25 February 2009

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

STATELY HOMES AND PALACES OF NAVARRA

Royal palaces

Mr Javier Martínez de Aguirre Aldaz
Complutense University of Madrid

Despite the existence of a royal curia and the evident need for appropriate spaces for the private and public life of the kings of Pamplona, we have no specific information about the material nature of their palatial buildings before the construction of the Royal Palace of Pamplona in the time of Sancho VI the Wise (1150-1194). Their remains were identified during the conversion of the former palace of kings and viceroys into the headquarters of the file General of Navarre. An interesting civil architecture sample then appeared, with two large naves and a corner tower arranged in an L-shape. It consisted of large meeting rooms and spaces for private life, a portico and a wooden gallery. The finding of this great royal palace also made it possible to locate the old Episcopal palace of Pamplona, which is currently awaiting restoration work. A third Romanesque palace, that of Estella, was probably also a royal seat, with the peculiarity of including figurative sculpture dedicated to such attractive themes as the struggle between Roland and Ferragut or the condemnation of sinners in hell.

In the second half of the 13th century, Theobald II of Champagne decided to build a castle at the Tiebas junction, with a palatial presence thanks to characteristic residential elements (large halls, fireplaces, figurative sculptural decoration). Unfortunately, this work suffered greatly during the 19th and 20th centuries, so that its ruins barely hint at the typological relationship with great French works such as the Louvre in Paris, which Theobald knew perfectly well as he was married to Isabella, daughter of Saint Louis, King of France.
 

Royal Palace of Pamplona. 12th century
 

The crowning work of Navarrese medieval palace architecture is to be found in Olite. It is the extension that Charles III the Noble made to the old royal palace between 1388 and 1420. The building, which was badly damaged during the War of Independence, was restored during the 20th century using criteria that we do not always agree with today. It is easy to recognise underneath the walls and towers a very important sample at European level of the royal residences of the so-called "international style". Building Following the axis of the wall and taking as a construction criterion the addition of towers, galleries and gardens according to his needs or whims, the king commissioned a numerous group of artists from different kingdoms to build a central nucleus, which he later extended by adding new rooms. The simple Structures followed uniform criteria: distribution of spaces on the main floor, rooms with bay windows, windows and fireplaces, galleries created by raising arches between pre-existing towers and canvasses, etc. Rarely did they resort to architectural feats, such as skew arches or rhomboid-shaped trunks. In the last phase, the sovereign gave himself up to the whim of fill in a "literary palace", which would make the architectural formulas cited in the books of chivalry a reality, as can be seen in the tower "of the three great finiestras" and in the tower of the "joyosa guarda".

When the Olite palace was almost finished, Charles III was still in the mood to undertake an even larger one in Tafalla. This enormous palace (800 x 200 m) was characterised by the inclusion in its enclosure of two enormous gardens, connected by the so-called tower of Ochagavía, and two large courtyards around which the rooms were distributed. The palaces of Olite and Tafalla are magnificent examples of the merit that our king gave to architecture, as his epitaph recalls: "he made many notable buildings in his kingdom".
 

Palace of Olite. 14th-15th centuries

Palace of the Kings of Navarre, Estella. 12th and 13th centuries