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2023 Report
Browsing Tag
Cultural Heritage
After a Walk, a New Idea
It is something that usually happens at Patrimonio para Jóvenes. And this time, it happens again. It was a nice June afternoon. It was the beginning of summer. We went to Urroz Villa, a little village not far away from Pamplona. It’s well known by its winter craft fair, its big square (one of the biggest in Navarra), the church and its important altarpiece. And of course, a great landscape.
There, we met the “librero de Urroz”, not a normal bookseller. He works with old books and his house has a kind of magic atmosphere, as if its rooms and spaces have been imbued by the stories from his books. We spent there a couple of hours. Everybody was so excited with everything around.
So we decided to prepare a collaborative activity for October, far away October … Was it???
Characters with Books at the Urroz Altarpiece
October arrived and here is our activity. At the house of the “Librero de Urroz” or Books with History (Libros con Historia) adults had an informal chat about art and books. A quiet atmosphere that nothing had to do with the color, hustle and bustle we had at the atrium with our paintings about the altarpiece.
First, children went inside the church and looked carefully at all the scenes and characters. It is not easy to understand and read and altarpiece. So, they need some help. How many people can you see? How many are holding books? How are they? If you don’t know, can you imagine or share your idea? What kind of book are these people reading or holding at their hands?
They also could look at the altarpiece with binoculars.
Learning from Children’s Answers
In these activities, one of the goals is to listen to the people, in this case, to the children. We listen to them to help them fight the fear of making a fool of themselves. They need to feel comfortable while chatting, and to learn without any discomfort if any answer was wrong. Make them realize that heir point of view is always appreciated.
Acknowledgements
Thanks a lot to the “Librero de Urroz”, to the major of Urroz Villa, as well as the parish of La Asunción. Thanks to all the families who came with their children to join us.
The beginning: A Christmas morning
Last January, we traveled to Vitoria. It was a cold, nice morning and we had a lot of fun. We visited the New Cathedral of Vitoria, The Fine Arts Museum, and some people even went to practice a little ice skating.
We also discovered three people. They were going to become very close friends to the team of Patrimonio para Jóvenes. The Bishop from Navarra, Cadena Eleta, and the architects Julian Apraiz and Javier Luque.
The idea
The Bishop Eleta from Navarra and the buildings made by Apraiz (some of them with Luque) are all around this area. Not far away from us.
The students María Oderiz and Marta Aparicio earned the scholarship to prepare about this interesting topic. After this, they had to present their investigation to the members of Patrimonio.
Here you have a little abstract, especially with pictures about this story.
First, Pitillas
It´s a small village in Navarra. There is a little museum with some of the belongings from Cadena Eleta. He donated them to his village.
There is also this house, called “the Bishop´s house”. But actually, it was never his property. It was his sister’s house. Her name was Margarita (Daisy) and this is the reason for what you can see painted daisies on the roof . (By the way, done in a stunning ceramic).
Bilbao :
We went from a small village to a big city as Bilbao. There, in one of the most important streets, Gran Via, Apraiz built the “Banco de España” (Spain Bank). In the middle of the financial area of Bilbao, it is a building whose decoration reminds us of classical antiquity.
The inside has suffered many transformations according to the times. Anyway it has the smart, majestic and cool atmosphere from the beginning of the 20th century.
It’s amazing to discover its big dome made of stained glass. It was made by the Maumejean factory, a French factory of stained glass seen several times at Apraiz’s buildings.
I want to thank all the staff from Banco de España in Bilbao for their attention with us, especially to Ascension, who spent part of the morning with us.
Also thanks to Obra Insignia Company, who helped us with this visit.
I suppose Apraiz was so happy and proud about the result of his job in Bilbao. Check out how ostentatious is his sign on the wall of the main entrance of the bank.
Laguardia
And let’s go again to a village. Now to the area called “Rioja Alavesa” famous because of its wineries. At Laguardia, Apraiz built a hospital. Today we can only see some parts of the building. Today is a secondary school. Anyway, we could see how different is the aesthetic of this building compared to the one of the bank.
The hospital (currently a school) is located in front of a beautiful landscape. Everything thought in order to have a very healthy atmosphere for patients
It’s nice to read from newspapers of these times: The hospital was provided with all the modern advantages (from that time) such as disinfectant treatment for laundry.
Laguardia has also a great artistic heritage, as the “Santa María de los Reyes”. This is what we called “The visual universe of Apraiz”.
With this, we want to explain that Apraiz visited himself very artistic and historical places. He knew the Gothic, before going to the “ Neo-gothic”.
