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Other published works
The Citadel of Pamplona
San Bartolomé Fort Interpretation Centre for the Pamplona Fortifications Various, Pamplona, 2011
Five living centuries of an impregnable fortress
www.murallasdepamplona.es
978-84-95930-50-7
Five living centuries of an impregnable fortress
The Citadel of Pamplona
Fortificaciones de Pamplona. Pasado, presente y futuro (Pamplona Fortifications. Past, Present and Future) Various, Pamplona, 2010
Juan José Martinena Ruiz
Proyecto1:Maquetaci贸n 1
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To my sons Juan Ignacio and Miguel Javier
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The Citadel of Pamplona Five living centuries of an impregnable fortress
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The Citadel of Pamplona Five living centuries of an impregnable fortress
Juan José Martinena Ruiz
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The Citadel of Pamplona Five living centuries of an impregnable fortress Published by: The City Council of Pamplona. Strategic Projects Dept Author: Juan José Martinena Ruiz Coordinator: José Vicente Valdenebro García Edited by: Formas de Proyectar Photography: Berta Buzunáriz, Luis Prieto, Archivo General de Simancas (AGS, General Archive of Simancas), Archivo Municipal de Pamplona (AMP, Municipal Archive of Pamplona), Instituto de Historia y Cultura Militar (IHCM, Institute of Military History and Culture) and Servicio Geográfico del Ejército (SGE, Army Geographical Service) Translation: David Ronder (Architrad) Printed by:
Litografía Ipar
ISBN: D.L.:
978-84-95930-50-7 NA–1.507/2011
Pamplona, April 2011 Revised and expanded edition of the book, “The Citadel of Pamplona”, Colección Breve, Temas Pamploneses no. 11 (1987). © The City Council of Pamplona, publishers © Texts and photographs, the authors www.pamplona.es www.murallasdepamplona.es Printed on biodegradable, recyclable, acid- and dioxin-free, TCF paper.
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Contents
Introduction
13
El Fratín: a prestigious engineer
17
Expropriation of the land
19
Blessing of the first stone
20
The Viceroy’s abuses against the navarrese
22
Demolition of Estella castle and arrival of El Fratín
23
Modification of the walled enclosure
24
State of the works in 1581
26
El Fratín visits again
28
Misused ashlars
30
Rival engineers, conflicting opinions
33
Herrera’s memorial
35
Philip II visits the works
36
Workers in the stocks
38
Towards the end of the 16th century
39
To the galleys on account of some keys
40
Works proceed
41
A stockade around the moat
43
More from 1608
46
A pole in the Citadel
47
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Drinking water from the well
48
The danger from neighbouring France
49
An interesting piece of graphic evidence
50
The Count of Oropesa, driving force of the works
52
The termination of the works
55
Royal visit of Philip IV
60
A new church
61
Two distinguished travellers: Brunel y Bertaut
63
Money for the walls
65
Necessary works in 1669
66
The eternal penury of the royal exchequer
67
The engineer Rinaldi’s report
69
Banfi, Domingo and Menni
72
Fortification of the Castle Surround and the Vauban system
74
The Viceroy’s reservations about the new half moons
79
Change of engineers
82
The Kingdom’s contribution
83
The treasurer Aranguren’s accounts
84
The moat counterscarp and other works
86
Repairs to the main gate
88
Cannon, vaults and markers for the glacis
89
Further contributions from the Kingdom
91
The new magazine and the gunpowder store
93
Philip V’s engineers. New projects
97
The new Socorro Gate and the proofing of its vaults
99
The heyday of military cartography
104
The Duke of Saint-Simon and a dish of ajoarriero
107
The new weapons room and other projects
109
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Zermeño and his plan to remodel the interior
113
The Citadel in 1756
114
Some buildings that never happened
119
Amici, and a report commissioned by Aranda
120
Other projects in the reign of Charles III
122
Report by the engineer don Antonio Zara
123
The lightning rod and fear of gunpowder
126
General Hurtado’s ambitious project
128
Two documents from 1800
130
1808: a french general’s stratagem
131
Blockade of the city in 1813
133
The Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis
135
O’Donnell uprising
136
A plan for a fortified line in 1849
138
Pamplona’s worst enemy
139
The carlists blockade the city
142
The first enlargement of the city: The Citadel loses two bastions
144
The Citadel as prison: Some notable inmatess
146
Cession of the Citadel to the Municipality
150
A city in miniature
155
Demolition of the buildings
158
Conservation of the oldest
160
Restoration of walls, bastions and buildings
162
A pleasant recreational space
169
Restoration of the counterguards and ravelins
174
List of the keepers of the Citadel of Pamplona and their lieutenants
185
Sources used
189
Bibliography
189
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Introduction
The Citadel’s pentagonal shape has defined the appearance of Pamplona for centuries. From the time it was first constructed in 1571 to the first of its demolitions at the end of the 19th century, when two of its five bastions gave way to the Primer Ensanche (First Enlargement), this Renaissance enclosure was built to be a stout guardian of our city. During all this time, the Citadel, which was declared a National Historical-Artistic Monument in the 1970s, has had a huge influence on the day-to-day lives of Pamplonans and has undergone a number of different changes to its initial structure, adjusting to the needs of the people as they came to feel hemmed in by its stone walls. “The Citadel de Pamplona” was written by the historian Juan José Martinena in 1987 and published by the City Council of Pamplona as a composite history of this emblematic enclosure. Today, 24 years after its first publication, we can now enjoy this careful reissue of the book, which includes important updates to the original work and again shares with readers Martinena’s broad knowledge of Pamplona’s walls and heritage. In these pages we encounter stories and anecdotes that speak of a living space that is very much a part of the development of Pamplona and which has always played a central role in the customs of the city. In this way, we can learn about the first designs drawn up by El Fratín in the 16th century, the royal visits to the Citadel, the blockade of the plaza in 1813 or the illustrious prisoners who remained locked up within