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Monjardin Castle. On the way of Saint James

Posted on 06/06/2017

A perfect excursion on Spring Time

Even in Autumn, walking to the highest of the hill, to the Castle of Monjardin is not difficult at all. Almost four kilometers in an easy and well marked road. The problem could be the rain, or the weather extremes from very cold to too much heat. Nothing of this happened to us. We enjoyed a very nice day for walking. Not hot, not cold. Just perfect.

Villamayor de Monjardín

A nice village on the way of Saint James, is in the middle of very important places such as Estella or Los Arcos, with its stunning baroque church of Santa Maria. Due to this, and the exhaustion of pilgrims when walking, Villamayor has the risk of being taken for granted.

Even more; people living in Pamplona can pass close to Villamayor, just in a rush by car going to Logroño or to any other place without bothering. So many times I listened to people saying,; Oh what a castle is on the top of the hill, but they never stop and visit the village .

A Castle with history

There remains just a little part of the original castle, but it’s an important place due to a fact: There, the King Sancho Garcés the first of Pamplona, fought against the Muslims. As a result, the history of Navarra changed. Here you can see us sitting down close to the sculpture of the King Sancho Garcés .

I’m looking for some information in English about this castle, but I’m sorry , I can’t find anything in English, so here you have a link in Spanish. The only link I’ve found is one with information for an albergue. It’s nice to have this information but I’m a little disappointed to find only this and nothing about the history or the heritage of this little as well as important village

Vineyard and a cute church

Walking around Villamayor de Monjardin is possible to enjoy the way with the views of a nice landscape of vineyards. This view is going to be with you during days if you are walking to Santiago. Villamayor is near to La Rioja. La Rioja is one of the famous regions in Spain where a great wine is produced.

The church of Saint Andres is made in a late Romanesque, going to Gothic Art. A church that’s always open, pilgrims can have time for praying in their way. Some Saturdays you can also come across some wedding.

Our visit to the church was not very long, we had to climb to the castle.

Anyway we paid attention to the beauty of the cross of Monjardin, a great workshop of silver working.Here you have a nice photo by Julio Asunción

An excuse to think how easy we can miss important things in our tours, just because we are in hurry, or just because we paid attention to big things. Not always big is the same than the best.

A nice day, a nice excursion, time to talk about ruins, rehabilitation, history and think about our way of visiting places.

Summer is coming, it’s a good time to enjoy walks, heritage, good food and friends.

Waiting for you in Spain !

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From La Alcarria to Navarra

Posted on 23/05/2017

Traveling to Pamplona

People from Navarra, the cities of Cuenca, Madrid and Miranda de Ebro had already visited Pastrana. Now it’s time for the “ alcarreños” . Young people from this region have to go to Pamplona. It demands you to be open to new people, new experiences, and a lot of personal will. It is much more than a “like” on Facebook.

What do you know about Pamplona and Navarra? Probably Sanfermines- the universal festival where bulls run on streets- but nothing else

The Paradox of Cliché

In a world linked by internet, social networks, with thousands and thousands of pictures broadcasted at minute, there is still ignorance about your own country. The people from Pastrana have only listened about a festival. International, famous, great, but it takes place just in a week. There are much more things happening in Navarra during the year.

Moreover, the people from Pamplona knew nothing about Pastrana. They didn’t even know about the existence of this place.

It is urgent to become aware of our heritage, culture, geography…

The Choice of an Itinerary

Pastraneros came just for a weekend. So we needed to offer a nice, entertaining, not very long tour, but at least, something that gave them some idea about Navarra. Here’s the choice: The Way of St James (Pamplona is the first Spanish city on the way), old walls, gardens and gastronomy

What a Green Color !

That’s what they said after a first glance of Pamplona. Spring, a great rain the week before they came and the sun, made gardens burst into a great splendor of colors.

We walked through Yamaguchi Park, Vuelta del Castillo, Ciudadela, Old Town (including the “encierro” itinerary), the well-known White Horse, and the famous Café Iruña. A complete walk around the heart of the city

Saturday Morning

Walking again through the city, we visited the Walls Interpretation Center. It’s a great, nice place where everybody can learn about Pamplona’s history and its walls while having a lot of fun with all the videos and interactive games it has. In addition, the great landscape all around made the visit even more interesting and easy going.

Later, we had a visit to one of the most important altarpieces from the Renaissance at Pamplona. The one of the church of San Miguel. It was done for the Cathedral, but long history-short, today it’s in this different place.

