4 March 2009

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

STATELY HOMES AND PALACES OF NAVARRA

Pamplona City Hall and its artistic treasures

Mr. José Luis Molins Mugueta
Municipal Archivist of Pamplona

In the middle of the 18th century, the old town hall of Pamplona, erected in compliance with the provisions of Charles III the Noble in the Privilege of the Union, showed serious signs of structural deterioration. At first, in the autumn of 1751, it was thought that consolidation solutions would be adopted: at internshipthis circumstance has made it possible to have some traces conserved in the Municipal file, with the original distribution of rooms in the old building and spatial references to its functions. However, two years later, the aldermen decided to demolish it as a matter of urgency and build a new building on the same site, which would also entail urban improvements in the surrounding area. In July 1753, the appropriate project was available, with plans and budgetbroken down by guilds - which included stonemasonry, carpentry and ironwork - with a total estimate of 16,420 ducats. These plans, including the façade design, were the idea of the master builder Juan Miguel de Goyeneta, and the works were undertaken with them at agreement.

By March 1755, the statusof the factory allowed the main façade to be started. At that moment, the councillors were assailed by doubts or the desire to sponsora façade of greater beauty than the one already written. They did not have to make too much of an effort to find a designthat fulfilled these aspirations, because they had it at hand. In August 1753, in the days prior to formalising the contract with Goyeneta, José de Zay y Lorda or Zailorda arrived in Pamplona by chance, a person who was attributed with a singular skilland a rare idea for conceiving sumptuous buildings: this led to the commission by some of the aldermen to devise an elevation "of panache, brilliance and splendour, should the City wish to make use of it in due course", a circumstance that is now taking place.
 

J. Zailorda. Double projectfaçade for the Pamplona Town Hall, 1753.
(fileMunicipal de Pamplona)
 

member of the clergyJosé de Zay y Lorda, who was also an architect, was a native of Pamplona. In the mid-18th century he was involved in some of the work on the church of San Nicolás de Bari in Bilbao, the city where he lived. A versatile man, who achieved some renown as a musician, chemist and astronomer, between 1740 and 1744 Zailorda was director an expert in the works to improve the Bilbao estuary, and was specifically responsible for the technical supervision of the piling of the piers of the bar. In 1743, together with Ignacio Vicente de Mendieta y Cebericha, he conceived the plans for the church of Andra Mari or Santa María, in Munguía, now only conserved in plan. The fame he enjoyed among his countrymen is confirmed by the fact that years later, in 1767, he was asked to arbitrate what, in his opinion, was the best of the three designs presented for the altarpiece of the Chapel of the Virgen del Camino, in the parish church of San Saturnino in Pamplona.

The façade designfor the Pamplona Town Hall provided by Zailorda - which is kept at the City's file- is twofold, as the solutions proposed on either side of the symmetrical axis clearly differ. The experts consulted at the time considered the project, which they called "of columns", to be more successful, as they considered it "of greater magnificence and magnificence than the one that had been deeded to Juan Miguel de Goyeneta". In consideration of this expert opinion, on 15th March 1755 it was formally agreed to choose this profileand the subsequent deed signature.
 

J. L. Catalán. Trace with the projectof the façade coping.
(fileMunicipal de Pamplona)
 

During the time that elapsed until the building was inaugurated in January 1760, several variants were introduced in the design, some of them substantial. Zailorda's concept of the superimposition of the three architectural orders in floors was respected. However, in April 1756, the top was replaced by another one, according to the idea of the master builder Juan Lorenzo Catalán. The position of the statues was also changed: the representations of Hercules, carved by the sculptor José Jiménez, were placed in the attic, and their place, on either side of the main entrance, was taken by allegories of Prudence and Justice, respectively. Pedro de Ribas made the iron fittings for the six balconies of the façade according to French models, in a internshipotherwise frequent among the Hispanic blacksmiths of the time; a fact that endorses the prestige attained at that time by French ironwork, not only in Spain but also in many other European countries. The City conserves the engraving sourceof inspiration, whose printed caption "Auec Priuillege du Roy" indicates the name of its author: "faits par G. Vallé".

In 1952, due to the urgent need for space, the Town Hall was demolished in order to allow for the subsequent construction of the current building, according to projectby the architects Yárnoz Orcoyen. And although the demolition meant, among other things, the loss of the magnificent rectangular staircase with a double flight of steps, modelcalled imperial, which had been designed by the master builder José Marzal in 1756, at that time a resident of Tudela, and whose design is still preserved today, fortunately the façade designed by Zailorda y Catalán was preserved. A façade whose articulation of spaces and harmony of proportions has evoked the shape of a bargueño for some; and which, in the words of the writer Ángel María Pascual, its greatest charm is reminiscent of "a guild house, of baroque furniture, of a carved wall clock". Behind its walls, mainly in the representative area that houses the halls of plenary session of the Executive Counciland Receptions with the attached Chapel, Mayor's offices and even corridors, there are more than hidden paintings, sculptures and gold and silverware objects that, in addition to their artistic value, are also important documentary testimonies of a collective historical precipice known as Pamplona.
 

Photogrammetric elevation of the current façade. 1990, TRACASA (fileMunicipal de Pamplona)