March 5, 2014

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONVENTUAL PAMPLONA

"Orare et docere. Conventual functions in Pamplona in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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

In Navarre as a whole, and especially in Pamplona, the great religiosity that characterized the last third of the 19th century during the reign of Alfonso XII, who once again gave the Church a preponderant role, putting an end to the period of demolitions carried out after the disentailment and the revolution of 1868, was particularly strong.

As a result, there was a huge development of religious architecture, so that in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century numerous convents were built in Pamplona. We can affirm that the capital is now once again experiencing a real "convent fever" like that of the first decades of the 17th century, although the social, economic and intellectual circumstances are obviously different.

For this architecture, forms were sought that adequately represented this neo-Catholicism; and the medieval repertoire, fundamentally Romanesque and Gothic, was the most suitable. The main protagonists of this neo-medievalist boom in Pamplona's convent architecture were Florencio Ansoleaga and Julián Arteaga, architects who graduated in 1872 from the School of Madrid, where they coincided with such important personalities of Spanish neo-medievalist architecture as the Marquis of Cubas and Ricardo Velázquez Bosco. Both were basically addicted to two languages: Romanesque for the exteriors and Gothic for the interiors. In neither case are they large convents, in the style of those built at that time in Madrid, Barcelona or other cities. However, the importance lies, in our opinion, in the issue of the works erected, which, despite their modesty, manage to capture in the capital of Pamplona a very peculiar and representative style of the period.
 

Florencio Ansoleaga. Discalced Carmelites of San José (1899)
 

During this period, average dozen convents were built in Pamplona, many of them in the interior of the city, occupying old houses and plots of the medieval fabric. Within the urban planning of the city, the new convents that arose in the 19th century are more or less aligned with the streets between which they are located, respecting the existing urban layout. In general, these houses are built on large lots that were previously occupied by several houses, which were merged to achieve the desirable dimensions for the life of a community. This means that their layout is always irregular, although their organization around a cloister gives them a certain regularity. Together with the cloister, the church is the most richly conceived space. Its façades are sumptuous, so that they are always differentiated from the rest of the convent complex. They tend to the neo-Romanesque style with semicircular arches, flared doors, and blind arches of Lombard origin; however, each one, although following these general rules, has its own defining character. This is evident in the Discalced Carmelite nuns of San José, the convent of the Visitation of the Salesas, the Servants of Mary, or the Asilo de las Josefinas.

Victor Eusa. high school San Miguel de Escolapios (1926-28)

Already in the first half of the twentieth century, and parallel to the planning of the II Ensanche, land was reserved for religious endowments, parishes and convents. In this way, religious orders were important sources of commissions for Victor Eusa, whose buildings contemplate the dual function of convent and school. Examples are the high school de María Inmaculada, the high school de San Miguel de Escolapios, the Convento de la Milagrosa de Padres Paúles, and the high school de Santa María la Real de Maristas. employment Although the architectural language or the use of different materials may vary in their execution, in all of them we find as constants their sense of symmetry in the organization of the floor plan and the concept of monumentality with respect to the urban environment.

Other convent buildings that can be mentioned in the Second Expansion of Pamplona are the Convent of San Antonio de Capuchinos (project of the architect Francisco Garraus), and the high school of San Ignacio de Jesuitas (Luis Felipe de Gaztelu), whose architecture connects with the Spanish convent tradition. Outside this urban area, the Convento de Oblatas del Santísimo Redentor, in which the architect Eugenio Arraiza shows his emphasis on monumentality and the forms of 17th century Austrian architecture, without neglecting orientalizing influences, and the disappeared Convento de Carmelitas Descalzas Misioneras de Pío XII, by the architect Garraus himself, are of interest.

Victor Eusa. high school Santa María la Real de Maristas (1955)

Luis Felipe de Gaztelu. high school St. Ignatius of Jesuits (1949)

Eugenio Arraiza. Oblatas Convent (1945 and 1953)
 

The modernity of convent architecture arrives in Navarre through the high school del Santo Ángel, designed in 1957 by the Madrid architect Juan Gómez, in which the successful relationship between the different volumes constitutes the main attraction of the building; and, mainly, the new Convent of Agustinas de San Pedro, whose project was designed by Fernando Redón in 1967, a work in which the traditional and the cultured merge through the material and the typological structure of the complex, with a contemporary interpretation of the past.
 

Fernando Redón. Convent of Agustinas de San Pedro (1967)