its cells. It is wonderful for the City Council of Pamplona to reissue such a remarkable work as this and to be able to provide Pamplonans with detailed information about one of the most important elements of their heritage. Because now, after the restoration work carried out over the past decade, the Citadel is one of Europe’s best preserved fortifications and together with the Vuelta del Castillo all around the Castle forms Pamplona’s main park which covers nearly 70 acres. In this regard, I hope that this work, as well as all the initiatives that are being developed around the Citadel and the rest of the walls, and also the Interpretation Centre for Fortifications recently set up in the San Bartholomé Fort, will help conserve and promote it properly, so that future generations will be able to enjoy this magnificent heritage as we do. I hope that this publication finds favour with the people of Pamplona. I am sure that this excellent work by Juan José Martinena will prove a first-rate means of spreading the story of our city’s rich history. Yolanda Barcina Mayoress of Pamplona
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In 1569, the engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli, one of the most prestigious of the age, made a visit to Navarre by order of Philip II, with the aim of examining the fortifications of Pamplona and the border roads and passes, and devising a viable and effective plan of defence in the face of a possible attack by France. In the report which he submitted to the King on completing his mission, he said among other things: “Pamplona, which is now more frontier than capital...must needs not only be well fortified, but must have a very eminent castle; for the memory of the rule of her native king is still fresh, and the licence that prevailed under a weak one and the scant justice there was for the powerful; and though every man doth now enjoy better government, justice and security, it is still also necessary to secure their allegiance with a fortress. And Pamplona with a good castle will be safe from inward danger; and being fortified, from all outward danger. And furnishing it with a munitions house and a store for provisions will serve for all the border and all the kingdom, and the viceroy will be able to supply and repair all the others from there..."1
(1)
SHM (= the Military History Service in Madrid, now known as the IHCM, the Central Archive of the Institute of Military History and Culture). Aparicio Collection. t. l, p. 103.
Juan JosĂŠ Martinena Ruiz / 15
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Pamplona in 1521. To the north –on the left of the image-, the Royal Palace, then occupied by the Viceroy; and to the south, Ferdinand the Catholic’s castle (model by Juan Mª Cía).
Antonelli’s reasoned, well-chosen words found an immediate echo in the royal mind. The Prudent King, Philip II, not only feared the ever-present and hitherto often realised possibility of an attack or armed incursion by his powerful French neighbour, but also – and this was the most worrying thing – suspected the loyalty of the Navarrese towards his crown, unsure of what their attitude would be in the event of a new French charge across the Pyrenees. There was thus no doubting the necessity of building a powerful fortress in Pamplona that would thenceforward be the key to the Kingdom and to the entire western border region. All that remained was to put the plan into practice in the best possible way.
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El Fratín: a prestigious engineer Two years later, in 1571, Captain Jácome Palear – Giacomo Palearo in some sources – was entrusted by the king with the task of drawing up the plans for the new fortress. Then some forty two years of age, and commonly known by his nickname El Fratín (Italian for “Little Friar”), he was one of the most competent and renowned engineers at the monarch’s disposal. In his career, he had overseen the fortification of San Sebastián, Fuenterrabía, Zaragoza, Monzón, Mallorca, Ibiza, Cullera, Alicante, Cartagena and Orán.2 His experience was amply proven and he deservedly enjoyed the respect of the King. Fratín planned the Pamplona Citadel following the model developed by the famous Paciotto de Urbino with Antwerp’s in 1568, and which was then considered the very archetype of a modern fortress. The ground plan was to be a regular pentagon, with bastions in the shape of arrowheads placed at the five angles. The robust masonry walls were set at a slope, banked up towards the interior of the enclosure in order to neutralise as far as possible the effect of artillery, which was beginning to be more fearsome and powerful. Wide moats surrounded the perimeter of the walls to hinder the enemy’s approach and make it more difficult to storm the fortress. To get across them and make communication possible, there were to be wooden bridges on stakes or pilasters, with a final moveable section which could be raised or lowered by means of a bascule mechanism of chains and levers. In short: a fortress a la italiana, like almost all those of the Renaissance, and of the kind for which Leonardo da Vinci himself even designed prototypes. It must be said, to give every man his due, that Fratín was not the sole author and creator of the plan. There is documentary proof of the direct involvement of Don Vespasiano Gonzaga y Colonna, Marquis of Sabioneda and Duke of Trayetto, who was made Viceroy of Navarre in March 1572 and who combined his royal service and military merits with a vast knowledge of the art of siege warfare. A (2)
IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, pp. 76-77
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Design of Pamplona’s Citadel, according to a plan by El Fratín. AGS
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memorial, written years later, said of him: “...his daughter is the Citadel of Pamplona...the most distinguished fortified stone construction in the world and the best known.”3 As was to be expected, there was some discussion before a decision was made on the most suitable site for the Citadel. When the various opinions had been listened to, the one it occupies today was chosen; and, barring a few quibbles, it has been considered the most felicitous option by military engineers of subsequent eras. The one drawback was the unevenness of the terrain, which required some increase in the elevation of the walls and the sinking of wells to guarantee the supply of drinkable water that is fundamental to any fortified unit.
