April 2, 2014

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONVENTUAL PAMPLONA

Transfers, destructions and disentailments: the disappeared convents

Ms. Pilar Andueza Unanua.
Chairof Navarrese Heritage and Art

Although the city of Pamplona still allows us to savor the echoes of what was once a convent city, the capital of Navarre has suffered many losses in this area, not only in terms of its tangible but also its intangible assets. The disappearance of monasteries and convents over the centuries has been due to various causes, including the desire of friars and nuns to abandon their houses outside the walls to enter the city, or a warlike status conducive to demolitions and occupations, such as the conquest of Navarre, the War of the Convention and the War of Independence, without forgetting the devastating disentailments of the 19th century.

The Hispanic convent city developed after the Council of Trent, reaching its peak during the Baroque period, especially in the 17th century. However, the proliferation of convents in Pamplona at that time came in addition to monasteries, parishes and other religious establishments that had already existed since the Middle Ages average distributed throughout the Navarrería, the burgh of San Cernin and the town of San Nicolás.

The Franciscans and the Mercedarians settled in the Campo del Arenal, outside the walls, next to the parish of San Lorenzo, during the first half of the 13th century. They remained there until, after the conquest of Navarre, the viceroy ordered its demolition in 1521 in the face of the French threat. From then on, the Franciscans moved to Cuchillerías Street where the emperor had given them the Torre del Rey, while the Mercedarians bought what had been a Jewish synagogue and other houses and orchards where they built their monastery. During the War of Independence, both buildings were converted into barracks, prison and hospital respectively. Their end came with the disentailment of Mendizábal.
 

Cover of the disappeared convent of La Merced
Julio Cía
(file Municipal of Pamplona)
 

Of medieval origin was also the disappeared monastery of Santa Engracia, the first Poor Clare monastery erected outside Italy, thanks to the founding bull granted by Gregory IX in 1228, receiving since then and throughout the centuries the support of the monarchs and the nobility, as well as the high clergy. The War of the Convention meant the demolition of the monastery in 1794 because of the possibility that it would be taken by the French. The same happened to the Trinitarian convent, who in the 17th century settled in the Costalapea area, in houses given to them by Juan de Ibero, ombudsman of the Royal committee , and his wife, where the Oblate convent stands today. The main altarpiece of the church housed the painting of the Foundation of the Order of the Trinity, the work of Carreño de Miranda, in partnership with Francisco Rizzi. With the demolition, the friars moved to the convent of the disappeared order of San Antón Abad -antonianos-, at the confluence of Nueva and San Antón streets, who in turn had abandoned their original location due to the construction of the citadel, remaining in San Antón street to which they gave their name until 1791, when Pius VI extinguished the order. The disentailment of Mendizábal destined the building to housing for military widows and pensioners.
 

The monastery of Santa Engracia and the convent of the Trinitarians, both outside the city walls, along the Arga River, were demolished during the Convention War in 1794.

On the site currently occupied by the Government of Navarre, closing the place del Castillo, a community of Dominicans was located in the first half of the thirteenth century on a Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love dedicated to the apostle Santaigo. The conquest of Navarre and the construction of the new castle by Ferdinand the Catholic forced them to abandon that location and move to the ravine behind the Casa de la Jurería or Casa de la Ciudad, where the Dominicans built a majestic church to which was added, in the Baroque period, a large cloister. The disentailment turned the building initially into infantry barracks and later into a military hospital. Today the cloister and its outbuildings house the department of Education of the Government of Navarre, while the Dominicans have run the church since 1914.

In 1247 the bishop Pedro Ramírez de Gazólaz gave the Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love of San Pedro de Ribas, located next to the Arga, to some nuns who, located in Barañáin, were governed by the rule of St. Augustine. The community gave rise to the well-known Augustinian Nuns of San Pedro. Although in 1587 they requested permission to move into the city, they were unable to do so. In the 18th century a new monastic complex was erected, consisting of a church and two cloisters, which the nuns abandoned late in the 20th century to move to the other side of the river to a building designed by Fernado Redón. The monastery became the Museum of environmental Education .

Authorized by the Pope to move to the interior of the city in 1356, the Carmelite nuns chose to settle in the Rúa de los Peregrinos, now Carmen Street, to which they gave their name, documenting works over several centuries and up to the 17th century. Intended as a hospital for the French troops during the War of Independence, it was used as a military hospital and infantry barracks after the disentailment decrees of Mendizábal. In 1898 it passed into the hands of the city council, which proceeded to demolish it, selling the resulting site to various private individuals.
 

General view of Pamplona with the disappeared convent of the Carmelitas Calzados. C. 1880
Unknown author
(file Municipal of Pamplona)
 

The present parish of San Agustín was erected in 1882 on what had been the site of the convent of the Augustinian friars, who before the middle of the 14th century were already in Pamplona on the street of San Clemente, where they acquired houses, orchards and corrals. The construction of the complex lasted throughout the whole century and even the beginning of the next. The disappearance of final as a monastic space was brought about by the disentailment policy of Mendizábal. The convent was sold and the church was converted into an artillery storeroom . With the Alphonsine restoration, the church passed to the bishopric where the most modern parish church of the historic center was erected, in which works were later carried out by Florencio Ansolega and Víctor Eusa.

The Teresian work came to Pamplona by the hand of Mother Catalina de Cristo who founded the first Carmelite house in Pamplona in 1583 in some houses in Jarauta Street. In 1597 they requested the land where the castle of Ferdinand the Catholic had been built, which was ceded to them. From 1603 they built their convent where they remained until the 19th century, when their monastery was demolished to build the Diputación and the Theater. The nuns moved to the new convent built by Ansoleaga in Salsipuedes Street.

In 1577 the first preachers of the Society of Jesus arrived in the city. The country master Juan Pineiro de Elío gave them some houses in the street of the old Condestable, nowadays Compañía street. There the Jesuits founded the high school de la Anunciada in 1580, thanks to donations from the nobility, which remained until the exclaustration of Carlos III in 1767. In 1782 and until 1831 it was destined to seminar. With the disentailment of the nineteenth century it was taken over by the army and also served as a school. After having made position of its church for some years, the Jesuits ceded it to the bishopric that in 1951 installed there the parish of San Juan Bautista. Later in the 20th century, the premises were used as a language school and recently the church was converted into a pilgrims' hostel.
 

Church of the disappeared high school of Jesuits

Finally, we must refer to the monastery of the Visitation of Mary, which belonged until a few years ago to the Salesian nuns. It was a nun from Navarre, Juana Baleztena, who had the initiative to open a monastery in Pamplona. In 1900, Florencio Ansoleaga began the construction of a new monastery on what had been the palace of the Marquis of Castelfuerte and five other houses on San Francisco Street, developing a neo-Gothic architecture in the interior and an eclectic exterior.
 

Church of the disappeared convent of Salesas