20 February 2013

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

STATELY AND PALATIAL ARCHITECTURE OF PAMPLONA

"More than lasted what he saw". The Royal Palace of Pamplona

Mr Javier Martínez de Aguirre.
Complutense University of Madrid

What had been the palace of the kings of Navarre, later residency program viceroyalty and lately headquarters of the Military Captaincy, after its withdrawal in the second half of the 20th century arrived at the end of that century as a dilapidated mansion report , in whose interior only a large semi-basement conference room seemed to remain from the original building, covered with simple ribbed vaults whose ribs evidenced its execution around 1200.

Once it was decided to convert it into file General of Navarra, the project remodeling was commissioned to the architect Rafael Moneo. The works began with a phase of selective demolition of the additions of several centuries. Thus, for a brief period of time, the vestiges of the initial construction, undertaken by order of Sancho VI the Wise (1150-1194) in the last years of his reign, were left in view. The study of the remains made it possible to know in some detail the monumental Building and even made feasible the execution of a series of drawings that sought to recover the appearance of the initial factory.

The palace consisted of two wings that drew on the ground an E-shaped plan. In the corner there was a tower, whose presence has been maintained in the new building. The wing that overlooks the Rochapea, conventionally called the "nave of the river", had two floors. The lower one is the semi-subterranean hall we have already mentioned, with flared windows open to the north, which leads us to think that it was used as a cellar where the monarch would store the rents in kind. The large conference room located above had a carpentry structure next to the tower, which must have served as access to the more reserved rooms of the sovereign. The other nave, which we call "the garden", seems to have housed the great audience hall. It underwent remodeling in the Gothic period, of which there remains a door probably made in the first half of the 14th century. Near the corner was the access to the cistern turret, so we locate the kitchen there.

Both naves were covered with wooden ceilings over enormous transversal stone arches, of which the corbels have survived. Their respective main doors included stone tympanums on corbels. A smaller door allowed transit from one nave to the other. The secondary doors, at the ends, completed the varied possibilities of circulation. Rectangular windows illuminated the interiors, which were plastered and painted in red. The facades facing the interior of the building had carpentry porches (the corbels and mechinales of the roof are still visible). Above the windows of the semi-basement, a wooden gallery on stone pillars called "scaffolding" ran along the north façade of the river nave, which connected the door of the eastern gable with the outer door of the corner tower. It would have windows from which the beautiful landscape of the Pamplona basin and the meanders of the Arga River could be contemplated.
 

Graphic restitution of the royal palace
(Prince of Viana Institution)