Baztan: inspired in a famous palace

The lands irrigated by the Baztan-Bidasoa experienced a period of great prosperity during the 17th and 18th centuries, coinciding with the so-called "Navarrese Hour" coined by the ethnologist and historian Julio Caro Baroja. During this period, multiple enterprises were undertaken, renovating or constructing new buildings for housing -see the virtual visit on the palaces of Baztan, on this website-, as well as for the services of the residents of the noble valley.

In that sense, in 1695 the valley authorities decided to build a new municipal building on land and buildings that had belonged to the monastery of San Salvador de Urdax, next to the old parish church of Santiago. The works were executed during two years (1696-1698) by the stonemason Juan de Arozarena, the carpenter Martín de Iturbide and the blacksmith Juan de Alberro. In the specifications for its Building it was specified that it should be inspired by the design of the Jarola de Elbetea palace, financed by Captain Miguel de Vergara, who had become rich in America and who was at that time the mayor of the valley.

The building is a cubic four-sided building, with a stone façade on three levels, with the corner ashlars protruding. The central axis effectively emulates the Jarola palace, with a balcony flanked by pilasters and lugs, and crowned with a triangular pediment in which the arms of the valley are inscribed between pyramids and balls.