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RELIGIOUS
BUILDINGS AND MUSEUM OF NAVARRE
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The
Basilica of San Ignacio
This temple was erected at the spot
where, according to tradition, Saint
Ignacio was wounded and fell whilst defending the castle of Pamplona in
1521.
To commemorate this
deed, in 1950 a monument was erected, a copy of
the one to be found at the Sanctuary of Loyola (1).
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| Work on the basilica (2)
commenced in 1669, based on a design sent from Seville, and was not
concluded until 1694. In the building’s interior, the dome is covered with
an ornate decoration of fine ornamental plasterwork and in the chancel there
is a baroque altarpiece dating back to the first half of the 18th
century.
In 1767, after the Jesuits were expelled from
Spain, the basilica was annexed to the parish of San Nicolás and, in 1892
it was transferred to the Redentorista religious order. In 1927, after the
construction of the new church of San Ignacio, the nave of the former
basilica was partially demolished, so that the spot where the saint is said
to have fallen was left on the open street. The spot is now marked with a
commemorative stone.
If you go along the street Cortes de Navarra,
you will come to the street Cuesta de Labrit, where the street of San
Agustin ends. Here you will find the Basilica of San Martin (3), a small
baroque building with an eighteenth century portal designed by Pedro de
Aizpun. You can see an ostensory, the emblem of the brotherhood of the Holy
Sacrament that occupies the chapel, and on either side, an escutcheon with
the Five Wounds. In the same street, the parish church of San Agustin (4)
stands on the site of the former convent of the Augustinians or Agustinos,
founded by Carlos II of Navarre in 1355. The building bears all the
characteristics of a sixteenth century convent, which is the period when it
was constructed. However, the façade was erected between 1887 and 1900,
based on the drawings of the diocesan architect, Florencio Ansoleaga. The
interior houses some baroque altarpieces, amongst which the most notable is
that of San José and the Guardian Angel, brought from the former Carmen
Calzado convent.
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In the church of San
Agustin, on Easter Thursday
the religious act to commemorate the Vow of the Five Wounds made by the city
of Pamplona takes place.
During the virulent epidemic of the plague that the
city suffered in 1599, the bishop received a revelation in which he was
promised that the healthy would not fall sick and that the people affected
by the plague would be cured if they all wore a seal with the representation
of the Five Wounds of Christ. Given the effectiveness of the measure and to
show their gratitude, the City Government decided to perpetually celebrate
this event called “the vow of the Five Wounds”.
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The street named calle Compañía, running
parallel to the Calle Agustin, received its name due to the fact that it was
location of the first house that the Compañía de Jesús had in Pamplona.
This was inaugurated at the end of the 16th century. The Jesuits
then went on to open the school Colegio de la Anunciata and alongside it, at
the beginning of the seventeenth century they erected the church of Jesús y
María (5). After the expulsion of the Order this became the chapel of the
seminary, as can be seen by the inscription on its façade. In 1927 the
church was given back to the Jesuits however, in 1951, when the Order
constructed the new school, the parish of San Juan Bautista was transferred
to it from the Navarrería. Today the building is occupied by the Official
Language School of Navarre, which opened its doors in 1978. The former
school quadrangle can be found in the building’s interior.
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If you go down the Calle Compañía until you
reach the Calle Curia, then down the traditional Calle de la Mañueta you
will come to the market of Santo Domingo (6), the oldest market in the city.
It was constructed in 1876 in the same place as the old market which was
destroyed by a fire. In the street of Santo Domingo you will find the old
Seminary of San Juan (7), constructed in 1734 thanks to the donations of a
nobleman from the Baztan valley, Juan Bautista Iturralde. The building is
typical of the baroque architecture to be found in the southern part of
Navarre, with an open gallery on the top floor. The same construction can be
found in the Episcopal Palace in Pamplona, erected during the same period.
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Seminario de San Juan
The building conserves a late 19th
century neogothic chapel which houses the Pablo Sarasate Museum, exhibiting
some of the artist’s personal items, a bust of the artist made by Mariano
Benlliure, the violins and piano used by the musician, amongst other things.