Expropriation of the land The plans having been drawn up and the project approved by the king and his council, the works got underway, involving great activity from the first moment. Once the measurements of the land, which at that time fell outside the old walled medieval enclosure, had been made, it was agreed to start with the bastions of San Antón and La Victoria, both facing the city, and with the curtain wall that was to run between them. Lope de Huarte was appointed veedor or inspector of works and given precise instructions as to how he should exercise his office.4 Prior to the start of the works, it was necessary to resolve the complicated matter of the expropriation and compensation of the inhabitants who owned the houses (3) (4)
Ibid. doc. no. 12. It also states that Fratín consulted the Prior of Barletta, who, according to documents of the time, knew the city better than anyone. This inspector was temporarily suspended from his job due to accounting irregularities, being reinstated in May 1578. (AGN. Mercedes Reales, lib. 12, fol. 259). Miguel Pérez de Alarcón features as works paymaster at this time; his salary went up as a result of the work on the citadel (Ibid. fls. 110 y 179v).
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and lands affected. Captain Fratín himself testified with regard to this in a trial that took place some years later: “...he said that this witness knows that when he planned the said Citadel and fortress, it was necessary to occupy and seize, as were duly occupied and seized, many estates and orchards with their water-wheels and garden-houses, and also the churches of San Lázaro and San Antón, with their houses and estates. And that, the plan and description made of the ambit and space that the said Citadel and its grounds were set to occupy, this witness gave notice and reason of it all to the Field Marshall, who at that time was Señor Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna. And on his orders, this witness and the other officials of His Majesty ordered the owners of each house be advised and summoned, in their own time, so that in their presence or that of those appearing for them, each thing be justly measured and estimated with expert measurers and estimators, so that neither his Majesty nor such individuals might incur injury to their worth. And the order was given to note everything in His Majesty’s books, so that everyone be paid what was due to him...”5
Blessing of the first stone On 11 July 1571 the inauguration of building work was celebrated with all due solemnity – the laying of the first stone, as we would say today. Ignacio Baleztena, writing under the pseudonym Tiburcio de Okabio, re-created the events as follows in his unforgettable Iruñerías (Tales of Pamplona): “The Bishop of Pamplona, Don Diego Ramírez Sedeño de Fuenleal, said mass, and when it was over, he and all the clergy and friars from all the monasteries left in solemn procession towards the new construction, which was blessed by (5)
IDOATE, ob. cit. doc. no. 11. The Order of San Antón was indemnified with 2,225 ducats.
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the Lord Bishop. The five bastions were baptised with the names Real, Santiago, San Antón, Santa María and La Victoria. “Present in the procession and throughout the ceremony was Señor Don Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna, His Majesty’s Viceroy and Field Marshall for the Kingdom of Navarre and province of Guipúzcoa... “Months later, on 28 October, the day of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Saint Luke, Señor Don Vespasiano Gonzaga bade enter and installed the first garrison of the new fortress – the company of Don Alonso de Cosgaya, which was on guard in the city. After putting the guards in place, the captain departed the citadel, leaving his second lieutenant there, as he was in charge of watching the city. Don Nuño González, lieutenant to Captain Campuzano, stayed with soldiers of the company in the Old Castle, as the captain was stationed with some others on guard at the French border passes. “The citadel’s first mayor, appointed by His Majesty, was Don Hernando de Espinosa, nephew of Cardinal Don Diego de Espinosa, President of the Royal Council of Castile and senior Inquisitor, Bishop of Sigüenza.”6 The first work consisted fundamentally in excavating the land, beginning by digging ditches and then deepening and widening what would later become moats, using the earth displaced for filling or interior banking of the future walls and bastions. That same year, the Spanish forces under the command of Don John of Austria achieved in the Gulf of Lepanto one of the most glorious victories in their history against the Turkish navy: the triumph of the cross over the crescent – or, as Cervantes wrote, “the greatest occasion that the centuries saw...”
(6)
Diario de Navarra, 11 September 1949.
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The Viceroy’s abuses against the Navarrese As had happened before with the construction of the Old Castle by Ferdinand the Catholic, the villages of the Pamplona basin and neighbouring valleys were turned to again to contribute to the works with farmhands and day labourers, and the transport of building materials with their animals, carts and teams of oxen. That gave rise, due fundamentally to the abuses and arbitrariness committed by the foremen and commissioners in carrying it out, to numerous lawsuits at the Royal Court, such as that followed by the jurors and inhabitants of Villava in 1572.7 The discontent was becoming so widespread that in 1573 a lawyer called Olano took it upon himself to put the matter before the King: “... I perceive,” he said in his memorial, “that the Navarrese are very offended and weary, and complain greatly of the harsh treatment they receive from Vespasiano de Gonzaga, Viceroy of the said Kingdom...because he constantly hath made and doth make them work on the fortifications of Pamplona, taking the workers from their houses at the time of year when they are most needed, and often carrying them off on high days, he makes them by force be whatever he deems best. And the worst of it is that he doth not pay them their wages and they suffer from much hunger and work; and many honourable men, who hath food to eat in their houses, are compelled to ask for alms in Pamplona so that they might eat and work on the construction, as they are not paid or allowed to go to their houses. I am a witness of this as I saw it myself before I left the said Kingdom; and gave food and alms to some of my neighbours, and they hath confirmed to me that some hath died from pure hunger through not asking for alms, and for that reason there is much barrenness and need throughout that Kingdom...” Even the nobles, whose exemptions and privileges had always been respected, had begun to be upset, obliged to take up expensive lawsuits to defend their nobility and status and avoid having to contribute economically or personally to the fortification. Olano imparted all this to Philip II in the certain knowledge that such abuses could not (7)
AGN. Procesos. 2nd series, no. 4,407.
