February 27, 2007

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONTEMPORARY ART LESSONS IN NAVARRA

Tradition and modernity in 19th century architecture

Dr. Javier Azanza López.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

Professor Azanza pointed out first of all that in the 19th century, unlike in previous periods, the panorama of architecture is not uniform, so it is necessary to differentiate between different periods through which the forms of modernity will make their way, although still timidly.

Thus, the period of Elizabethan architecture (1833-1875) is defined in Navarre by two specific features, such as its academicist seal, heir to the postulates of the previous period, and its public and urban character, with the creation of new squares and promenades, and the construction of significant public buildings such as town halls, theaters, bullrings, markets, stations, schools, etc., which monumentalize the urban space. In this sense, the Disentailment of 1836 was a transcendental event, leaving extensive areas in the cities free, which were used to erect new institutional buildings. 

Some of the most representative buildings of this period would be the Teatro Principal -initially located on one of the sides of the place de la Constitución-, the Palacio Provincial, the high school Provincial, or the Santo Domingo Market. In the field of urban planning, the place Nueva de Tafalla is configured as one of the best urban complexes of the 19th century in Navarre.
 

Teatro Principal and Palacio de la Diputación. Pamplona

In the last quarter of the 19th century, coinciding with the reign of Alfonso XII, religious and private architecture once again took center stage, while at the same time various architectural trends such as historicism, eclecticism and modernism developed simultaneously, all of which found their natural habitat and coexisted harmoniously in Pamplona's Primer Ensanche. An atypical Ensanche due to its elongated morphology of only six blocks, it gave rise to an ensemble of unquestionable architectural quality that unfortunately has been partially disfigured in the second half of the twentieth century with the demolition of several houses replaced by modern buildings of disproportionate height. It was also unfortunate that the exceptional star-shaped ground plan of the Citadel designed by Fratín had to be mutilated in two of its five bastions in order to put it into operation.

General view of the Primer Ensanche. Pamplona

Outside the Primer Ensanche, the styles of the end of the 19th century hardly took root in Pamplona, manifesting themselves sporadically in some examples of the place del Castillo or the Casco Viejo, among which the Casino or the Edificio La Agrícola stand out. In the rest of Navarre, eclecticism and modernism are present in both small and medium-sized towns, in buildings often linked to the prosperity achieved in America. There is also the presence of new materials such as iron and glass in forged, galleries and gazebos.

A new step in the path taken by Navarrese architecture will be taken with the implementation of the Segundo Ensanche, in the first decades of the twentieth century. Discarding the first options that proposed the extension of the city to the other side of the Arga, towards Chantrea and Rochapea, or to the south and west, the project of the municipal architect Serapio Esparza planned the development of the city towards the south by means of a grid system of 96 blocks. It has been pointed out as one of its achievements the perfect link with the old part of the city, a connection that nevertheless forced certain sacrifices in its artistic heritage, such as the demolition of a part of the walled enclosure -at the time received with jubilation and rejoicing-, the mutilation of the basilica of San Ignacio to adapt it to the new road alignment, or the demolition of the Gayarre Theater that presided over one of the fronts of the place de la Constitución to make way for the Avenida de Carlos III, an action described at the time as "the open wound of the Ensanche" or "the relentless scraping".

General view of the Primer Ensanche. Pamplona