Monument to the Fueros

• Author: project: Manuel Martínez de Ubago; Sculptures of the first body: Ramón Carmona.

• Materials and technique: Bronze, marble and stone of different types.

• Measurements: 23.40 m. high.

• Location: Paseo de Sarasate.

• Date of installation: 1903 (not yet inaugurated).

The monument to the Fueros is a milestone in the complex configuration of Navarre's contemporary identity. Erected on Paseo de Sarasate in 1903, it came to symbolise the Navarrese reaction in defence of their rights in the face of the anti-foral project presented in 1893 by the Minister of Finance Germán Gamazo, considering that it undermined the fiscal autonomy recognised to the province in the Ley Paccionada of 1841.

Although its formal approach is in line with other contemporary works that refer to the subject commemorative column, from a conceptual point of view it is sample original and unique, as each of the elements that make it up shares the symbolic character aimed at affirming the forality of the Old Kingdom of Navarre, with the issue five as a constant reference letter alluding to its districts. The composition consists of a tall polygonal pedestal, a structure in the form of a cubic shrine organised into two sections, and a red marble column with a white capital on which the female figure rests. The volumetry of the bodies decreases as we ascend in height, which gives the whole a sense of stability in the lower part and greater lightness in the upper part.

The five allegorical figures arranged in the corners of the first body stand as a symbol of the values defended in the 1893 fuerista demonstration: History, Justice, Autonomy, Peace and work. The ensemble is crowned by a monumental bronze statue, an allegory of Navarre as a victorious matron holding in her right hand a fragment of the chains of the coat of arms of the Kingdom as a symbol of the freedom conquered, while in her left hand she holds a parchment from which hangs a waxy seal and which contains the legend "Ley Foral" (Foral Law). The content is completed with a series of heraldic and symbolic references, in addition to the bronze plates with inscriptions alluding to Navarrese liberties.