“An Essential Spring Event in Navarra “

Known also as “Semana del Pincho” (Tapas week), this event is about gastronomy, especially “tapas” in Pamplona called “Pinchos”

Luckily for the Pastrana team, this ‘Semana del Pincho” was celebrated during the time of their visit. There was no better way to finish our morning cultural visit that in a bar with the “pinchos”. Here you can see Amalia enjoying one of them

The Afternoon at Puente La Reina

Have you ever walked through the way of Saint James? Perhaps you can remember Puente La Reina, 25 kms away from Pamplona. A nice village, not very far from the city that happens to be a very interesting place on” The Camino”. A lovely walk, nice talks, new friends. Now the people from Pastrana know that Navarra is much more than sanfermines. And people from Navarra know Pastrana exits

Last day. A Sunday Morning in Ororbia

This story about keeping in touch with the people of Pastrana, has a lot to do with the event of Patrimonio para Jóvenes in October, “Fashion at the San Julian de Ororbia altarpiece” So it was a great end for the first visit of our new friends, there. In Ororbia.

We visited the alterpiece, had a little talk with Tere and Miguel, elderly people from the village. The encounter between different generations is always enrichening for us.

We also visited an old washing site that was restored six years ago. A cute place that remember old jobs close to the rivers.

There is much more to be done

It was a great experience. An exchange focused on young people and heritage. Patrimonio para Jóvenes is always moving, opening new roads, exploring ideas, talking to people. With the desire of keeping this going, improving, and helping all of the people who read us.

All the best for this week!

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Walk through Pamplona

Posted on 31/01/2017

Some years ago, the Chicago Tribune published an article about the city of Pamplona. The article went beyond the traditional topic of Sanfermines and talked about another interesting places around the city. If you want to read the complete article, please click here

Having this article on mind, I am writing about the last morning we went for a walk around Pamplona. We may have not seen all the city since it took us just one hour, and we visited just some streets, but it was totally worth it, so follow us and take a look of what we saw.

We visited some buildings of an area of Pamplona called I Ensanche. The word Ensanche could be more or less translated to “expansion”, therefore, it was the first expansion of the city. Now you may ask yourself why are we talking about “expansion”? Well, because of the walls surrounding the city. Until the last century, Pamplona was a city completely surrounded by a stone fortress. Nowadays despite it still has some remaining walls, the city has grown out of those edges. So, back then, the city was completely different from what we can appreciate today.

The first expansion was the first area where wealthy people could build elegant houses made by the most important architects of the end of XIXth Century and beginnings of the XXth Century. A public building, the palace of justice, was built at the same time as well.

Regrettably, some of those houses were demolished and today we can´t enjoy watching all of them. However, around this area there are still some amazing examples of the detail-oriented and versatile styles that define the architecture of that time. For example, it’s impossible to avoid looking at the beautiful buildings by Manuel Martinez Urbago in Modernist style. The team was astonished by the beauty of the gantries and overwhelmed by the delicacy of every little piece that decorated the room. The details and harmony in those spaces suddenly let us delightfully experience an atmosphere from other times.

We also enjoyed watching at the only house of Pamplona that is built in neo-mudéjar style. In the case of this particular building, materials are essential, since bricks are not only for used construction, but also for the decoration of its facade. With contrasting colors, geometric shapes and a harmonic combination of the bricks with the rest of materials, this is a beautiful creation that effortlessly stands out from the surrounding houses.

In the end, we spent such a nice morning contemplating all the ornamental details, admiring the sinuous beauty of each façade, balcony or hall, reconstructing the ancient majesty of those houses in our minds, and chatting about the historicist and eclectic style in Spain, that the time passed so fast we didn´t notice.

Each of us also learnt a little more about the city of Pamplona. We realized that knowing well a city is not as easy as it sounds. It does not matter if it is a small city or even if we have been living there for several years, there are always secret spots or hidden treasures that need just a little of attention to be discovered and admired.

This morning walk was totally worth it. It was a morning for learning to look at the beauty of a city. Cities do not need to be enormous nor monumental to please our sight with lovely spaces. Each of them has a past that defines it, a need for beauty that decorates it and a will to become a nice place to live in that shapes it. With this walk along the secret beauties of Pamplona, we learned that each city possesses a charm, a history and a heritage that must be enjoyed, preserved and given to the next generations for their own delight.

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Good morning Vitoria!

Posted on 17/01/2017

There are cities in Spain with a kind of magnet for foreign people. A magnet generated by their fame, product of their world reputation and a great marketing strategy perhaps, that create on you the need to tell you have been there.

Nevertheless, there are amazing cities, secret treasures well worth to visit that don´t get the attention they truly deserve.