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| Slightly further
ahead, in the same street, the
convent of Santo Domingo (8) is located. All this area located behind the
Town Hall was known as “el Barranco” or the gully and it was not
urbanised until the 16th century. Until then, it was used to
channel the waters that flowed down the current street of La Mañueta to the
river Arga. In the sixteenth century the Dominican monks decided to settle
there, after being moved from their former location at one end of the Plaza
del Castillo so that the castle commissioned by Fernando the Catholic could
be erected there.
The primitive convent was dedicated to St James (Santiago)
since there was a hermitage dedicated to the apostle within its premises.
For this reason, in the portal of the current building, it is still possible
to observe the image of the saint dressed as a pilgrim together with two
other Dominican saints, Santo Tomás de Aquino and San Vicente Ferrer.
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Work on the church commenced in 1529 and was
concluded in 1543. At the end of the seventeenth century, the cloister was
erected, which today is part of the Department of Education and
Culture. The
convent played an important role in the history of education in Navarre,
since it housed the Universidad Pontificia y Real de Santiago (Royal
Pontifical University of St James), founded on 26th April 1630 in
the reign of Felipe IV. Canonically set up by Pope Urbano VIIII, the Arts,
Theology, Medicine and Law were taught there. The convent suffered various
temporary secularisations until it was finally secularised in 1836 when its
facilities were made over to the Infantry barracks and Military Hospital.
Today it is the seat of the Regional Ministry for Education and Culture of
the Government of Navarre and only the church is still used as a place of
worship.
Claustro del Convento de Santo Domingo
The church of Santiago has all the architectural
features that are characteristic of a church of the Dominican order: an
ample nave with communicating chapels between the buttresses, a jutting out
transept and a pentagonal chevet between two square chapels. The façade was
constructed at a later date, in the second half of the eighteenth century.
In the church interior, in addition to an interesting display of baroque
altarpieces, we would highlight the reredos which is the work of Pierres
Picart and Juan de Beauves, the rococo chapel of San Vicente, opposite the
entrance, the relief of the Sagrada Parentela (Holy Relations), dated to
1560, in the chapel of Nuestra Señora de Nieva and the mid-eighteenth
century organ.
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The
Museum of Navarre (9)
After Navarre was annexed to Castile, the new monarchs were not only
concerned with renewing the city’s defences but also took charge of
providing the city with the necessary institutions. These include the
Hospital of Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia, (Our Lady of Compassion)
which was installed next to the Rochapea gateway before 1547. For its
maintenance, it was given the monopoly of selling playing cards and it was
also allowed to print books.
From 1757
onwards, classes in medicine and
anatomy were also given here. The hospital operated as such until 1925 and,
from 1956 onwards it became the seat of the Museum of Navarre.
In 1932 the
charity hospital came under the Navarre Health Service and was transferred
to the area known as the “Soto de Barañain” where it is still located.
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The original building still conserves the portal
that was erected in 1556 and is the work of Juan de Villarreal, and the old
chapel, constructed in 1547 by the stonemason Juan de Anchieta. The chapel
façade is not the original one but an eighteenth century baroque work from
the church of Soledad at Puente la Reina and which was transferred there in
1934. The chapel today contains an interesting exhibition of sacred art, of
particular note is the altarpiece from the former convent of Carmen Calzado,
a mid-eighteenth century baroque piece of work, and the Renaissance
altarpiece of San Juan Bautista, from the parish of San Juan in Burlada.
The
collection: In the basement, the museum
exhibits prehistoric and protohistoric items. The first floor is dedicated
to Roman art, with a notable collection of mosaic pavements coming
principally from rural villas. Medieval art is to be found on the first and
second floors and, amongst the items on show, of note are the Romanesque
capitals from the former cathedral, the Hispano-Muslim chest from the
monastery of Leire and the chalice that Carlos III gave to the church of
Santa María de Ujué. The Renaissance works are on the second floor and, in
addition to the mural paintings from the palace of Oriz, there is a
magnificent wooden carving of a penitent San Jerónimo by Juan de Anchieta.
