Browsing Tag

Navarre

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Romanesque with another perspective

              An Invite for the Undecided

Due to many reasons (educational system, way of life and so on) there is a kind of wall built between young people, art (with the exception perhaps of Contemporary Art) and cultural heritage.

Say the word Romanesque or Medieval Art and you have a big bus full of retired people ready to go wherever you want to take them.

Say the same words to students and suddenly they are very busy because of homework, their grandma is ill or they have to train hard with their sport team.

It is necessary to encourage young generations to not take for granted their heritage. But it needs a new language, another way of communication. All without treating the content in a shallow way

Art and cultural heritage, even ruins, are never a fairground. Even if them could promote having fun!

      Coming back to St Esteban of Eusa

Saint Esteban at the little village of Eusa (Navarra) is a nice example of churches with “portico”,a kind of atrium . We had been there some years ago. Children at that time today are students at the university, even young professionals. To whom had been before, this day was a nice remembering. For the people who arrived for the first time, it was a surprise.

We made a proposal to Iñaki Rodríguez, the conductor of Pamplona Jazz orchestra. Something like “ Jazz inside the atrium”. The idea was born during the past European Heritage Days.

This time it was not a concert itself. It was dealing with a workshop about sound and acoustics, inviting people to be part of the show.

Before the event, Iñaki told me; let’s see if my pupils want to joinus.

Let’s see if they dare to.

They came, they dared, and had a great time loosing the fear to art

I hope so…

          Functions of an atrium

In a very easy and brief way,the students knew the functions of an atrium at the middle age : liturgy, funeral acts, meetings of people in charge of ruling the village and last but not least, entertainment.

In fact we can see scratched on stone a kind of game similar to chess.

It was a pretty sunny day. Sunlight on the stones gave the atrium a golden aspect. . Thanks to the rain and snow of previous weeks, the landscape was in a deep green colour.

We also observed decoration of capitals and before explanations people talked about what each drawing suggested.

Time went quickly and it was lunch time. Some of them, went to share a nice menu at Sorauren, a village not far away from Eusa and even from Pamplona.

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Ventura Rodríguez, the architect

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando Gathers Together to Members and Friends of Patrimonio para Jóvenes.

 With the 300th anniversary of the birth of Ventura Rodríguez, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, organized an exposition about the architect. This was the perfect occasion to meet up with our members from Madrid and its surroundings. And a perfect occasion to invite them to see Ventura Rodriguez´s work in Navarre. Since not all of us could come, we organized a raffle to see who was coming. The exhibition was magnificent. You´re still on time to make a visit, since it´ll stay until april 8th. If you want more information, click here.

On this picture you can see some of the youngest members. And it was Maria, the littlest of all, the third from the left, who won the contest to come to visit us in Navarre. She did it a few days later, accompanied by her mother, Nuria.

   Discover, Relate, Learn, Enjoy

The exhibition about Ventura Rodríguez had a Little “but”: it could be too complex and hard to be appreciated or enjoyed by the youngest observers. With Ana, our guide, we did what we could in order to make it more approachable, talking about something very well known: The Fountain of the goddess Cibeles.

Designed by Ventura Rodríguez (although it was built by two othe sculptors) is an emblematic fountain, a “must” stop in Madrid. Either you are a soccer fan or not, everybody relates this fountain with Real Madrid. This helped us as a hook to demonstrate the importance of Ventura Rodríguez, his projects and works.

If you want tocheck out more about the category, complexity and setting of this exhibition in Madrid, you can watch this video.

By the way, it would be an authentic delight to have an encounter of the Patrimonio para Jóvenes “troupe” with the staff in charge of the setting of this exhibition and other not-less-important ones: Arquitectos Frade

Along the explanations we started to familiarize ourselves with Ventura Rodríguez and his work. Little by little, the curiosity about his work in Navarra started to flourish.

By the end of our visit, we made the raffle. We had a little bag with blank pieces of paper, except for one that had PAMPLONA written on it. The one who took this piece of paper would come to Navarra to see the façade of the Cathedral, the Bell Tower, the Noain aqueduct, and of course, to enjoy the city.

       And the Winner is…Maria!

The youngest member of our group was the fortunate one. As an anecdote, she took the papero ut of the bag without noticing she was the winner. For some reason, she thought that each of us was taking a piece of paper with the name of a different city, so she didn´t say anything. It was her mother who noticed. As you can imagine, Little Maria had a hard time being the center of attention, clapped and cheered by all of us. You could say this is a very personal and very intense way to discover Ventura Rodríguez .

