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Ricardo Fernández Gracia, Director of the Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art.

Heritage and identity (36). A gigantic baztanés

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 14:11:00 +0000 Published in Navarra Newspaper

In recent days the giant of Altzo, Miguel Joaquín Eleicegui (1818-1861), whose remains have been found in the cemetery of his native town, has been in the news. He reached a height of around 2.40 m., being exhibited throughout Europe and received by different kings such as Isabel II of Spain, Maria II of Portugal, Louis Philippe of France and Victoria of the United Kingdom. All that journey began in 1843, when José Antonio Arzadun, neighbor of Lecumberri, reached an agreement with Miguel Joaquín's father agreement to take the latter around the towns and earn money. Among the clauses of the document, it was established that he would be paid for all the tobacco and would be allowed to go to mass every day, in the different points where he was.

It was not the only case, in past times, in which a person of those characteristics was presented to the public because of his stature in different places. We will cite the example of Fermín Arrudi (1870-1913), born on July 7 in Sallent de Gállego, known as the "giant of Sallent", who was very famous throughout the Aragonese Pyrenees and in various Spanish cities. It measured 2.29 m. and was taken to Germany, Holland, Austria, France, South America and the United States. It was also featured as a special character in the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition exhibition . According to Iribarren, he could also be seen at the San Fermin festivities and, apparently, he attended some of Pablo Sarasate's famous concerts.
 

The canon of Baztanes, from the palace of Errazu

It is about Don José Apeztegui y Pérez de Rada (1687-1746), son of Juan Bautista Apeztegui y Errazu, palaciano of Errazu and Elena Pérez de Rada y Juaniz de Echálaz, native of Obanos. According to Pilar Andueza, the couple founded, in 1717, the entailed estate of Apeztegui, after considering that "from the division of the goods great inconveniences result and therefore the families and report of the noble and illustrious people are lost and destroyed, and on the contrary they are conserved and perpetuated, remaining whole and united". To the entailed estate was united the house of the palace of the armory, erected shortly before 1674, since it served as model in that year for the Jarola de Elvetea palace, erected under the munificence of Captain Don Miguel de Vergara.

Don José was born in that palace, Corporal of the Armory, who obtained a certificate of call to the Cortes in 1655. He was related, among others, to the Premonstratensians Fray Bartolomé Echenique, Full Professor of Salamanca and general of his order, and to the canons Juan Miguel Echenique and Pedro Fermín de Jáuregui y Aldecoa, the patron of the Rococo sacristy. Among his brothers there were those who followed the military degree program as Juan Antonio Bautista, serving in the armies in Milan, Valencia and Catalonia and others the ecclesiastical as Francisco Alejo. A sister named Josefa was married to José Ormat y Echenique.

He attended the classrooms of the University of Salamanca, being high school program in canons and there he obtained the licentiate degree in law. He was in the city of Tormes between 1710 and 1714. He was elected canon of Pamplona in 1716, the year after the death of his uncle, the also canon Don Andrés de Apeztegui, archdeacon of the Tabla, who paid for the altarpiece of San Fermín in the cathedral itself. Don José was appointed prior in December 1727, occupying that first chair in the chapter until his death in 1746. He was vicar general of the bishopric, in vacant seat, on three occasions, in 1728, 1734 and 1742. At different times in his life he held other positions of responsibility such as principal officer of the bishopric, governor and provisor. In 1717 and 1718 his health was not very good, judging by the permits he requested to convalesce in Errazu. His last years were full of ailments, which forced him to retire for several seasons to his native house in Errazu, according to N. Ardanaz, "to see if the proximity to the sea air" and the advice of a doctor from Sempere (Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle) in Labord, could alleviate his ailments. In 1744, his state of health worsened, but improved momentarily, allowing him to return to the capital of Navarre. In August 1745 he left Pamplona and did not return, after requesting permission from the chapter, to take medicine in the monastery of Urdax. 

All the accounts of the attendance that he received for two months and twenty days from the doctor, surgeon and apothecary of Baztán, Juan José Ariz, Juan Esteban de Aguirre and Martín de Petri, respectively, are preserved.

His death certificate is preserved in the corresponding book of the deceased of Errazu and is dated March 2, 1746. Other sources indicate that he died at six in the afternoon. He was immediately transferred to Pamplona, in whose cathedral he was buried on March 5 of that same year of 1746. He lived, therefore, much more than the cases of the giants of Altzo and Sallent, that died with forty and three years, reaching the canon Apeztegui the fifty and nine.

Arigita judges him as a man of excellent conditions as a religious and with great authority and erudition. Other sources of the 18th century describe him as one of the most virtuous and exemplary members of the Pamplona chapter. He left founded, in the cathedral, with a capital of 1,000 ducats, some masses in the octaves of Corpus Christi and the Assumption of the Virgin, in 1742. In his last dispositions he also endowed a chaplaincy in Errazu with the amount of 400 ducats. Other dispositions of his last will and testament were for the church of his town, the poor of the parishes of Pamplona and the towns of Arraiza, Ubani, Zabalza and Cirauqui, as well as the Casa de Misericordia (House of Mercy). His servants and maids also received special mandates.

He owned a good Library Services with numerous copies of different sizes, which included the Salmanticenses, works by Father Gracián, Juan de Palafox, María Jesús de Ágreda and many volumes on law, the army, the history of Navarre, nobility and spiritual theology.

