Until the refurbishment of Pamplona Cathedral in the 1940s, the via sacra, also known as "la valla" (the fence), which was a kind of corridor bounded by a lattice, the pulpits and the choir stalls located in front of the choir grille, formed a fundamental part of the interior space of the cathedral.

Via sacra and caponeras were built as a result of a chapter agreement on August 7, 1829, although their material execution took place between 1830 and 1834.

The double fence that joined the choir with the main chapel in cathedrals was called via sacra and was used exclusively for the use of the chapter during celebrations. In those cathedrals in which the choir of the central nave has been removed, the fence has also disappeared. It has also been lost in many others, although some, such as that of Tudela (1766-1767), still retain it.

The old fence or via sacra of the cathedral of Pamplona was made of iron and it was decided to replace it with a more solid one in 1829, following model of the low railings of the chapels, paid for years before, in 1818, by the prior Judas Tadeo Pérez and the railings of the pulpits paid for, at the same time, by the archdeacon of the Chamber, Pedro Vicente Echenique.

Before signing the contract with the artisans, the town council requested models and conditions of execution from different master brass makers in the city. One of the proposals was signed by José Mirepoix and Manuel and Felipe Hernández, which was rejected. In January 1830 the opinion of two experts -the master gunsmith Marcos Vergara and the silversmith Pedro Antonio Sasa- favored the proposal of the brass workers Agustín Romeo, Cristóbal Arrillaga and Juan Casas, arguing its cleanliness and polish, among other points. The deed was formalized on February 21, 1830 with the latter, and the chapter appointed the following officials for financial aid: the carpenter Fernando Aramburu and the stonemason Martín Oronoz, designating the aforementioned Pedro Antonio Sasa and his son-in-law Celedonio Yturzaeta for any doubts. The cost of the 74 brass balusters, handrails and other elements amounted to 40,131 reales fuertes.

The complex was completed in August 1831, standing out for its sobriety and elegance, with the mixture of marble and the golden color of the balusters, finely worked, polished and filed.

José Mª Iribarren affirms in his Vocabulario Navarro that caponera was the old term used in Pamplona and Tudela to refer to the tribune, located in front of the grilles of their cathedral choirs, a place where the capitulars listened to the sermons. He provides as test a document published by Mariano Arigita, in which, when describing a solemn function, it is stated that, in 1774, "the bishop gave the papal blessing, but we (the canons) received it from what they call "caponera", or place where we heard the sermons without going to the presbytery, because of the many people". In Aragon it was called "canariera" and among the preserved ones the one of the Seo of Zaragoza made at the beginning of the XVII century by Pedro Aramendía stands out. In Tudela, the popular explanation for the caponera was related to the appearance of the canons as large capons, the latter with their red crests and the former with their red mucetas.

The caponeras, located in front of the choir grille, on both sides of the access door to the enclosure, are designated in the Pamplona documentation indistinctly with other terms such as choir tribunes or antechorus. They had an architectural base and seats for the capitulars in the sermons, with a grating.

Until the reform of 1832-1834, the tile base of the chapels in Pamplona, like those of Tudela, had ceramic tiles from Muel. With the reform proposed by the architect Pedro Manuel Ugartemendía, from Guipuzcoa, for the choir loft and antechorus, in 1830, they were redesigned a few months after the Via Sacra was finished.

In the spring of 1831, several details of the entire work were agreed upon and in a chapter of the conditions we read: "That the base of the caponeras, which at present is covered with tiles, also be made of burnished marble, for when the railing or parapet equal to the new fence of the body of the church is put in place".

On January 4, 1832 the chapter wrote to him urging him and letting him know that they wanted him to come "to give the idea or design of the bronze railing or parapet to be placed in the tribunes of the antechorus proposing at the same time the improvements of which this small work is susceptible, for which purpose we have already bought the metal since last September, and we would like it to be done soon, because having placed the new fence in front of the body of the church more than five months ago, it causes great dissonance to see all the way the iron one in said tribunes or caponeras, up to which that one has to arrive and it is incomplete because of this delay".

On May 30, Ugarmendía asked the commissioners of the work to review papers on the auction for the removal and roughing of 22 white painted stones from the Almándoz quarries for the choir loft and the tribunes or caponeras.

As Goñi Gaztambide has already pointed out, the work on the backchamber was delayed due to the architect's fault, and was not even carried out until 1854-1857. The intervention in the antechorus took place in the spring and summer of 1834. Specifically, the work on the choir stalls began on April 9, 1834, when the choir schedule was changed and the place for the divine offices was changed for the duration of the work, which was completed on June 6 of the same year, 1834.