It was a February afternoon, intense, kind, full of encounters, introductions, memories and all these details that come with the effort of making a visit. We said good bye and went to our respective Metro stations, buses and plans. However, all of us left with the feeling of being part of something bigger that gathers people together no matter their age, origins or education. It was the interest in appreciating and discovering our culture.

   Two Visits in Pamplona: First: The Cathedral and its Tower

In Patrimonio para Jóvenes we don´t like rushing nor overwhelming people with contents and information. We prefer little drops, generate curiosity step by step. And overall, we want people to have a great time with us. Let´s not forget that we are addressing to the most complex public: The one who generally is not interested in this kind of activities. So we have to awaken their interest, our biggest challenge. And this can only be done with care, preparing every visit with an artisan’s technique.

      A VIP Guide…

There´s no better way of showing the love that we put into our work tan visiting the Cathedral of Pamplona (relating the visit to Ventura Rodríguez) with Verónica Quintanilla Crespo, an architect specialized in restoring cultural heritage. You can see her on the picture above.

Verónica and her team were in charge of the restoration of the facade of the Cathedral of Pamplona.

All the visitors were amazed and said that they were discovering a new perspective of the Cathedral. They´d never seen nor thought about many of the details Verónica talked about.

While Verónica explained, Clara Frago captured with her camera those instants of communion and harmony of diverse environments. Surroundings where we discover new projects and designs for the façade of the Cathedral at the same time we re-imagine how the primitive Romanic façade would have looked like.

It was very interesting to listen to Verónica and how she approached us to Ventura Rodríguez ant to the Cathedral with the delicacy of someone who has had to listen, discover, observe and interpret to a great architect in order to intervene on his work. Take it back to its original glow with humility and generosity.

An architect that restores cultural heritage has to be humble”. I couldn´t resist falling for this comment. In a restoration project, the personal mark is not important; the main objective is to give back the starring light to the geniuses who created that piece of art. It was an amazing morning, another one on this February centered on Ventura Rodríguez. All this was occurring at the same time we were preparing Clara´s exhibition, that you´ll be able to visit in the main headquarters of La Caixa in Pamplona until April 15th.

It was such a pity that all of us started moving around, so just half of the group is shown in this

     The Visit to the Aqueduct of Noain

A week later we got together again to have a walk around Noain and enjoy the views of its aqueduct. This time, our photographer was Borja Centenera Crespo.

A lot of us have seen the aqueduct many times while being on the highway or by train. None of us had ever gone below its arches, and all of us agreed that the view is completely different. From below, you can appreciate the whole magnitude of this work. We talked about the way water used to be brought to Pamplona and reflected about the problem of water supplying and how we take for granted daily activities like opening the water tap, take a shower, or doing the laundry.

And of course, we thought about all the work that building an aqueduct demands.

The aqueduct of Noain also helped us remember the fountains of the city of Pamplona that received wáter thanks to the aqueduct. Since it was impossible to visit them during the day, I took pictures of them a few days earlier and then sent them through Whatsapp.

We talked about math and physics, the awareness of land, and overall, we had a blast. As always, Borja took fantastic pictures of our day.

A February that will be saved in our memories, a month dedicated to the architect Ventura Rodríguez. This poster, designed by our wonderful Clara, is the one she created to announce

Every time I write about our activities, I get the exact same feeling. How long and slow it feels when preparing the activities, and how fast it occurs later, how easy it becomes a souvenir. Some of our members leave us, most of them to prepare the MIR exam after their Medicine degree. But new generations are to come, so Patrimonio para Jóvenes keeps on working.

I say goodbye for now with this pic of the newly arrived members and a video about Ventura Rodríguez that´s worth watching over here.

So long, Ventura Rodríguez

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Dreamt architecture: The Expo

                 Because of Another Visit

In January 2017, we had a walk along the First Expansion of Pamplona. While preparing that activity, I read, observed and looked with a different view to this area of the town that can be misunderstood. Building created in the end of the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth century get mixed, confused and almost hidden among taller, more modern and more impressive buildings. I found out details that I’d never seen before. And during the visit, all the people made the exact same comment: I had never seen this before. This topic awakened so much interest that it was a must to pull its thread..