The third floor is dedicated to the 16th, 17th and 18th
centuries with works by Vicente Berdusán, Claudio Coello and Mateo Cerezo,
in addition to the cycle of the Creation painted on copper by the Flemish
artist Jacob Bouttats. Special mention goes to the portrait of the Marqués
de San Adrián, painted by Goya in 1804. Finally, the collection is
completed with some 20th century works.
Convent of the Carmelitas Descalzos (10)
During the 17th century, new foundations of religious orders
gradually settled inside the city. The first order to do so were the
Discalced Carmelite Nuns o Carmelitas Descalzas who occupied the plot of
land which remained after the castle of Fernando the Catholic had been
demolished, followed by the female religious order the Madres Agustinas
Recoletas and the Discalced Carmelite Friars.
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The Carmelite Friors obtained permission to
settle within the walled enclosure in 1637, however they experienced
problems when they tried to erect a church there.
The nearby parish church
of San Lorenzo filed a complaint, given the fact that, a few years earlier,
the church of the Agustinas Recoletas has been consecrated and the parish of
San Lorenz considered that yet another church so close by would take away
its church goers and reduce its income. Permission was finally granted and
the church of the Carmelite Friors was completed in 1673. The façade can be
contemplated from a certain distance, despite the closeness of the buildings
in the old quarters of the city. This is because the Carmelite Friors were
responsible for demolishing part of the nearby buildings in order to widen
the Calle Descalzos at the site of the convent.
The design is characteristic
of 17th century convent architecture, very similar to the nearby
church of Las Recoletas. Inside we would highlight the chapel of San Joaquín,
remodelled in the 18th century with a profuse decoration of fine
ornamental plasterwork.
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Along the street of Santo
Andia, you will come
to the square of the Virgen de la O (11), where a small basilica dedicated
to this Virgin is located. Formerly, this small square was the heart of the
Pobla Nova del Mercat, forming part of the Borough of San Cernin and was the
place where the farm labourers resided, with their guild in the actual
hermitage of the Virgin. This guild, later known as Languinobrari, still
conserves its medieval constitutions. The basilica was reformed in the 18th
century, however the most radical modifications were made in 1987 when the
old hermitage was completely demolished to construct a new, modern building
which was inaugurated in 1988.
The basilica houses the Virgen de la Esperanza
(Virgin
of Hope) or the Virgin of the O, a monumental sculpture made in polychromed
stone dating back to the first half of the 14th century and which
is generally considered to be related to the Virgin of Amparo of the
Pamplona cathedral cloister. This sculpture depicts a peculiar gesture of
the Child, caressing his mother’s chin, like some of the French Virgins.
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Convent
of the Agustinas Recoletas (12)
The convent was founded by Juan de Ciriza, secretary of Felipe III, who
arranged for the Crown, who owned the land, to have it transferred to the
Madres Recoletas. Juan Gómez de Mora, the Architect and Designer of Royal
Works and Great Master of the Chartered City of Madrid, was responsible for
designing the building.
Amongst other
works, he also designed the Plaza
Mayor, the main square of Madrid. The work was completed in 1634, producing
a building along the lines of seventeenth century convent architecture,
similar to the Convent of the Encarnación of Madrid.
The austerity of the building exterior does not
reflect the fine baroque altarpieces to be found inside the temple. Of
particular note are the reredos and the two side altar screens, forming a
beautiful unit that Francisco Gurrea y Garcia was commissioned to create in
1700. The temple decoration also includes a collection of tapestries based
on sketches by Rubens, only equalled by the tapestry of the Descalzas Reales
of Madrid.
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Book
your hotel here
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Asociación de Hoteles de
Pamplona. C/ Pedro I, 1-1º 31007 Pamplona (Navarra).
CIF G31/626526 - info@hotelespamplona.com
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