17 June 2009

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

VI CONFERENCE BAROQUE IN CORELLA

Houses and lineages. Lesser-known aspects of Baroque Corella

D. Esteban Orta Rubio
Historian. Society of programs of study Historians of Navarre

The speaker, Esteban Orta, wanted to highlight some lesser-known aspects of the town of Corella during the Baroque period. He began by discussing the system of walls and gates that surrounded the town until well into the 19th century and which, although there are no physical remains today, there are still certain place names and streets - Muro, Tajadas, Fortaleza - that help to locate them, in addition to documentation. There were five gates that opened in the wall: Alfaro Gate, San José or Murillo Gate, San Miguel or Las Heras Gate, Sol or Fitero Gate, and Tudela Gate. In 1819, the Town Council ordered the demolition of the last remains, to avoid misfortune and to give "beauty to the town".

Later, and in another section, he showed how Corella became a commercial centre of redistribution during these centuries and highlighted the intimate connection between the previous fact and the appearance of important lineages (Sesma, Miñano, Morales, Escudero, Virto, ...) that became rich and achieved political and social relevance through this trade, often illicit.

The third part was devoted to the analysis of the rise and subsequent evolution of these elites. It ended with an approach to the life trajectory of two characters who are still little known and little appreciated. The first is Don Pedro de Baigorri (1593-1670), who achieved social promotion and later became a Knight of Santiago ( degree scroll ), through the military degree program . His eventful and even turbulent life reached its peak when he was appointed Captain General and Governor of Buenos Aires in 1652. position He even aspired to the post of Viceroy, but it was a mirage, as he was accused of smuggling before the committee de Indias, his estate was seized, he was tried and sentenced to pay a very large sum of money. 

He died in Buenos Aires, without the financial means to return to Corella and be buried in the convent of the nuns of the Encarnación, which he himself, with his donations, had founded. 

The other figure is Doña Isabel Virto y Luna (1663-1750), a female figure from the final decades of the Baroque period. She was widowed when she was barely 20 years old; however, her subsequent marriage to Antonio Lecumberri, a bull breeder from Tudela, introduced her to the world of bullfighting. Esteban Orta, following recent research by Ramón Villanueva, highlighted the decisive role played by this woman in the interesting world of Navarrese cattle breeding. After the death of her second husband, and for nearly forty years, she remained at the head of the most important stud farm in Navarre, that of the "Viuda de Lecumberri". On her death, the stud farm was acquired from her heirs by Francisco Javier Guendulain, passing, in the 19th century, to Nazario Carriquiri, giving rise to the famous "Carriquiri" bulls.

Reconstruction of the route of the wall of Corella 

The lecture took place in one of the rooms of the Arrese Museum in Corella, the former chapel of the convent of the Encarnación.