The parish church

The original parish church—about which we know nothing—was located on the same site as the present one, that is, at the center around which the entire urban fabric of the old town is organized. Built in the Romanesque style in the 12th century, it was replaced by the current Gothic church beginning in 1276; at 25 meters high and 15 meters wide, it is the widest and tallest single-nave Gothic church in Navarre. 

In 1276, the War of the Navarrería took place, resulting in the victory of the borough of San Cernin over the city’s other boroughs and the destruction of the Navarrería and the cathedral’s cloister. Consequently, the construction of the parish church was a clear declaration of the victorious borough’s power. Its construction was linked to the wealthiest and most powerful families, such as the Cruzats, whose successive generations were buried in front of the church’s presbytery, and the Dezas, one of whose members—Bernardo, mayor of the borough in 1297—financed the choir, as attested by his coat of arms and a commemorative “ registration .”

Thus, following the usual “ internship ” (construction from the apse to the narthex), construction of the church would have begun at the apse around 1276, continuing onward toward the narthex, which was completed around 1297. Work would then proceed on the main entrance, the bases of the towers, and the vaults. By the year 1400, the parish church would be practically complete, with only the addition of a cloister on the south side remaining, similar to other parish churches in Pamplona, such as San Lorenzo.  

The interior is notable for its great spatial unity. In plan, the church features a single nave consisting of two rectangular sections and a semi-octagonal apse with five radial chapels: the three central ones are semi-octagonal, and the ones at the ends are square, occupying the lower level of the two towers that flank the apse. These chapels were complemented by two others—St. George’s and St. Anne’s—which were square in plan and smaller; of these, only St. George’s remains. This church design was entirely novel, since there are many single-nave Gothic churches in Navarre (Santa María de Olite, San Saturnino de Artajona, La Asunción de Miranda de Arga, San Salvador de Sangüesa, Santa María de Ujué), but their apses do not have radial chapels. As Martínez Álava and Fernández-Ladreda point out, this “ subject ” (radial chapel) design was also exceptional in Spain, with a possible example found in Castellón, at the Church of San Mateu. 

As for the vaults, the apse and the three central chapels are covered with radial vaults that reflect the semi-octagonal floor plan, while the square chapels feature simple ribbed vaults. The central nave, meanwhile, features sexpartite vaults. It is striking to see the “ employment ” (radial vault) and “ subject ” (ribbed vault) typical of the second half of the 12th century in a church of the Radiant Gothic style. According to Martínez Álava and Fernández-Ladreda, cited above, one possible reason for this is that the nave was originally intended to be covered by a gabled wooden roof supported by diaphragm arches. However, the decision to cover the church with stone vaults forced its builders to incorporate this “ subject ” covering system, since it was not feasible to construct a simple ribbed vault in the 14th-century style in such a wide nave, with bays so close together and walls so irregular. The inclusion of sexpartite vaults also meant that, because they were heavier, the walls had to be built without openings, requiring the placement of corner and straight buttresses at the base of the church.