Vitoria is a nice, beautiful place that’s worth the time you need to walk around its streets. It counts with great promenades, an interesting old town, the great Basque cuisine to delight all tastes, two cathedrals (an old and a new one) and a great offer of public museums.

At the beginning of January, we went to the Fine Arts Museum of this lovely city and we had a morning full of fun, not only in the museum but along our way as well: the road to the museum is through a great park surrounded by beautiful houses with rich ornaments, like one known as “Casa de las Jaquecas“ which translates to “the House of Migraines” due to the body expression of the sculptures that decorate its facade.

Once in the Museum, we had the opportunity to appreciate its interesting permanent collection, with paintings by Dario de Regoyos, Antonio Maria de Lecuona, Zuloaga, Madrazo, among many others, and an area dedicated to Fernando Amarica.

What makes this place even more interesting, is that the museum itself, is a stunning building. “…A grand residence commissioned by husband and wife Ricardo Augustin and Elvira Zulueta, and designed by the architects Javier Luque and Julian Apraiz in 1912 and finished at 1916“as it’s explained on the Museum´s brochure. It is a sumptuous and elegant construction in a historicist style with many details to be appreciated. If you want to know more about the museum, click on this link

Our visit to the Museum this time was focused on the house and the historicist style. Everybody enjoyed exploring the rooms, contemplating the chapel and got stunned by the beauty of the fine joinery all around the rooms, on ceilings and floors, that can´t stop calling for your attention.

Then, in order to make our visit more dynamic, we formed groups of three or four people, each group had to select two paintings from all the collection and afterwards, explain to the other groups the reasons of their choice

After we were done with our visit, we went to eat some “pinchos” or “tapas” and later we visited the great new cathedral, an impressive example of Neo Gothic construction that just like the museum, emphasized the protagonist role of historicist architecture in this trip.

During this year, at Patrimonio para Jovenes, we will be talking again about historicist style, an architectonic style loved by some people, and very despised by others. Feel free to choose by yourself, but in the meantime, don’t forget to visit Vitoria!

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Again on the Way of St James

Posted on 15/11/2016

Before finishing the year 2016, we have two activities you can read about on the blog. And today, you have our visit to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a charming village at the Region of La Rioja, on the Way of Saint James.

Santo Domingo is famous because it’s on the Camino, and for its markets, cultural events and of course the cathedral, Domingo the Saint, and the legend of Hen and Rooster Miracle . Click on the link and you can read more about it. In fact, in Spain we say “donde cantó la gallina después de asada” “where the roosters crow after being roasted”.

The Henhouse inside the Cathedral keep the attention of visitors and is fun for the children.

A stunning altarpiece

At the beginning of the trip we weren’t thinking of visiting all of the cathedral, but at least, the most interesting things. But the awesome altarpiece made by Damian Forment kept our attention most of the time. It doesn’t matter. It is a good excuse to come back only to visit the Romanesque capitals and presbytery.

In any case, I asked some questions to the boys in order to have them observe and come to conclusions by themselves.

Faces, bodies, characters, the way sculptures are painted, and all the story told on the alterpiece made us spend so much time just looking carefully at it.

What a pity the light!

The inside of the cathedral is not an easy place for photos. Here you have some nice ones, but perhaps next time Víctor has to use a tripod in order to have a good illumination all around.

Thanks to Father Merino

We thank Father Merino who helped during the visit. He also gave us the opportunity to visit the sacristy and some details of the sculptures of the doors. And then we had a very nice surprise: because Christmastime is not very far away, we had the opportunity to enjoy the Great Christmas Nativity scene, with hundreds of little sculptures, dressed on typical costumes, masters.

If you have the chance to visit Santo Domingo during Christmastime, definitely take it! And don’t miss the nativity display which is also great for children.

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European Heritage Days in Genevilla, Navarra

Posted on 11/10/2016

At the end of May, when we visited Genevilla, I knew we had to come back. Its heritage, landscape and friendly people are well worth visiting again.

But I never imagined that the visit would come so soon.

A newspaper advertisement

I was reading a local newspaper when I came across news from the government of Navarra. They invited the city halls of the different villages of the region to participate at The European Heritage Days. One of the conditions was to present the program with a cultural association.

Patrimonio para jovenes had kept in touch with the people of Genevilla and offered our proposal: A workshop about the altarpiece of the parish. An awesome, stunning piece of art from Renaissance.

And the day arrives!

And the 1st of October, there we were. And we couldn’t believe how many people came. It was a joy. But we were certainly dealing with a challenge: to talk to such a big group with a range of age we are not used to.