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be to his liking, “as you have always shown protection and favour to the Navarrese, having entreated and ordered your Viceroys to deal with them kindly.” Thus informed of what was happening, he could supply the remedy to all the abuse.8 The Navarre Parliament also echoed the complaints and protests of the villages affected. The Viceroy had been given the task of carrying on with the construction of the citadel and was determined to accomplish his mission with the maximum possible diligence and efficiency, manu militari. An otherwise honourable and industrious man, his excessive zeal was what roused the antipathy and hostility of the Navarrese, long accustomed to greater temperance in those who led and gave orders to them.
Demolition of Estella Castle and arrival of El Fratín Setting aside these problems and tensions, inherent anyway in an undertaking of this scale, the fact is that the works were progressing at a good pace, given the possibilities and means of the age. As soon as the Citadel was ready to house troops, the order was given to blow up and demolish Estella Castle and transfer the soldiers who made up its garrison to Pamplona. A surprising aspect from today’s perspective is that one them was 60 years old and there was even another of 70. At the same time – it was 1574 – arrangements were made to move the chaplaincy of San Miguel from the Estella fortress to the Pamplona citadel, which led to the chaplain of Puy bringing a lawsuit before the Royal Court. Up till then he had been receiving an annual stipend of 10 ducats for the three weekly masses he held for the military.9
(8) (9)
AGN. Virreyes, leg. 1, carp. 4. IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, note 50.
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On 4 July 1578, Philip II ordered Captain Fratín to make his way to Pamplona as soon as possible to examine the state of works and make the necessary arrangements to continue with the fortification: “... We assign and order you that on receipt of this letter, you depart for the said city of Pamplona, making as much haste as you can. And on arrival there, that you examine the said Fortress and see if what hath been done until now hath been in accordance with the plan and order that you left or if it has departed from it and in what particulars. And having examined and reflected well upon it, plan and order what remains to be done, both in the fortification of the Citadel and in the City; and also the casemates that are necessary to construct and in which parts and of what form, size and type they should be. And having made and left a plan and order and indicated what is advisable in every particular matter, in such a manner that there might be no errors, for progress to be made with the said Fortress and for the aforementioned casemates to be constructed in accordance with it, return here to my court or to wherever I am to be found, bringing a copy of said plan and order to give an account of every thing and of that which is in accordance with it and with your judgement, and the appropriate orders can be given...”10 It would appear that the first defensive constructions of the Citadel and walls, provisionally raised on earth and fascine, and been collapsing due to the effect of damp and rain, making the whole southwest part of the enclosure penetrable in the case of an attack, with consequent risk.
Modification of the walled enclosure At this point it should be noted that the construction of the Citadel on its current site required the modification of a good part of the walled enclosure of the city, to adapt it to the new fortress. The old medieval wall, running from the Old Castle (10)
Ibid. doc. no. 8.
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– situated approximately where the Town Hall gardens and the Church of San Ignacio are today – followed the line of the even numbers of the Paseo de Sarasate; and next to the Church of San Nicolás, which was fortified until 1521, stood the gate of the same name. Opposite the Courthouse, where the bastion of La Torredonda was erected, it turned at an angle down the Calle Navas de Tolosa; at the mouth of San Antón was the gate known as Las Zapaterías or La Traición. It carried on down Calle Taconera and Rincón de la Aduana, until it met the tower and gate of San Lorenzo or San Llorente. From there, through the plazas of Recoletas and La Virgen de la O, where the gate known as Santa Engracia was situated, it continued until it formed a right angle with the wall of what is today the Descalzos section of the circular walkway up on the city walls.11 Following the construction of the Citadel, the two new curtain walls were laid out further towards the countryside, taking within the City enclosure everything that is today the Gardens of La Taconera, Bosquecillo, Calle Navas de Tolosa, the Paseo de Sarasate, Plaza del Vínculo, Calle de Estella and Calle Cortes de Navarre. On the Southern front, which was completely demolished between 1918 and 1921, the new gate of San Nicolás opened, situated on the current Avenida de San Ignacio, roughly where the Carlos III cinema multiplex stands today. The Taconera gate, whose arch and pediment were taken down in 1906 to ease the passage of vehicles and carriages, was sited on the other, Western facade, which is still preserved today (though with some alterations). The arch and pediment were reconstructed in 2002. This whole important sector of the walled enclosure, with the new bastions of La Reina or Tejería on one side, and La Taconera and Gonzaga on the other, were first built, as was the Citadel itself, solely of earth, being excavated and packed solid in the ground itself. Hence the urgency there was in 1578 to proceed as soon as possible to encamisar the walls and bastions – which is to say, to clad their exterior faces with masonry stone, giving them the necessary aesthetic finish, soundness and strength. (11)
MARTINENA, La Pamplona de los burgos, pp. 272-274 y 325-327.