Burgos :
In this city famous because of its Cathedral and because is on the way of Saint James, Apraiz had also made history.
He took part in the restoration of the large spires of the cathedral. Maria and Marta worked on this issue. They read about what architects did at the beginning of 20 century.
We also visited the new archiepiscopal palace built again with Cadena Eleta, and Apraiz and Luque.
We also thank to the municipal archives of Burgos, who helped us a lot when looking for information and documents.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the family Apraiz who received us in Vitoria at the end of this job. It was so nice to meet his grandson and great grandson. Here they are, with Marta and María.
At Mencos Palace
At the end of September, Marta and Maria gave an informal chat about this trip in Tafalla (Navarra) at the Mencos Palace. Here you have some moments of this day and the very nice meeting we had.
Art and heritage are a great excuse to make new friends.
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!
What could Castilla La Mancha and Navarra have in common? Is it possible for some kids from Pamplona to have any interest on visiting a small location in the Alcarria region, more specifically, the town of Pastrana? And why would visitors from Pastrana would come to Pamplona in such a weird season as the middle of April?
Let’s organize all these ideas first. The common link between Navarra and Pastrana is a pipe organ. Yes, as you read, since the pipe organ from Pastrana was built by Domingo de Mendoza, a Navarre from the School of Lerín.
More curious facts: Both the parish church of San Román de Arellano, in Navarra, and the Cathedral of Sigüenza, share many decorative coincidences. I invite you to take a look to the parish of Arellano here
Arellano
What Unites Us Today
However, the biggest link between Pamplona and Pastrana, and the reason of this strong relationship, is pure affection. This friendship was born through an exchange between Patrimonio para Jóvenes and the Association of Ladies and Gentlemen from Pastrana. They are the soul of the annual ducal festival of this town, as well as the stars of the theatrical visits that are held on the first Saturday of every month
Summary of our Shared History
One day while exploring different social networks, I discovered the account of the Tapestry Museum of Pastrana. It caught my attention immediately, so I got in touch with them as soon as I could. What a lovely surprise it was to find out they are an amazing group of people. That kind of people that motivates you to visit their hometown. Besides, I had already heard about Pastrana, because of the story of Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, Princess of Eboli and Duchess of Pastrana.
As I put the Tapestry Museum on my pending list, I started to run the project about fashion in the altarpiece of San Julián de Ororbia in Navarre, with the help of Consuelo Sanz de Bremond Lloret. And well, I found out that Consuelo happens to be very close to Celia Alegre, one of the participants of the ducal festival in Pastrana.
9 AM and 22º C:
Summer. August. Madrid. It’s 9 in the morning and the day promises to be burning hot. However, this is the only day I have to visit Pastrana, so I don’t think about it twice. The fresh air running through the ducal palace, the parish church and the Tapestry museum soothe the heat. And so does the great treatment I am receiving.
It is an absolutely interesting place. To make the Navarre boys and girls get there is almost impossible. So I write down on my notes “Pastrana is extraordinary. But impossible to include on my list of places to visit”.
Impossible?
As I saw how the chances to organize a visit or an activity vanished, I wrote to Celia in order to propose a collaborative post. The kids from Pastrana had to send me their pictures, write and tell about what they do during the ducal festival and the theatrical visits. They did it. And suddenly, it happened: Pastrana. You can remember this activity here:
So Celia Alegre had an idea…
In order to discuss some issues about that post, I met Celia in Madrid on December, having a cup of coffee near Moncloa on a Christmas´ Eve morning. That’s when I told her that we won’t make it to Pastrana due to distance, a lack of direct transportation and additional costs like hotels and such. In conclusion, because of time, money and interests, a visit to Pastrana clashed against the main characteristics of Patrimonio para Jóvenes. We had to understand that both the kids from Pastrana as well as from Pamplona aren’t retired seniors willing to spend a lot of money and time in cultural activities. But Celia didn’t give up, and used her wildcard: an exchange
The Exchange
This meant we had to set a timetable and, in the case of having underage visitors, we had to let their parents meet each other, for them to coordinate and approve the trip of their children. It was January and everything was already going pretty well. The first weekend of April, the people from Pamplona, with some friends from Cuenca and Víctor Choza from Madrid as a photographer, would go to Pastrana, and the next weekend the pastraneros would come to visit us.
Speechless
The coordination to pick up the people from Atocha, and Víctor from the university (poor Víctor had just finished a final exam) was excellent. As soon as they arrived to Pastrana they tried out the costumes. By the next day, our people were pastraneros who were right in the middle of the guided visits as part of the staff, involved in their presentation, being part of the place.
