Puente la Reina: the influence of bullfighting

The bullfighting festival was decisive in the configuration of the town hall of Puente la Reina, since in the town there was an extraordinary love of bullfighting in its various celebrations, especially the patron saint's day of Santiago.

In 1727 the so-called "Casa de los cubiertos" was built, which closed one of the long sides of the current place de Julián Mena. In addition to housing the municipal quarters and dungeons, it also incorporated housing and seven botigas, with all their adherents, in the lower register of the building, which served as a market.

The works, under the supervision of the stonemason Juan de Urrizola from Tafalla, were carried out by the stonemason Juan Martín de Garro, the carpenter Martín Egúzquiza and the mason Juan Manuel Sánchez. partnership .

It is a building of marked horizontal deployment that develops four levels in height, the lower one of ashlar masonry and the remaining ones of brick; in the first, corresponding to commercial activities, a portico formed by thirteen semicircular arches on robust pillars opens; in the second and third there are two balconies that served as a tribune to witness the shows that took place in the place. The first of these rests on a row of smooth channels, in which linteled openings are aligned on axis with the arches of the atrium. The attic, also made of brick, has slit balconies with no overhang, over which there is a double wooden eave with a high overhang.