New mansions and urban spaces for the bourgeoisie of Pamplona - Chair de Patrimonio y Arte Navarro

agenda_y_actividades_conferencias_2013_nuevas-mansiones-palacios-burguesia

20 March 2013

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

STATELY AND PALATIAL ARCHITECTURE OF PAMPLONA

New mansions and urban spaces for Pamplona's bourgeoisie

Mr. José Javier Azanza López.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

The proposed topic gives us the opportunity to answer three questions already formulated in its statement.

First: Who live in these mansions? A new social class : the new bourgeoisie of Pamplona.

In a context of growth and high demographic density, in the second half of the 19th century in Pamplona we witnessed the emergence of a provincial bourgeoisie made up basically of three social groups from the fields of law and politics, financial activity and the industrial and business sector, which was still in its infancy. framework For this new bourgeoisie, the public sphere constituted an important means of cohesion: circles, cafés and casinos on the one hand, and cultural, charitable and religious associations on the other, were places of meeting where leisure shared space with business. And, in this awareness of class, the house also came into play. There is no doubt that, understood as a space where the individual acts, the house includes a private dimension; but, as in past centuries, it also manifests the social and economic prosperity of its owner to the outside world. From this point of view, many of the members of the Pamplona bourgeoisie chose the Ensanche interior as a place to live residency program, to project an image of belonging to a new social class . The Ensanche can therefore be seen as an urban area of social cohesion, of awareness of group of this new bourgeoisie.

Second: Where were these mansions built? A new urban space: the Ensanche Interior.

development Located in the space between Ciudadela and Taconera, the so-called Ensanche Interior was atypical because of its intramural character, which did not go beyond the walled limits of the city; because of the two military and civilian areas that made it up; and because of the limited surface area of the civilian area, made up of a row of six blocks that were different from each other. It was the municipal architect Julián Arteaga who designed the project and drew up the conditions for the sale of the plots of land, which covered administrative, urban planning and architectural aspects of subject . The sensation of cleanliness and hygiene, the desire for monumentality and the aesthetic search for beauty were the main principles that defined the architecture of the Ensanche from the very moment it was built, both in the public buildings and in the flats and single-family bourgeois residences. Some aspects attest to this: the urban rules and regulations is modified to authorise the construction of buildings based on their decorative and monumental contribution; industrial buildings are masked on the outside, giving them a certain noble appearance; and similar concepts are used in the immediate barracks so as not to disregard the urban environment in which they are erected, as can be seen in the descriptive report of the author of project of the barracks, the commander of engineers and Navarrese from Sangüesa, Antonio Los Arcos.

General view of the Ensanche, 1903

General view of the Ensanche, 1903
(file Municipal de Pamplona)

Third: What do these mansions look like? A new architectural language: Eclecticism.

As in most Spanish cities, in Pamplona the Ensanche also served as framework for the flourishing of a varied architecture characterised by Eclecticism, a trend which was the most suggestive phenomenon of the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It is an architectural subject that is not inspired solely by a pure model , but acts with absolute freedom when it comes to fusing different architectural languages in the same building. These are works that had never been seen before in the history of architecture, in which the talent of the architect who chooses the path of the unknown is put to test ; for this reason the failures in this line are more resounding but, for the same reason, the freshest architecture of the 19th century will come from his hand.

General view of the Ensanche, 1908

General view of the Ensanche, 1908
Aquilino García Deán
(file Municipal of Pamplona)

So let us close the circle, or rather the triangle: a new social class , a new urban space, a new architectural language. Indeed, Eclecticism enjoyed the predilection of the urban bourgeoisie of Pamplona for the construction of their residential complexes; not in vain, the aesthetic ideals that presided over it, with a marked tendency towards pomposity, are highly illustrative of the social category of its owners. Politicians, bankers and businessmen embraced the eclectic project as it was in keeping with their intentions of appearance and monumentality, while at the same time they assumed it as test of modernity and updating in subject architecture. This can be seen in some of the buildings we are analysing, both in their decorative exterior appearance and in their successful interior layout: the current Chamber of Commerce (project by Florencio Ansoleaga, 1891); Nemesia-Enea, the private residency program of Mayor Joaquín Viñas Larrondo (Julián Arteaga, 1899, now disappeared); and the residential building housing the Municipal School of Music (Manuel Martínez de Ubago, 1900).

Chamber of Commerce building