March 25, 2009
Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series
STATELY HOMES AND PALACES OF NAVARRA
Navarrese stately architecture during the Ancien Régime
Ms. Pilar Andueza Unanua
University of Navarra
Throughout the Ancien Régime the Navarrese manor house underwent a logical evolution of agreement not only to the prevailing artistic styles, but also due to the ideas and mentalities of each historical moment. The Renaissance offers its best buildings in cities such as Tudela and Estella, with houses built in brick, off-center doorways and interiors organized around a central courtyard. Sometimes they incorporate mythological iconographic programs as in the house of the Cabanillas Berrozpe family in the capital of the riverbanks and of the San Cristóbal family in the city of Ega.
As we move into the 17th century, and therefore into the Baroque, the buildings gain in size, monumentality and typological diversity. The facades are filled with balconies with rich wrought iron railings, which become authentic tribunes from which to participate in the Baroque festivities, while the doorways, always sober and austere, appear totally centered and flanked by columns or pilasters. Progressively, the frontispieces, both in stone and brick, are becoming more plastic, thanks to the introduction of moldings, ribbons, cornices and bocelones that are gaining in development and volume as we approach and enter the Age of Enlightenment. There is always a visible heraldic engraving that publicly proclaims the nobility of its inhabitants.
Azcona Palace
The Baroque house abandons the courtyard and articulates its interior by means of wide staircases, more in keeping with the Navarrese climate, reflecting at the same time the taste for scenography and theatricality, as well as the prevailing label . They house imperial staircases and are covered with magnificent and innovative vaulted solutions, as shown by numerous examples in the Ribera region.
Within the very wide typological variety, the towered house or palace, which has its roots in the Middle Ages, is particularly noteworthy average. The Renaissance offers us its best examples in Tafalla and Barásoain, linked to the Navarre and Azpilcueta families respectively. In the 17th century, the magnificent palace of Viguria, still under the imprint of Herrera, the palace of the Marquis of Muruzábal, much more molded and structured, and the house of the Vizcaíno family in Miranda de Arga, where the Baroque style plenary session of the Executive Council is already evident. The 18th century centers this typology in the lands of Bidasoa with the Iriartea houses in Errazu, Gastón de Iriarte in Irurita and the Reparacea palace in Oyeregui, exporting the model to the Pamplona basin through the Subiza palace.
Riezu. House of the Remírez de Ganuza family.
Arizkun. Arizkunenea House