christ. After the end of the plague, in September 1600, it was agreed that the aldermen would wear them, in the form of gold and enamel scallops, with the aforementioned motifs and the arms of the city.

Those of Tudela had their origin in the concession by royal decree of 1621 in order to distinguish and differentiate the aldermen from the merinos, royal porters and other officials who used rods, elements of authority that other localities also had. The veneras bear the arms of the city and the image of San Pedro is linked to the tradition that the day of his feast was the day of the reconquest of the city. In any case, on that feast day, the offices of aldermen were renewed in a festive workshop that included a seasonal procession to the old parish of San Pedro that ended in the collegiate church, as well as a bullfighting festival. Most of the current gilded silver scallops belong to the minting of 1836, when the remaining gold ones were suppressed.

In Olite, shortly after obtaining the degree scroll of city, a municipal certificate determined the submission of the veneras to the aldermen, in May of 1630. They bear the coat of arms of the town and the image of the Inmaculada (voted in 1624 and patron saint in 1643). Tafalla, with degree scroll as a city since 1636, ordered its golden scallops in 1639, with the coat of arms and the image of patron saint San Sebastián. The documentation published by J. M. Esparza, calls them "tusones", or small toisones, making a parallelism with the decoration of the gold toisón.

In the second third of the seventeenth century, we can date the veneras of Sangüesa and Estella, which contain on one side the heraldic coats of arms of both cities and on the other the image of the Immaculate Conception, in memory of the Conceptionist vow that they made in 1625 and 1620 respectively. By the year 1638 those of Estella were already made, judging by the agreement that was made with Tudela to reciprocally display those insignia in protocol acts in the two cities.

Corella, which also became a city in 1630, commissioned the realization of the gold enameled scallops, containing the municipal arms, in 1655. According to data provided to me by Ramón Villanueva, in 1848, it was decided to replace them with others of gilded silver that had "the same effect". It was agreed that the mayor would travel to Madrid with the ten gold medals to exchange them for seventeen gilded silver ones. The work was entrusted to the silversmith Mariano Roche and the corporation was satisfied, showing the goldsmith its "gratitude for the good taste of its construction". They are octagonal, elegant and sober. They show the patron saint of the city and its heraldic shield along with the date of its realization (1848).

At the end of the 18th century there are documented petitions from some towns in Navarre requesting permission from the Royal committee to use scallops. Those of Mañeru, made with a delicate neoclassical design with the arms of the municipality and the image of San Pedro, belong to that time or the beginning of the 19th century.

In Cascante its use was granted in 1633, although apparently they were not made until 1692 for "greater decency, knowledge and authority". Its first constitutional council of 1812, commissioned new ones to the silversmith Manuel Ochoa, with the coat of arms of the city and the image of the Virgin. Ochoa did not put the Assumption, as was mandatory for being the patron saint, but the Immaculate, a defect that was noted in the documentation.

Of particular interest are those of Los Arcos, dated 1824 and 1825, which we have known thanks to the tireless researcher Victor Pastor. On one side they show the municipal emblem, which is already on record in 1280. On the back, there is a reliquary cross that evokes the lignum crucis of the parish, a gift from the Benedictine son of the locality, Friar Juan de los Arcos, in 1601. Next to the cross, the registration HOCSIGNO VINCES. Both motifs appeared on the flag of the Regency of Urgel, but other precedents can also be found in banners and flags of other places. Other inscriptions appear, in the first one we read: "A LA PATRIA", while the second one in abbreviations reads: "F. N. R. A.", which could allude to the king at a time when the town had numerous royalist volunteers. Its reading could be "Fernando our beloved king", following the custom of printed matter and documents of the time to refer to the monarch in that final stage of his reign, in which the constitution had been abrogated. These veneras were made by the silversmith José Iturralde (Arróniz, 1781-Pamplona, 1842) when Gabriel Elizondo was mayor.

Secular mallets

As is known, the mace-bearers who parade in front of bodies, communities or authorized persons, carry the mace as a sign of dignity. For their use by corporations, higher permission was required. The Cortes of Navarre wore them by royal privilege in 1600, after decades of requests. They are still preserved and were made in 1604 by the silversmith Miguel Cerdán and his son-in-law García de Zabalza. The cities and some towns with seats in the Cortes still keep them. In general, their use and transfers caused them to be badly damaged and to undergo continuous repairs. The French conquest and the French army's greed for silver caused some of them to disappear.