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Although Vespasiano Gonzaga had ceased to be Viceroy in 1575, the villagers’ complaints regarding the fortification works continued under his successors Don Sancho Martínez de Leiva and Don Francisco Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Almazán, the latter appointed in 1579. The reason was usually now discrepancies regarding the price for transport and supply of construction materials, especially wood and lime. In 1580 the villages of Anocíbar and Sorauren protested angrily. There appear to have been limestone quarries operating there, because they were made to bring 240 loads of lime for the Citadel and were then set to work building the convent of St. Domingo. The people of Esparza also complained, demanding a ducat for every tree cut down within their limits.12
State of the works in 1581 An interesting account survives from 1581, written by García de Mendoza, which provides reliable evidence of what the state of Pamplona’s fortifications was at that time. This engineer says, referring specifically to the Citadel: “As for the fortification of the Citadel and the City, what Fratín hath evidently set out to do is a very fine thing, and now coming into being. Of the five bastions that hath the Citadel, three of them are without and two within the City, and they gird the two arms that lead to the fortifications and to the City. “There are, in those three bastions which lie without, six fronts of wall up to the cordon, and no curtain wall or casemate to hold any force, either in the one above or the one below. All the rest is of fascine and earth, made by Vespasiano Gonzaga; and being earth, it has collapsed with the action (12)
Pamplona Parliament1580, law 100. Novís. Recop. lib. V, tít. XIX, ley XII.
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of water and time. For this the order could be given to build across the fallen section until the chemise wall that has to go around is complete, and with little trouble the voices saying it is easy to climb up to the plazas would be stilled. And there being suitable lime and stone materials at the foot of the construction, and open foundations, it is well to put them into the work; for one thing, because it would strengthen the terreplein so that it could not fall at all; and for the other it would cause the people to come to the foot of the construction, making much haste through not bringing it twice...”13 After a brief but comprehensive review of the various points of the city precincts, expounding the defects observed and most urgent requirements, he made clear his view that the task to be carried out with top priority was that of “finishing the fortification of the Citadel, which is the nerve of all that Kingdom, and where the few troops of the Castilian companies within it must gather”. At that time the so-called Old Castle, built on the orders of Ferdinand the Catholic in 1512, was still in use. It had a guard of a hundred soldiers, under the command of one of the three infantry captains in the Pamplona garrison. “It is a castle in the old style,” wrote García de Mendoza, “with four towers and very fine walls, which could serve as cavalier to the bastions and curtain wall of the new fortification. It is useful for having artillery and harquebuses, cannonballs, pikes, gunpowder and wheat.”14 As can be seen from this document, in 1581, ten years after the start of construction work, the state of the Citadel still left much to be desired, with the greater part of the wall faces still unclad. The work went on, in accordance with Fratín’s plans and projects, but continually suffering from lack of funds, which meant little progress was made - or, at least, that things was not moving at the speed required for a (13) (14)
IDOATE, ob. cit. doc. no. 9. Ibid.
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frontier town. Besides, the villages carried on complaining and making claims over the low wages paid to the workers or abuses in the requisition of materials, which on occasions amounted to actual plunder.15
El Fratín visits again On 13 November of that same 1584, the engineer Fratín arrived in Pamplona for a second time, with letters from the King to the Viceory Marquis of Almazán, to inspect the state of works and report on the matter directly to the King. On 24 November he wrote the requested report,16 from which we can see that the Citadel was in more or less the same state as described three years earlier by García de Mendoza. “I have found,” he said in reference to the works, “that what hath been done since my departure from here hath been in accordance with the plans and orders that I left by command of Your Majesty, and done well. But I have found less construction than I had expected to find. This is due to there not having been money for it, from what I am told. “The three bastions of the Citadel that face the country, that were clad in masonry before I went, are at the same height and in the same state as when I left them, the foundations having been dug. Another has been built there and is of the same height as the other three. The wall and masonry of the fifth and final bastion are at a height of nine feet from its foundations, including the work that has been done on it since my arrival here, and work continues on it with all due diligence. And I have ordered for more workers to take advantage of this good (15) The 1580 Parliament increased, in Law 10, the price of lime and its transport from 4 and a half to 5 maravedis per theft and from 2 to 3 maravedis per league and quintal carried. In 1590, the Three Estates approved a new increase from 5 to 6 maravedis in the theft payment and from 3 to 4 and a half per league and quintal of carriage. That same year it was ordered that the villages bringing lime should moreover not be forced to contribute their workers or horses if not they were not available (Novía. Recop. lib. V, tít. XIX, leyes III, IV y XVIII). (16) IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, doc. no. 10.
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weather that God hath granted us since my arrival, which is no small fortune for me, according to the custom of this land, although on my way here I had very rainy weather...The terrepleins and moat are as I left them, not one thing has been done on them from that time till now. And although since then I have told them to send for more men to start on some parts of it, because it is important and because the weather may allow it, tomorrow I will begin to dig and lay the foundations of one of the sections of the wall. “As for the houses inside, where it was said the air smelled bad due to water rising there, that is of no account; no pipes will be necessary for such houses, for there is not any water within them, and the rainwater drains off them with ease. Only the pipes for the plazas will need to be made, when it be necessary, as the main pipe was already made before I left; and being well made, it serves. All the other things concerning the said works, both within and without, will continue to have done on them all that best corresponds to the service of Your Majesty...”17 In a previous letter, El Fratín had set out to the King the advisability of demolishing the part of the old city wall that faced the Citadel, filling the moat with the rubble and thus to avoid it serving as a commanding height from which to attack the fortress. Philip II wrote about this to the Marquis of Almazán, instructing him to go ahead if he thought it appropriate. And in another letter to the engineer on 24 November, he ended by saying: “Regarding the demolition of the old wall to make use of the stone for construction of the Citadel, as there is little supply thereof or of lime, it would be well. And as the want thereof hath resided in not having provided money, the order will be given to proceed with sending that which, as hath already been advised, is planned for the fortification of the said citadel.”18 (17) (18)
Ibid. MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 6.