               Photography as a Way

We started everything to prepare a photography exposition that fulfilled two of the main goals of Patrimonio para Jóvenes. On one side, to spread awareness about art and cultural heritage. On the other hand, to promote the work of young professionals. On November we started the search of the appropriate place. It had to be big, easy to be seen by pedestrians and inside or at least, close enough to the First Expansion.

We proposed the setting of this exposition to many entities. In the end, the idea worked for La Caixa, so we started working

            Working During Christmas

Since the first weeks of December, Clara Frago re-visited this houses that she had saved in pictures back in the day. Now, more calmly, by her own and focused only on her camera lens, trying to catch the spirit, almost magic of this buildings and its entrances. We´d like to thank to the Chamber of Commerce, the Residence of the Repairing Mothers and the Joaquín Maya School of Music for all the facilities they gave us for taking pictures of its interiors, ot from their Windows and terraces to take pictures from the heights.

At the beginning of January, Clara Frago presented her work in La Caixa. As it was expected, the exposition absolutely charmed the public. Now you still have a chance to delight yourself with her photographs from March 1st to April 15th in the Carlos III avenue in Pamplona.

          The Expositive Design of Juan Roldán Marzo

What story do we want to tell with these pictures and how can we do it? This exposition is an invite for you to observe, to discover hidden details and rejoice among them. This feeling of joy and relaxation can´t be achieved with stridency. The exhibition space of La Caixa does not admit an exhibit in color. Therefore, the pictures are displayed in black and wihite, also like a reminiscence of past times.

Another issue: Pictures can´t disturb workers and clients. The solution? Have them hanged in panels by a transparent thread that gives the effect of having the pictures floating in the air.

An additional element for the whimsical environment we want to create. This way, the observer will see doors that invite them to go in, stairs asking to be climbed, windows that work as threshold to a world of portals, peepholes and even more windows.

How was this arrangement decided? Through some trails in an A5 printing of the same images that would be presented in a bigger format.

       A GREAT JOB WITH A GREAT TEAM

For many months, Juan Roldán and Clara Frago have worked throughly, thoughtfully paying attention to every little detail. For  Patrimonio para Jóvenes it is such a delight to set up this exhibition. We give our sincere thanks to La Caixa for trusting in our association, Juan and Clara. We hope this becomes an opportunity for all the clients and people go pass by this area to be amazed by the details of the precious architectonic heritage of the First Expansion of Pamplona, this shy urban development before the demolition of the walls. Knowing about it, is the best way to preserve it.

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From La Alcarria to Navarra

   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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A talk about the walls of Pamplona

 On Saturday March 25 we had the pleasure of receiving Esther Elizalde among us. At the informal dinner, she talked about the demolition of the walls of Pamplona. ({Part of the walls. Thank Good we still have some beautiful walls).

Mrs. Elizalde did her doctoral thesis on this subject. Nevertheless, her speech was not a technical one, just for engineers, architects or historians. Her achievement goes way beyond these people: as a high school teacher, she knows how to deal with any kind of public. And indeed, Esther offered a great biographical note from the people living at the beginning of the 20th Century in Pamplona. She perfectly transmitted the fears, hopes, difficulties and anecdotes from the time of our great-grandfathers. So we were listening about the human side of the walls.

                     ” First Ensanche”  of Pamplona

For those who at the beginning of January went to the visit to the “First Ensanche” of Pamplona, this talk became more interesting. They had experienced the fist area built with the goal of giving people from Pamplona a little more space, but it was not enough at all. Moreover, it was only for very well off people.

           One of the facts that made the dinner so interesting was the amount of pictures brought from the municipal archive of Pamplona that we had the chance to enjoy.

The pity, as always happens with informal dinners and talks; was that there was not way to display a great number of pictures from the activity on the blog .

But, if you are in Pamplona, the visit to the archive is free and worthy, here you have the information about it:

On behalf of the people who joined us that day, I want to thank Esther for coming. She had the kindness of attending us coming to Pamplona from Zaragoza and spending her free time of a Saturday evening with students and young professionals of Patrimonio para Jóvenes.

Before you come to Pamplona, have a look to the web with information about the walls of the city and the great walks you can have all around.