The person in charge of opening and closing the doors of the caponeras was the doorman of the cathedral, according to different documents, among them the one of the obligations of such position in 1801. In that ordinance, the doorkeeper was ordered to open them "with anticipation on the days when there was a sermon or some publication from the pulpit".

The last photograph of the destroyed caponeras dates from 1940, when the choir and the unfortunate intervention in the cathedral, carried out without the rigor required by the monument, in its double aspect of historical and artistic work, were dismantled in haste. From the historical point of view, because they did not respect all the transformations of so many centuries, losing the authenticity and identity of the historical document -unicum- of the monument, the genius loci. From the artistic point of view, because the result did not coincide, far from it, with the original plans of the Gothic cathedral. The lack of a clear plan of intervention, as noted by Francisco Íñiguez, is evident when we see how altarpieces, grilles and masonry were dismantled without order or concert and absolutely everything was improvised, without a single coherent direction, guided by technical and professional criteria.

Among the surprises that the chapter's file holds and that we are discovering, thanks to the kindness and patience of the archivist Mr. Alfredo López-Vallejos, is the project that the aforementioned Pedro Manuel Ugartemendía made to gild and polychrome the Renaissance grille of the choir, once the works of the via sacra and the hoods were finished. A few days after the completion of the latter, on June 30, his proposal is dated in the capital of Navarre, from which we will extract some details.

The text is addressed to the prior, as the main manager of the temple. At that time it was Juan Angel Muguiro, since 1830, who died in Bayonne in 1837.

In the heading, he states that he believes it is his duty to warn of the convenience of gilding the beautiful grating of the choir with brevity and Economics , because the scaffolding was being assembled, probably to proceed to clean the piece, since it had been decided to paint the entire grating "with linseed oil baths to prevent it from the attack of scab. With such an operation, Ugartemendía understood that the grille would be enhanced and appreciated, and in turn the decorum of the cathedral.

In a first condition, he considers that only the most visible parts of the ornamentation of the finial should be gilded, listing the fillets, rosettes, capitals and part of the large pilasters, as well as some parts of the pinnacles, bases and balusters, which meant gilding only the most visible and precise parts so that the effect would be to enhance the merit "of such beautiful latticework, avoiding any unnecessary profusion or expense ".

He estimated the cost at 3,600 reales de vellón, although he warned of the difficulty of calculating the work of fretwork and trimming of the ornaments and the shapes and profiles, being in favor of giving the work to a day laborer, rather than making a agreement. If the first option was chosen, he warned about some aspects. In the first place, he proposed bringing the necessary gold from Bayonne and delivering it to the master gilder Gatell -surely Manuel Gatell, married to Felipa Aloy-, under the supervision of the master builder of the cathedral, Francisco Cruz de Aramburu. Secondly, he warns of the need to prepare those parts susceptible of being gilded. A third opinion refers to the salary of the aforementioned Gatell and two gilders, each of whom would be paid twelve reales de vellón per day, plus an apprentice who would be assigned five reales. The last manager to indicate the gilded parts would be Ugartemendía himself, judging that the work could be finished by mid-August, the feast of the temple's patron saint.

A last warning is of utmost interest, since it gives us reason for the architect's knowledge of the French and Spanish panorama. It reads: "It is noticed that the gold with which the border of test of over the door of the choir has been gilded, is from the Spanish factories, its color somewhat dull; but that of those of Bayonne, on being the larger and more economical loaves, has a color more elevated and pleasing to the eye, for whose circumstances preferable for now to the Spanish quality and for its purchase and collection could do with more knowledge and Economics the same master Gatell, in this case, in preference to any merchant by the custom of charging a percentage of commission. The memorial ends by noting that in the parts that were to be gilded, a coat of linseed oil should be avoided because it would have too much shine and would collide with the gold.

position The author of this project, Pedro Manuel de Ugartemendía (1770-1835) was an architect from Guipuzcoa, who held the position of road inspector in Guipúzcoa and was involved in numerous projects, also in Navarre: Irañeta, Puente la Reina and various buildings in Pamplona: projects for the Inclusa and the theater, among others.

All those plans to gild the choir grille and the construction of the choir loft were also suspended by agreement of the chapter of July 4, 1834, in the context of the first Carlist war. The plans for the grille were not reconsidered, but the choir loft became a reality a few years later.