1 April 2009
Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series
STATELY HOMES AND PALACES OF NAVARRA
Mansions for the urban bourgeoisie of the 19th and 20th centuries
Mr. José Javier Azanza López
University of Navarra
The approach to the Navarrese stately architecture of the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century is of special relevance for several reasons. Firstly, because it is an important period, with a large catalogue of works that became a good test of the architectural trends in force at that time on the national scene. Secondly, because of the relative lack of knowledge of the stately architecture of the time, almost exclusively confined to the city of Pamplona, but leaving aside the architectural reality of other parts of Navarre. Finally, because of the threat of destruction that looms over some of these buildings, which in some cases has unfortunately already been consummated, with the disappearance of part of our artistic and monumental heritage.
Our interest in the promoters who paid for and lived in the houses of this period leads us to establish three basic categories. On the one hand, there was the new bourgeoisie made up of landowners, property owners and industrialists, who made up a social and economic elite, but also a political and ideological elite, as in many cases they played important roles in the fields of politics, culture and Education. They were joined by the "Americans" who, above all from Atlantic Navarre but also from many other parts of the community, left for America at this time; the result of their enrichment and return is a rich urbanistic and monumental bequest evident in churches and cemeteries, school and welfare buildings, various endowments and infrastructure works and, above all, in their stately homes and residences. Finally, we should mention the fortunes outside Navarre, section in which the figure of María Diega Desmaissiéres y Sevillano y López de Dicastillo, Countess of Vega del Pozo and Duchess of Sevillano, heiress to one of the greatest fortunes of the time with immense properties in Spanish and French territory, stands out.
Villa Lónguida. Murillo de Lónguida
The analysis of the formal language and architectural currents of this period presents a complex reality, rich and varied in nuances, in which influences intertwine to create an architectural amalgam in which it is often difficult to define or establish precise limits. Historicism in its neo-medievalist aspect finds its best examples in Navarre in the palaces of the Countess of the Vega del Pozo, in Dicastillo, and of Ramiro de Maestu in Marañón, both with reminiscences of English neo-Gothic. For its part, the Islamic tradition as a "revival" can be seen in Villa Lónguida, in Murillo de Lónguida, related to Catalan and Aragonese projects from the end of the 19th century interpreted at core topic neo-Mudejar.
In the complex universe of Eclecticism with its different variants, there are numerous examples, from those that faithfully follow the so-called II Empire or Napoleon III style (Casa Camona in Tafalla), to those that make a freer interpretation of it (Manuelenea and Paularena in Elizondo, Echandi Enea in Bera de Bidasoa, Villa Madrid in Eulate, Casa Preciados in Tudela). These are joined by a group of buildings of different physiognomy characterised by the richness and multiplication of architectural volumes, the presence of galleries or glazed belvederes, or the profusion of ornamentation (Villa Marichu in Villava, Villa Paz in Cintruénigo -no longer standing-, the Uranga Palace in Burlada, Villa Isabel and Pepita Enea in Lesaka, Casa Alfaro in Fitero, etc.).
Manuelenea House. Elizondo
Modernism, with interesting examples in cities such as Pamplona, Tafalla, Estella and Viana, gave way to the architectural Regionalism of the first third of the 20th century, which in the case of Navarre was closely linked to the Basque Country in its interest in composing in a new context the ideal image of the Basque farmhouse, from which it recovered its distinctive features that spread rapidly thanks to the publication of albums such as L'Habitation Basque, by the anthropologist and ethnographer Louis Colas. Regionalism would take hold in the valleys of the Bidasoa region, but also in the capital Pamplona, both in the buildings designed by architects such as José Martínez de Ubago or Serapio Esparza for the San Juan district and in those built in the Segundo Ensanche, some bearing the stamp of Víctor Eusa, a circumstance that demonstrates the Pamplona architect's ability to develop in different architectural languages depending on the demands of the developer.
Villa of Pedro María Irurzun. Pamplona