Among his possessions in his priory house, all those located in the chapel stand out in the inventory made after his death, presided by a painting on board of the Virgin of the Tabernacle, titular of the cathedral of Pamplona in its rich gilded framework , a bronze Crucifix, cornucopias, small paintings of St. Joseph and the Virgin, Our Lady of Popolo, the Baptist, St. Francis, St. Peter of Alcantara, the Savior, St. John of Sahagún, engravings of the Heart of Jesus, the Virgin of Nieva, a silver chalice and numerous relics, some of them adorned by the Augustinian Recollect Nuns. The silver pieces in his house also denote the prior's status. He owned a large silver bowl, several saltservers, salt shakers, silverware and other pieces of household furnishings.


In Salamanca known as "el altísimo" and in the court before Philip V, considered as the highest of "the whole Kingdom".

We have an exceptional testimony, published twenty-two years after his death. It is the Historia del high school Viejo de San Bartolomé, Mayor of the famous University of Salamanca by José de Rojas y Contreras, Marquis of Alventos, published in 1768. In that book he tells us the anecdote happened with Felipe V, very repeated by those who have taken care of the personage. Thus he relates the part relating to the stature of Don José Apeztegui: "He was very unique in the stature of the body, and so while he was in Salamanca he was not known by any other name than the Most High, not having found in his time in Spain who matched him, but at the same time he was very handsome and proportionate. It happened to him while he was a collegiate a case that was the subject of conversations at Court. Our schoolboy was there and went like many others to see the King Don Felipe Quinto, who was in the habit of eating in public at that time; and as his stature made him stand out extraordinarily from the rest of the crowd, the King noticed that he was doing everyone so much good, and asked if he was sitting on a stool, and being told that he was not, and that it was his stature that showed, he doubted the truth, and ordered a place to be made so that he could get close to the table. This was done, and our schoolboy, in shame of his curiosity, had to undergo the embarrassment of being that day the main object of the attention of the courtiers. The king observed him with great care and then ordered him to say if he wanted to enter his Guards, where he would be attended and would be given employee corresponding to his quality, to which he replied that although the literary profession he had begun, would not prevent him from following the profession of arms, it prevented him from obeying his Majesty the ecclesiastical state he had already embraced and being ordained as an Epistle, which the monarch was satisfied with"

The surname and the stature of the young man from Baztan remained in the report of the first Bourbon and, years later, in 1727, when his name was consulted in the Chamber of Castile for the provision of the priory of the cathedral of Pamplona, the king asked the Marquis de la Compuesta, secretary, "if the consulted was one of great stature whom he had invited to be a soldier, because it seemed to him that the surname was the same of one whom he had seen years ago, while eating". The Marquis could not give a reason, but inquiring to satisfy the curiosity of the monarch, he informed him that, indeed, it was the same, to which Philip V replied: "Well, the choice is well made, because it cannot be denied that he is the greatest subject of that chapter and even of the whole Kingdom".


Testimonies about its height in Pamplona Cathedral

Different programs of study, in general linked to the cathedral of the capital of Navarre, have made known the exceptional height of a canon from Baztan who became prior of the cathedral. Arigita, Iribarren, Goñi Gaztambide, Ardanaz Iñarga, among others, have collected three testimonies about his gigantism. In the first place, the information about his burial, in the pantheon of the canons of the crypt of the Barbazana, where he was buried, being necessary two holes of ordinary tombs in the longitudinal sense, in the center of the enclosure, with the following registration, published by Mariano Arigita: "AQVI ESTA SEPVLTADO D. JOSEPH DE APEZTEGVI, / PRIOR DE ESTA SANTA YGLESIA, MVRIO EN EL / LVGAR DE ERRAZV EL DIA 2 DE MARZO DE 1746. / R. I. P.". The very detailed accounts of everything related to his transfer and accompaniment from Errazu, coffin expenses, the muleteer who drove him from Baztán to Capuchinos outside the walls, the coachmen who brought him down with the hearse to take him up to the cathedral, bell ringer and sergeant of the cathedral, as well as of the hundreds of masses celebrated immediately for his soul and the responsos in convents and parishes of the capital of Navarre, are preserved. As it is known, the crypt of the Barbazana chapel served as a pantheon for the canons since 1651. In 1770, it was ordered to vacate several tombs, placing the remains in a dignified manner with their names and years. Finally, in the restoration of the enclosure in 1947, the room was paved, eliminating more than sixty graves.

The second testimony is rather laconic, but very illustrative. It comes from file of the Pamplona Cathedral. Specifically from the third book of conference proceedings capitulars. When making accredited specialization of his death and transfer to Pamplona of his mortal remains, it is stated that he was "a native of Errazu, where he died and of agigant stature", adding in the margin and as a way of relating his height with a well known image of the cathedral cloister, the following: "He was so tall that he kissed the foot of the Virgin of the door of the cloister when passing always, and without raising a point". Other sources indicate that she did so "without raising her heels from the plane". It refers to the Gothic sculpture of the Virgin of Amparo, in past times, of great cult in the Pamplona church, as evidenced by various texts and relations, as well as the legend of the villager who greeted her with a rough poem and was answered by the Virgin. If we take into account, as Iribarren has already published, that the feet of the stone image of Our Lady of Amparo and therefore the mouth of the prebendary are at 2.22 m. from the floor of the cloister, something that we have verified, the canon would measure around 2.40 m., which would make him look like a real colossus. With these measurements, it must be assumed that the new cloister tiling, carried out between 1771 and 1772, maintained the previous level, something that seems to be absolutely certain.

A third one test has to be placed, for its obviousness, in relation to the permission that Don José Apeztegui obtained from the cathedral chapter to enlarge the priory house in August 1731, pointing out that it was very narrow, a fortiori for a man of his dimensions. The fact fits perfectly with the desire and the need to have a habitat adapted to his height, since we imagine him in the old building continually bending down to pass through the doors not suitable for him and with the discomforts of a distinguished mansion but not adapted to his needs.