The three of the Pamplona City Hall correspond to the late eighteenth century and are the work of the silversmith José Iriarte, although one of them reuses the cannon from the mid-sixteenth century, made by Miguel de Borgoña.

The constant repairs of the maces of Tudela are noted in the municipal accounts throughout the seventeenth century. New ones were made in 1681, by the silversmiths Francisco Huarte and José de Echauri, with the mandatory licence of the Royal committee. Those maces were sold with other silver pieces during the War of Independence and, a little later, before 1833, the current ones were made.

The old ones of Corella, not preserved, were the work of the silversmith Elías Gil, with a very active workshop in the central decades of the 18th century. Those of Sangüesa are gilded, of neoclassical aesthetics and those of Estella, later, neo-Gothic, according to I. Miguéliz in his study. In addition to these specimens, Olite preserves a mace made by Hernando de Oñate el menor around 1579, before it was recognized as a city, and it could be used from a parish scepter. Puente la Reina also has a delicate mace from the second half of the 17th century, by virtue of its status as a good town with a seat in the Cortes.

Festive accompaniment: banners, music and giants' troupes

Music was always a fundamental component in the accompaniment of the corporations, and there is abundant documentation on bagpipes, clarinets, timpani, dancers and, finally, music bands. Valencian, Castilian and Aragonese dances and bagpipes were very popular until the beginning of the 20th century. Along with the colorful costumes of the musicians, the timpani and clarinet cloths stood out. The embroidery of 1768 for the Pamplona City Hall is preserved, the work of the Aragonese embroiderer Francisco Lizuain, one of the most prestigious in Spain at the time and author of numerous ornaments in Navarre. The accompaniment of the group municipal dances of the Pamplona City Hall dates from 1949, with the designs of their colorful costumes, made by Pedro Lozano de Sotés and Francis Bartolozzi.

The flags and their evolution also remains to be done. The Pamplona City Hall preserves one made around 1830, embroidered and painted. Of particular beauty, design and color are those of Baztán and some localities of Cinco Villas. Their use and support meant that they were frequently replaced, although the models were usually copied.

As for the comparsas of giants, it is necessary to distinguish the first documented in the XVII centuries and those that arose after a long parenthesis because of the prohibition of Carlos III, in 1780, in processions and different religious acts, considering them a distraction before the faith.

In Pamplona its giants are documented since the beginning of the XVII century. Among the outstanding figures are those made by the sculptor Gaspar Ramos of the workshop of Sangüesa in 1640, as well as the heads of 1657, work of the Guipuzcoan presbyter Francisco Azpillaga, released in that year of the pontifical sanction of the co-patronage of San Fermin and San Francisco Javier. Tudela had a parade since 1614, on the initiative of the silversmith Felipe Terrén, with a justification in the rejoicing of the people, in imitation of what was done in other Spanish cities. In the last third of the XVII century its direction of the one ran to position of the most famous retablista of the tudelano workshop, Francisco Gurrea. Estella also had giants in the XVII century that arose, as in other places, from the tarasca of Corpus Christi.

These cities would reintroduce the comparsas throughout the 19th century for their festive events: Pamplona in 1860, Estella in 1857 and 1905, and Tudela in 1902. Other localities would do so at the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, many of which appear in the monograph by U. Lako and A. Calleja. Examples are the cases of Corella, which danced more than a century ago with the bagpipers of Viana and the dancers of Calatorao, and whose existence dates back to at least 1878. Until the middle of the XX century are documented, among others, the giants of Muruzábal (1906, donated by Esteban López Tafalla), Goizueta (1914), Sangüesa (1917 by particular initiative and 1919 municipal), Tafalla (1919), Cascante (1926 by particular initiative and 1941 municipal), Cintruénigo and Lodosa (1944), Olite and Lerín (1946), Peralta and Elizondo (1947), Falces and San Adrián (1948), San Martín de Unx (1948-1949), Huarte-Pamplona (1951), Villafranca (1953), Los Arcos (1954), Fitero (1955) and Andosilla (1957).

The periodicals collection of Diario de Navarra gives account of the presence of giants in some localities in punctual events, in occasions taken of other towns, like the celebrations of Viana in 1905 and 1907, the inaugurations of the monument to San Raimundo de Fitero in 1916 with the giants of Corella and of the town hall of Leiza in 1917, the coronation of the Virgin of the Romero of Cascante (1928), or the celebrations of San Blas of Ribaforada in 1927, noting in this last case the enjoyment of the people before an unknown spectacle. The authors of the texts point out, again and again, the "prosopopeya mayestática" with which the giants strolled through the streets.