Casino Eslava

projectMarch 1931

Inauguration: December 17, 1932

Location: place del Castillo, 16

Located at plenary session of the Executive Council heart of the city, at place del Castillo, the Casino Eslava is one of Victor Eusa's most modern works, employing solutions typical of the European avant-garde. Although successive renovations have caused it to lose much of its original appearance, it is still possible to perceive the mark of modernity that the Pamplona architect introduced into the complex.

The entire project is also a challenge to the constraints imposed by the site, with a distribution of the program by heights that develops in seven floors crowned by a terrace, from the cafeteria of the porches of the place to the upper dwelling of the porter; and, in between, the party rooms, the billiard and game rooms, and the Library Services and office.

It is precisely this vertical distribution of space that gives prominence to the staircase as the backbone of the building. Its layout and oval shape exhibit an integrating dynamism, as it ascends with a helical layout around two cylindrical pillars that start in the basement and reach the roof, manifesting a continuous ascending movement, without intermediate landings. At the top, the staircase winds around one of the pillars to emerge on the terrace under a circular lantern that provides illumination. Originally, the halls opened directly onto the staircase, creating a sequence of flowing spaces profusely decorated with art deco motifs. Dynamism dominates the entire building thanks to employment of the curved line, both in architectural and ornamental elements and furnishings, conceived with an integral character.

The modernity of the interior is transferred to the exterior facade, characterized by its sober composition of large horizontal windows, open to the place through balconies. Despite the alterations suffered in its carpentry, the facade of the floor leave is preserved, decorated with a copper sheet cladding, a very new material at the time with Nordic reminiscences and a certain luxurious character, a feeling that contributes to the rivets of B elegance.