House of the Gastón de Iriarte family, Irurita

This magnificent building is linked to the figure of Juan Bautista Echeverría y Latadi, a man from Baztan who, after twenty-seven years in New Spain, where business brought him a large fortune, returned to his homeland. Once settled in Irurita, in 1785 he married Mª Micaela Gastón de Iriarte y Cortejarena, born in the Iriartea house in Erratzu, one of the Baztanese estates that had given most illustrious men to the valley in that century. A year later, Juan Bautista built the new family residency programin Irurita, taking his wife's native house as model, which had been built by his parents-in-law Pedro José Gastón de Iriarte y Elizacoechea and Mª Joaquina de Cortejarena between 1754 and 1755. A building with similar characteristics can be found in the palace corporal of the Reparacea armoury, in Oieregi, as well as in the palace corporal of the Subiza armoury. The house in Irurita has a façade with a central wall flanked by two towers of greater height and slightly forward. It is notable for the large balconies that run along the gable supported on corbels, as well as the central axis where there is a semicircular doorway flanked by Tuscan columns.