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The following year, 1585, the Council of War urged the King of the advisability of continuing to send funds to keep the construction work moving forward under the direction of El Fratín, who, as can be seen from documents from the period, spent the whole year in Pamplona, personally supervising the works. The sensible decision was also taken to keep the Old Castle standing until the new one – the Citadel – was completely finished, so that the city could, in case of danger, at least count on a defensible fortress.19 However, lack of means meant that shortly afterwards the plunder of its materials began, for use in the construction, effectively converting it into a cheap and convenient quarry which offered the additional advantage of supplying stone that had already been worked and cut into ashlars. On 20 October of that same year, the Viceroy Marquis of Almazán, in fulfilment of the king’s orders, gave an instruction commanding the demolition and levelling out of “garden walls, embankments, cellars and all other things that might harm or prejudice the fortification of this City and of this Citadel.” Around that time, the Calle Nueva was planned over what had formerly been the moat of Burgo de San Cernin. At the same time the old prohibition on building or cultivating land within a certain distance of the wall was renewed, with any application for permission having to be submitted to the judgement of Captain Fratín.
Misused ashlars It would seem that in 1586, or perhaps at the end of the previous year, Jacobo or Jácome Palear, El Fratín, died, to be replaced in the direction of works by his brother Jorge, also an engineer and fortifications expert. In the summer of 1586, work was taking place on the section of wall between the main gate and the San Antón Bastion, using masonry stone from the old castle which was of a different size and spoiled the aesthetic aspect of the wall. The inspector Luis Carrillo de (19)
SHM. Col. Aparici, volume I, p. 181
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Toledo was not pleased. On 28 August he hastened to inform the King: “...Wishing to complete the construction of the curtain wall that joins the gate to the casemate and bastion of San Antón, he hath begun to lay from the middle upwards ashlars that are taken from the Old Castle, in which there is such
Curious drawing from the time, showing the state of works on the Citadel in 1587. AGS
disparity that the said ashlars from the castle are half again as big as the regular ones that hath been laid in all the construction so far. And though I sent to tell him, from the first course that he laid, that it was not to my satisfaction and that he should not proceed with it, he continued with it another day, wishing to persuade me that it would be of better appearance, which is very much contrary to my own judgement – and above that, it is a very obvious repair and unworthy of so Royal a construction. And granted that he might wish to disguise it, as he has tried to do, by laying a course of large ashlars and another of smaller ones, it would have to be through all of the wall and not just from the middle upwards; besides which, on the section of the same wall that corresponds to the Victoria Bastion, which is the other of the two that gird the gate, he is not building in the same style. All of which is of no small consideration, as it is on the face of the fortress where the eyes do first and must fall. And so, while he might use those
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ashlars for the sections of wall facing the countryside as he sees fit, I thought to warn Your Majesty so that the order might be given to desist, as this can now be done with ease and little cost, but not after.”20 And he added this postscript: “So that Y.M. might see with Your own eyes the disproportion in the ashlars I mention above, I enclose a depiction thereof, made by a son of Secretary Aquilón, a very skilful and virtuous boy, in which he resembles his father well.” The drawing the letter refers to is certainly an intriguing piece of graphic evidence, being contemporary with the era when the Citadel was built. It shows the San Antón Bastion and the part of the stretch of wall in which the main gate opens – which is to say, where the Avendida del Ejército crosses today. At the corner of the bastion is a fair-sized square sentry box with a four-pitched roof. In the part opposite the sentry box, Fratín himself, with cape and hat, is personally supervising the laying of a course of ashlars at the top of the parapet. In the moat, people are actively working on the digging and levelling of the land. Soldiers armed with halberds are guarding the workers, while at the foot of the ramp leading up to the bastion, a foreman is punishing a woman carrying a basket on her head with a stick or pole. On the wall adjoining the gate, the draftsman has tried to bring out in great detail the defect being denounced, perhaps slightly exaggerating in the drawing the poor aesthetic effect produced by alternating courses of stone of different widths.21 In spite of it all, the Viceroy cannot have been unhappy with El Fratín’s professional conduct, apart from certain differences of opinion such as that just described. Or so it can apparently be deduced from another paragraph in which he informed the King that "the work is being speedily managed and with customary care, Jorge Fratín attending with much satisfaction so far...”22
(20) (21) (22)
MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 7. Simancas, Mar y Tierra, leg. 212. (Aparici copy in the SHM). Vid. note 20.
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Rival engineers, conflicting opinions In September of that same 1587, the Council of War ruled that the plan previously developed by the late Fratín should be followed. To carry it out, Jerónimo Marqui was appointed master builder. Two years later, the original plans would be burnt when the house he owned in El Escorial suffered a fire. A captain by the name of Venegas was at that time busy trying to find the plans in his archive, which he needed to resume the works.23 It appears work was actively being done on the finishing touches to the San Antón Bastion. A son of Jorge Fratín, Francisco, appears in the documents for the year 1590, signing a report addressed to Philip II on the state of fortifications. He must have been quite young, because he himself admitted that he still lacked the experience and accomplishments of his elders. In the report mentioned he made it clear that at that time the walls of the Old Castle were being lowered through having their tops removed, “her plunder continually being taken to the Citadel”.24 The engineer Tiburcio Espanochi passed through Pamplona at about the same time. As was customary, he wrote his own report on the fortifications. In that document, he listed the defects that he perceived in the Citadel, particularly as regards the moats and foundations of the wall. In reality, beyond the technical judgements and assessments, the report entailed an acerbic critique of Vespasiano Gonzaga, Viceroy at the time work started and who had such a decisive role in the project. The report gave the engineers of the day plenty to talk about, and opinions soon divided into those who were for Espanochi and others who were against him and for Gonzaga. A memorial favourable to the latter essentially said that if there were objections and doubts about his plans and conduct, the first thing to do was summon him and hear his opinion, evaluating his reasons and arguments. It alluded in passing to possible falsifications and manipulations of the original plans by Jorge Fratín and one (23) (24)
SHM. Col. Aparici, t. l, p. 186. Ibid, p. 192.
