Church of the Assumption in Arraioz

The church of the Assumption of Arraioz is a temple with a Latin cross plan formed by a straight chevet, of equal width to the nave, the latter being articulated in three unequal bays plus that of the protruding Wayside Cross . The square sacristy is attached to the apsidal space on the side of the Epistle. In 1568, stonemason Miguel Oiz, neighbor of Gartzain, undertook the reform of the space of the apse, which should have the width of the already existing nave, and of the sacristy of agreement to the layout provided by the overseer of works of the bishopric of Pamplona, Juan de Villarreal, using ashlar on the exterior and masonry on the interior, committing himself to finish it in the deadline of six years.

As a testimony of this architectural intervention of the 16th century, the covering of the flat chevet has survived to our days, a quadrangular space closed with a star-shaped ribbed vault with smooth keystones, which describes a design similar to the one applied by the same master Oiz a few years later to the Wayside Cross of the church of Lekaroz. A vault of terceletes, whose stone ribs are superimposed on a four-pointed star, with concave-convex ribs ending in crow's feet, and around whose polar core topic a circle is inscribed. The ribbed vaulting can be partially appreciated today, as a consequence of the insertion of the shell that tops the Baroque altarpiece from the end of the 18th century, which rises up to the level of the roof.

The rest of the nave of the church was reformed in the 18th century, being covered with groin vaults in the first and third bays, and with lunettes in the second smaller bay, while the Wayside Cross has groin vaults in the central bay and lunettes in the arms, the entire interior perimeter of the church being covered by a very molded cornice on 18th century trimmed plates. At the end of the 19th century the gable wall and the Baroque portico were modified, again in an eclectic style with semicircular arches on stone pillars.