It was Patrimonio para Jóvenes at its purest. Add to the experience the Alcarrian food, the visit to the Tapestry Museum and the Carmelite Convent as well as the long walks and longer talks with their hosts.
Getting Involved
That might be our key to success. We open our houses, spend our time and give our biggest efforts in order to offer a unique experience to the participants. We get involved so all the art and cultural heritage they discover remain in their memory as an exceptional experience, rather than vanish as useless facts.
In order to turn this dream into reality, we need tons of people. Generous people willing to help others without expecting some kind of reward, people with true love for their heritage, their history and their homeland. Just like the guys from Pastrana.
Pastrana is not only not imposible to reach, but it has become one of the best experiences of our association. Does anybody remember the “Adventure in the Mudéjar of Aragón”? Their protagonists will never forget it, and that will happen to the visitors of Pastrana.
Now I would love to tell you about the visit of the pastraneros to Pamplona… But that will be saved for the next post.
Today I have the pleasure to invite you to follow us in a very simple, but nice visit to the Batan of Villava. A visit that is linked to the ethnography , brotherhood, ancient jobs and economy development tha occurred in towns close to rivers.
A batan was a machine used in other times that worked with the power of water and was used to beat textiles and prepare them for different uses. The evidence of the ancient use of this machine is its mention and protagonism in one of the famous adventures of Don Qujote de la Mancha.
Villava is a nice village that is just a ten-minute drive away from Pamplona. You can also go walking and enjoy the beauty of the river park of Pamplona. Click here for further information
Landscapes, history, World heritage sites, and industrial heritage, all together in just one morning. Right next to the Batan (the building which has inside the machine has the same name: batán) is the Arre bridge , crossed by all the pilgrims coming from Zubiri and hading to Santiago, and the old Romanic apse from the church of Trinidad of Arre.
The Batán has more things to show. We saw with Ekaitz the map of the waterway around Pamplona, and we learned the history of the batan, how it worked, and indeed how it works today. Ekaitz set in motion for us the machine . We had information about the people who worked there, and watched a video about the history of Pamplona and its relation with rivers and water.
Another important point of this visit was to understand how important are rivers and water for habitability and civilization. Romans who founded Pompaelo, shepherds, timber merchants, pilgrims… a great history of people, masters, and culture around the river
If you are in Pamplona or nearby, you can go there, the visit is free and is held in Spanish or Euskera, however, you can also visit it by yourself. Not far away is the San Andrés mill, another nice place to see. In summer you can also enjoy an open air cafetería, right in the middle of the nature and on the Way of Saint James.
Either in winter or in summer, we can always go around and know more about our heritage. The big one, the small one, but always our heritage.
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.
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!
During the summer our association kept in touch with Core, a foundation located in Pamplona, Navarra. The purpose of Core is to help integrate the emigrants in the region of Navarra.
Our proposal was an collaborative activity: a trip together to the famous “Venta de Ulzama” .
What Ventas de Ulzama is:
Along with its beautiful surroundings, it is a typical country house which was built in 1840 by the Town Hall of the Ultzama Valley. Its aim was to host all those tired and hungry travelers that would stop for a rest. Read more here.
Today it is famous for its deserts, Cuajada and Canutillos. There is a kind of custom of going to the Ultzama with family or just with friends for a supper and sweets.
So it was interesting to offer this visit to the cooking class at Core Foundation. It was an occasion to discover landscape, local architecture, and gastronomy. It was an experience of cultural heritage in a very nice way.
We decided that autumn would be a good time for the visit so we went at the beginning of November.
The trip and the supper
It was such a pity that it was raining! Anyway, the half an hour we had from Pamplona to the Ultzama was nice. Children were so excited on the way watching cows, sheep and deer. The colour of the forest and the great smell of wet earth were also a nice experience.
In spite of the rain, everybody enjoyed some time feeding the deer. Though niether me nor Borja could take good photos. It was raining a lot and the water was dangerous for cameras. In any case, here you have an example.
Inside the restaurant we test first the Cuajada.
The Cuajada is a dairy product made of ewe’s milk. Inma, the lady in charge of the Venta de Ultzama explained to everybody in a very friendly and simple way the recipe and the origin of this dessert.
We also tasted Canutillos, with a delicious custard cream. During the supper we had the opportunity to talk each other and get to know about the countries that everyone was from.
During this week, the people who attended the cooking course at Core are going to prepare cuajada and canutillos by themselves. Here you have the team at Core Foundation
At Patrimonio para Jovenes, we had the job to introduce to our gastronomy, customs, and culture to all these new friends who have arrived to Navarra.
And this bring us to the end of the blog until January. Have a good Christmas Holiday!
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