Golden Gallery and Great Tower

The main core of the palace built by Charles III is located to the south of the Gothic church of Santa Maria. Built between 1402 and 1408, it consists of a large, irregularly-shaped tower, known in the documentation as the Great Tower, to which a second, slightly smaller tower was added on the southern side, the New Tower, with a pointed barrel vault on the ground floor leave. To reach the main floor of both towers, a wide spiral staircase was built, which was known as the Torre de la Vit (from the French word vis, meaning spiral staircase). This staircase tower was extensively rebuilt during the restoration of the 20th century, following Castilian models.

The walls of the Great Tower were extended on the western side to create a sunny space to the west, the Golden Gallery, where a delicate Gothic arcade with capitals decorated with small, generalised leaves, typical of the radiant Gothic style, was installed. The Great Tower and the New Tower housed the largest rooms of the extension on the main floor, which were also the most frequented by the sovereigns. In the royal palaces, the levels were perfectly hierarchical: the king and the court lived their lives on the main floor, from where they had easy access to all the rooms. Each tower also had independent access to the upper rooms, galleries and terraces.

Although the exquisite interior decoration of these rooms has been lost (with the exception of the plasterwork discussed elsewhere at section), we can still admire the circulation devices that ensured the monarch's privacy at all times. The court of Navarre carefully managed who shared time and space with the sovereign. Up to five doors open in the room of the New Tower, and four in the Great Tower, which communicate with other rooms or with the galleries, sometimes by means of intramural corridors. Fireplaces for the winter and large windows with benches for contemplating the gardens and the landscape were essential elements of the comfort of the period.