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other, and also to Fratín the Elder not respecting the guidelines laid down by Gonzaga at the commencement of works: “... Because I am not very convinced that Jácome Fratín followed Vespasiano’s orders very closely; I rather suspect that he altered...”25 As can be seen in the documents, a small secondary moat at the foot of some bastions and walls was being created, something that Gonzaga had not planned, “rather he thought to make a most wide and deep moat, full and clean, that the enemy could never fill, either with their hands or with the ruins of gun batteries. And as for the depth of the moat, Vespasiano assumed that it had to be very, very deep, with limitless water; for besides a great deal having its source there, one of the reasons that drove them to take the Citadel out into the countryside, separating it from the City, was to encompass the source of the water within; for if it remained without, enemies could easily divert it...”26 Espanochi highlighted as a defect the fact that nowhere had the foundations been dug more than twelve feet to the rubble base, which moreover was like ash. He was not familiar with the soil of this region, which, “although it reveals a very thin, soft and loose crust, is like hard rock; and it is not clay, because clay is something different. If it were Clay, the churches and all the houses of Pamplona would not be based on the ground..." Another objection he made was to the insufficient height of the walls and bastions, which he measured in relation to that of the city houses, when it was enough that they were taller than the ladders that might be used in an assault. In another case, it would be necessary to raise them to match the vaults of San Nicolás and the Old Castle, from where artillery could be turned on the Citadel.
(25) (26)
IDOATE, ob. cit. p 83. Ibid. doc. no. 12.
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Herrera’s memorial Another memorial was written around this time, 1592, but in a contrasting spirit to what has just been outlined. Its author was Antonio de Herrera, and it was directed against Vespasiano Gonzaga and Fratín the Elder – not just as regards their plans and the way they were implemented, but even their conduct in general, which does not come out very well in the document.27 The main gate to the Citadel is described exactly as follows: “...it cannot hide what it is; namely ugly, ill-proportioned and of poorly laid soft stone, and its wall has open foundations and is slightly bowed.” Some paragraphs adopt an authentically accusatory tone: “All their words sought to deceive Your Majesty with appearances, giving you to understand that in little time and with little money they had accomplished much, when quite the reverse was true because with much money they were doing little and badly, as can be seen from the work. Consider it all to remedy and repair it, without believing those who praise it.” And further on, he adds: “And Captain Fratín misreported his role, as he is the reason why many soldiers hath died of cold in the Citadel, because their chambers are of half brick, as can be seen, and the higher ones are of half brick and mud; and thus the said chambers are as full of holes as a sieve, as will be seen.” He ended with quite an accurate observation that also features in another memorial of the era: “... It is noteworthy that artillery could be mounted against the Citadel on the Church of San Nicolás, where there are vaults, which was another of the reasons that led Vespasiano to remove to the countryside, and why a country house had to be built in the Old Fortress, with windows put therein and the curtain wall that faces the Citadel being demolished, only for it to be built up again so very thin that it could be demolished by one cannonshot, and that this house serves the Viceroy and his Council, with the expense being passed on to the Citadel.”28 Herrera’s report gave the full names of all those who, to his knowledge, “sustained and supported the said Jorge (Fratín) and his great errors, in (27) (28)
MARTINENA. Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 8. Ibid.
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disservice to Your Majesty and to the royal stonework of the Citadel... And more than 3,000 ducats that the engineer shared out among those who helped him, which part of them was led by Calabrés, also helped to cover over and stifle the truth, so that it might not reach Your Majesty’s ears. And that is how, with deceit, the Fratín brothers have had Your Majesty’s ear, telling you a thousand good things about them and how well they serve you...” As a result of such serious accusations, the Court Marshall started proceedings against some of those who seemed most implicated in the affair, in which it appears there must have been some very murky schemes and dealings.29
Philip II visits the works On 20 November 1592, on an official visit as we would say today, his Catholic Holy Royal Majesty Philip II came to Pamplona. It was two in the afternoon when the regal procession arrived at the gates to the city, where they found waiting for them the aldermen wearing their civic robes for the first time, the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, the leading knights and a great multitude of people, eager to see in person the most feared and powerful monarch in Christendom. The event had an appointed chronicler in the person of Enrique Cock, a Dutchman travelling with the King’s retinue who combined in his person the disparate functions of scribe, papal notary and archer of the royal guard. This curious character described the arrival of the King thus: “His Majesty alighted at some tents, whose flaps were raised. Opposite them was the New Castle (alluding to the Citadel), where seventy pieces of artillery were fired, one at a time, deafening everyone with their thunder. This reception took place on Friday 20 November and the town council called out, by order of his Viceroy Don Martín de Cordoba, Marquis of Cortes, three thousand armed men from among its citizens, a thousand of them with lances and the rest with (29)
IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, p. 84.