Everybody was very interested and some of them looked carefully with bicoulars. So they appreciated the details from sculptures and how they were carved and polychromed.

The children

For children we prepared some big papers with the designs from the friezes of the altarpiece. Kids were looking at the altarpiece first and then they colored in the way they preferred. They had fun. By the way, thank you to the team that came as volunteers to take care of them.

And the party

After visiting the altarpiece, we had appetizers courtesy of the village council. It was a great time to talk, find old friends and make new ones.

Here is a picture with some of us. It was such a cute, nice, friendly morning at Genevilla.

And here you have the links to some websites that can be helpful if you want to visit this area :

http://www.turismo.navarra.es/eng/home/

http://www.turismotierraestella.com/

http://www.turismo.navarra.es/esp/organice-viaje/recurso/Localidad/2670/Viana.htm

http://www.alavaturismo.eus/index.php/es/

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Gallipienzo with friends

Posted on 04/10/2016

TRY ON GOOGLE

If you want to find information that is very new, specific , and so on, this website is not the right one for you. If you want to visit Gallipienzo , a stunning village in Navarra , here you have some interesting links, and the tourist office for a guided visit. And for more..try look for Gallipienzo on google and you’ll see how much information you can find.

THE ART AS AN EXPERIENCE FOR TEENAGERS

If you want to know about the experience of a team of teenagers who got to explore this place, you are on the right website.

This visit took place at the beginning of last June. During the summer I don’t write on the blog and given that we’ve had so many activities, I have not had much time for writing…but little by little, here we are!

THANKS TO THE HELP OF AN ARCHITECT

We arrived to Gallipienzo thanks to the help and advice from José Luis Franchez an architect who works on restoration and rehabilitation of historic buildings.

Such a big responsibility!

He talked about the history of Gallipienzo, why the people who were living there had to move and begin to live at “Gallipienzo Nuevo”- we were visiting Gallipienzo Viejo (Old Gallipienzo) . He even explained the criteria for restoration of a bulilding. If you are someone reading this in Europe, it is not such an unusual topic but perhaps it is if you are from States.

The history of Sapin and its heritage is tremendous. That means is very difficult and also so expensive to haver everything in good condition. So many times hard decisions must be made.

INSIDE OLD TIMES

José Luis talks in a very sweet way, as a person who is used to working with measure and proportion. He is so friendly that everybldy felt as if they had known José Luis for a long time. It was really funny when Victor, a boy of 16 years, dedicated his first novel to Mr. Franchez. Here you can see the photo

Guided by José Luis, we discovered the secrets of the church of San Salvador plus we got to experience the light, the silence and the magnitude of a medieval building.

At the end, “Patrimonio para jóvenes” gave a present to David and Victor. Now the two of them are in States and Canada. They received a book about the Gotic Art in Navarra

I hope they can read this post in America as they work as “ambassadors of Spain”

We finished the excursion eating a typical Spanish dessert, “torrijas” made of bread, egg, olive oil, sugar and ground cinnamon. It is such a pity that I don’t have any photo of this. Borja Centenera and Clara Frago the people in charge of photos and video, were eating with the other people. It’s not easy to eat and hold a camera at the same time!

If you come to Navarra , discover the little and hidden villages of this region!

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Arellano a charming village at Navarra

Posted on 06/09/2016

Here we are again! The academic year 2016/17 begins and the blog continues with this entry about our visit to Arellano, which is just a few kms. away from our last visit in Dicastillo.

Some years ago, we visited the Roman villa at Arellano, an archeological site located close to the village. And whatsmore…I remember getting into a small car accident right on the square of the village. Thank God, it was nothing very serious.

Almost by chance

It was during our visit to Dicastillo that we decided to continue to Arellano. There, we got to go into the medieval tower and enjoy the beautiful views of the landscape and the church of Arellano. The nice temperature and sun made everything easy.

If you go to Arellano, don’t forget visit this tower. It has free entrance and it was restored some years ago, so it is not dangerous to climb up to the top.

The Church of Saint Roman. What a colors!

Around the church there is a small, cute garden carefully watered with some nice grass and plants. It is nice to be there, just having a friendly chat on a summer evening. But even with this atmosphere, it is not possible to imagine the beauty that the interior of the church holds.

Alvaro de Goñi, a boy from the village opened the church for us and explained the stunning mural paintings.

On the presbytery, there are remains of medieval paintings from the 14th century.

All around the church we saw decorative paintings from the 16th century. There is also a frieze with the Magnificat prayer written and some decoration which you can also find at the Cathedral of Sigüenza, close to Madrid but far away from Navarra.