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Walk through Pamplona

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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Looking at an altarpiece through the fashion

sello-mec-v2-smThe story of this post has its beginning on Internet. I’d known Consuelo Sanz de Bremond and her blog Indumentaria y vida cotidiana en España  on Twitter and Facebook. Then we were emailing each other, and finally, I met her last summer in a village close to Madrid.

I wished the team of Patrimonio para jovenes could take a special visit to the stunning altarpiece of San Julian de Ororbia.

retablo-de-ororbia

Ororbia is a village located just 15 minutes from Pamplona by car. And the altarpiece is one of the most interesting in Navarra. It was a pity that there was poor lighting which made picture taking difficult this time

The way we chose ( Consuelo and I ) to see the altarpiece was through the point of view of fashion – fashion at the beginning of the XVI century. The alterpiece of Ororbia offers great information not only about dresses but also about the way of life of the people from this time.

dsc_0016

During the morning we visited the altarpiece at Ororbia. There, everybody had time not only to understand the artwork, but to take their own photos as well. This is very important. Taking photos, even if they are taken with the mobile phones, means that they offer a personal point of view about the art.

In the evening, we had an informal dinner and chat. Consuelo, with a Power Point presentation, talked to us in a very friendly way about fashion and showed us how the old times have their influence on fashion today.

cofias

To prepare this power point, Consuelo had the great help of Borja Centenera. This summer he went to take photos very carefully and with plenty of detail of the caps, hats, and shoes that Consuelo asked for.

We also had a workshop with fabric swatches. By touching silk, sheep wool, mohair, velvet and other swatches, the team could think and experience different textures and imagine their uses.

At the dinner, we were joined by the very nice people of Ororbia, that during these past months had helped us prepare this activity.

despedida-conferencia

If you are coming to Pamplona, don’t forget visit this area. Orobia is close to the interesting church of Santa Maria of Gazolaz, and the Otazu Winery, an area with a great landscape, heritage and lots of fun.

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Victoriana, in Memoriam

Victoriana, in Memoriam

A journalist named Nerea Alejos wrote about this story in the regional newspaper “Diario de Navarra” on 22 August.

 

sello-mec-v2-smUsually we are looking for stories, that are somehow or have something new. But sometimes just the opposite happens: stories are looking for us. For example, there was last year in Burgos with the matter of the “monster or Ravenna” at the Burgos Cathedral and now, we have Victoriana Arizaleta and in her memory, the yoke of a small bell on the bell tower of the parish of St. Roman in the village of Arellano,  Spain.


            1878

Arellano en memora de Victoriana

“In Memorian of Victoriana Arizaleta” and the year 1878. And nothing more, just ‘Jesus and Mary.’ A bell with no use nowadays but with the name of a lady.

At the beginning of the research, we asked the old people of the village.  Alvaro de Goñi, has also been looking at the archives there an we  supposed 1878 was the date of the Victoriana death. But to our surprise, it was the date of her birth.

 

          Perhaps a well off woman, a kind of “patroness’?

 

We also worked with this theory, but it doesn’t quite fit. At the archive of the parish we’ve found the expenses for her funeral, which were quite normal. If she was rich,  she (or her family)  didn’t like putting  on a show of her capabilities.

Libro de cuentas, funeral

 

Things that we know

 

            Born in 1878, she married a barber from the village of Salinas de Oro. The wedding was in Estella in the year 1901.

She had at least three children and worked as a midwife in Arellano and other small villages around. One of her boys, Santiago, had been the mayor of Arellano for years.

Victoriana took care especially with the birthing of very poor ladies and  gypsies. This was reported to us by her granddaughter who now is more than 70 year old.

Victoriana cooked cheese just for the family, and liked to make artisanal works, crafts, and the very typical Spanish “Encaje de bolillos” that consist of making lace in a special way.

Pascasia Arizaleta

Devoted of the Heart of Jesus, we also found that Victoriana’s mother  has a silver heart dedicated to the Virgin Mary,  in the very same church. A fact discovered by Alvaro de Goñi, a young man from Arellano. In any case, we don’t know who paid for the bell yoke with the name of Victoriana. It is supposed be done by herself.

 

                 … And things we propose:

Campana completa

           Births, wars… love and death… a work in the silence of the small villages isolated without the communication of today ( Internet, motorway, mobiles and so on )… a woman, a bell, a name. A bell that perhaps would be appropriate to ring again,  at least once every year, in memory not only of Victoriana but of all rural women of Spain.