The painting altarpiece of Saint Cristobal

The amazing painting of Saint Cristobal really attracted attention because of its size and colors. It has the curiosity of some original iconographical additions ( found only in Arellano?) . For exemple the travellers, the eagles -two of them alighted one flying) the Virgin Mary and the two caravels on the top. Check out the painting and look for this details if yo visit the church.

The old organ is out of order nowadays but is a goosd instrument and it is just waiting for money to be restored

But another story was coming across!

At the end of teh visit, we were climbing again, this time up the bell tower of the church, again enjoying the views , and were able to see the tower from where we were peeping out a half an hour beforehand.

But, when looking at the bells, we discovered a lady’s name written on the yoke of a small bell. “In memory of Victoriana Arizaleta ” . So, who was Victoriana?

After some research by Marta Castaño and Alvaro de Goñi we will know and I will report it on a new post.

See you!

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Dicastillo

Posted on 21/06/2016

Dicastillo is a village located at the region of Navarra, not very well known but is well worth visiting. When arriving you can discover a stunning palace from the last years of the 19th century an the begining of the 20th. Its history and that of its owner the “condesa de la Vega del Pozo” has been studied by Blanca Sagasti. Her research is now in an interesting book : “ De la Casa familiar de los López de Dicastillo al Palacio de la Condesa de la Vega del Pozo “

As a result of reading this book I kept in touch with Blanca . Then we visited the palace, today empty ( or almost) waiting for a new use. Nothing better tha reading the report by Reagan Hahn :

I knew we would experience something incredible from the minute the man pulled out a key to unlock the heavy gates. As they opened with a creak, the palacio stood before us in all of its architectural splendor. Beyond the building, tiny roses formed a blanket over the garden pagoda.

Before the excursion…

I had no idea that a palace was a building exclusively for leisure and that, “castle,” is a term reserved for residences designed for battle. Before the excursion I couldn’t have told you what it feels like to look out the window of a tower and see the mountains and fields of Navarra fill the horizon. Before I couldn’t, now I can. From the great, wide staircases, to the ornate fireplaces, every inch of the palacio drew you in.

Beautiful in a tragic way !

Yet, to me, all the grandeur was beautiful in a tragic way. While the rooms were full of things, they lacked people. Only we, the privileged few, got to explore this grand home while the rest of the world lay ignorant to the treasures inside. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this fantastic edifice, and I count myself blessed to have been given the opportunity to explore a piece of history. I only hope that others will come to appreciate the palacio so that once again its rooms will be filled with life.

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Renaissance and Humanism in Navarra

Posted on 31/05/2016

Forget about the motorways, forget about being in a hurry and try some little villages of Spain. Today we visited Genevilla, with no more than one hundred people living in it. It falls close to the regions of Alava and La Rioja where you can enjoy beautiful landscapes and more: you can discover an stunning Renaissance altarpiece. Not only does it have the usual scenes such as these from the gospel but mythological scenes as well.

A few days before our excursion, Borja went ahead of time in order to be able to give us all the useful information about the way, and to meet the priest and people in charge of take care of the small church as well as other people from the village. What a nice experience Borja had! To meet people in their land and with their heritage, is all part of our project, Patrimonio para jovenes ( Heritage for youth )

The whole team was provided with an outline of the altarpiece drawn and explained, so that everyone could observe better and ask questions about it.

They were asked what the scene they liked best and why .In general, people chose the group of apostles on the botton of the altarpiece. One boy said the scene of the martyrdom of St Stephen was the best one for him. Them he was asked for the reasons for his choice.

One great moment was when the kids could touch the sculpture of the Eternal Father.It was a very big sculpture at the top of the altarpiece. Due to the risk of it falling, it was put in the sacristy. So they were amazed to see each detail of the sculpture so close to them.

Another “wow moment” was when Chrissy from Rhode Island came up to the bell tower and got to experience the space while climbing and enjoy the views! Here you have the photo dear Chrissy!

After visiting the St Stephen Church, we went to have lunch in the cute garden of a rural house called “The Encinedo” owed by Mari Asun. She was so kind to also guide us to a great area by the river, from where you can see Genevilla

Before coming to Pamplona we went to Santa María de Los Arcos, a very well known church because it is in an important place on the way of St James. All the baroque, the scenery, the colour, the theatricality and magnificence create emotions for the spectator. Last year I also wrote another post on this website. If you are interested you can check it out for more details.

Enjoy and discover our art and cultural heritage! Come and visit us! Visit Navarra!

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