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harquebusiers, all of whom marched past in sight of His Majesty. The guard of the realm was present at intervals, armed, and on their fast horses...”30 After the military parade – the display, as they called it then – the Viceroy, the Bishop, the Council and the Judges of the Court, Council and Treasury came to pay their respects to the King and kiss the royal hands. The following day, Saturday 21 of November, Philip II wanted to go in person to the Citadel, to see for himself the state of the works that had been costing him so much in terms of time, money and sleepless nights. Cock´s account has this to say about the matter: “His Majesty ordered for a most lovely new castle of thick stone to be built on a suitable site, with bastions, moats and all else that that befits a fine fortress; and of which, although it be not all completed, the plan and form that it will take can clearly be seen.” He goes on to refer to the old castle built by Ferdinand the Catholic, in whose defence the founder of the Jesuit order Iñigo de Loyola would fall wounded in 1521: “There was another old castle which is now near-ruined and does not serve."31 It is clear that on this occasion the Imperial coat of arms which stood over the door of this old military fortress was taken down to be placed at the entrance to the Viceroy´s palace - the now dilapidated Military Headquarters – where in those days the King and his wife Doña Ana of Austria, Prince Don Philip, the future Philip III, and the Infanta Doña Isabel Clara Eugenia would stay. The King stayed in Pamplona until the evening of the 23rd. On Sunday 22nd, the solemn ceremony of the swearing in of the Prince took place, at which he swore before the Parliament to protect and ensure the defence of the fueros (charters) and laws, habits and customs of the Kingdom; and the Three Estates swore allegiance to him and recognised him as the heir to the Crown of Navarre. There were illuminations for three nights, with torches being distributed to the residents. (30) (31)
IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, pp. 27-29. See also Idoate, ob. cit. nota 58. Ibid.
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The documents state that Juan de Landa was commissioned by the Regimiento or town council to paint a regular-sized canvas that depicted “the city with the citadel, in such a manner as it is at present, with a plate upon which to put in the centre a legend telling of the arrival of Their Majesties and Highnesses, and on what day they entered and which aldermen went..."32 Where, with the passing of time, might this most intriguing graphic testament have come to rest, which would have illustrated for us today what the tranquil Pamplona of the late 16th century was like?
Workers in the stocks In 1593 Parliament considered again, as it had done before in 1561 and 1565, the wages to be paid to the labourers from the villages working on the fortifications, as well as to the muleteers and people transporting wood, plaster and other materials.33 Six years earlier, in 1586, the lawful representatives of the Kingdom had raised their voices in protest against the punishments imposed on some labourers working on the Citadel who had been exposed to pubic disgrace in the stocks, restrained with metal rings, “in a very public and insulting place”.34 When it comes down to it, almost every construction of any notable size has in different eras been built on the sweat and countless sufferings of unknown people whose labour makes it possible but who will never emerge from obscurity. The fortifications of Pamplona were no exception to this.
(32) IDOATE, Esfuerzo bélico de Navarra, p. 215 (33) The Pamplona Parliament of 1590 had approved an increase from 7 to 8 tarjas. In 1593 they agreed to raise it to 9 tarjas, an amount maintained by the Parliament of 1596. (Novis. Recop. lib. V, tit. XIX, leyes V, VII y IX). (34) 1586 Pamplona Parliament, law 22. The preamble to the law gave notice of the fact: “After the last Parliament here, stocks and a ring were erected next to the moat of the Citadel of this City in a very public and insulting place. And some persons who came to the works were put therein...by order and authority of the foremen of said works”. (Novis. Recop. lib. V, tit. XIX, ley XV).
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Towards the end of the 16th century The fortress was still not completely built when rumours began to circulate in Parliament about possible secret negotiations with the French to hand it over by treaty, as the expression had it, to the Duke of Vendôme. The malicious rumours reached the ears of Philip II himself, now sick and ailing, who swiftly asked the Viceroy for the particulars of the matter. On 20 November 1594, Don Martín de Córdoba wrote him a reassuring letter: “...it cannot be believed that there can be so untoward a thing as the desire to take the Citadel of Pamplona by treaty; as much for the difficulty of being able to effect it as for the impossibility after doing so of being able to maintain or sustain it.”35 In the last years of Philip II’s reign, the state of the Citadel continued to leave much to be desired, although some considerable progress had been made in the basics of the exterior work. So said the Viceroy Juan de Cardona in 1597. The following year, at five in the morning on Sunday 13 September, the King died in his chambers in El Escorial, at 71 years of age and having reigned for 43 of them. On 28th and 29th of that same month, the Council of the Realm and the city of Pamplona raised banners for the new ruler, Don Philip III of Castile and Navarre. The works would continue throughout his reign, although still without conclusion. We can gain some idea of what health and hygiene conditions were like in the Citadel’s barracks in the last years of the 16th century from the fact that forty of the hundred soldiers who made up the meagre and badly paid garrison died of infection. Illnesses were very frequent, with the military having (35) IDOATE, Esfuerzo bélico de Navarra, p. 130.
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constantly to drink water from the well and which was not always in a fit state, above all in the summer months. A letter sent by the Viceroy Cardona to Philip III on 18 March 1600 gives us a precise update on what state the Citadel was in on the eve of the new century: “...On occasions I have determined what the Citadel of Pamplona requires for it to be perfectly completed, for it lacks a moat and covered approach, which has not been begun, and what I might say of the moat would not be half of what is necessary. Three bastions have no parapets, one of them does and the other has but half of one, so that it cannot easily be said of that fortress that it is well defended. I implore Your Majesty, as it be so much in accord with your service that the fortresses exist in more than just name, that you order the matter to be remedied and send money for it; as that which was sent more than two years ago and indeed very nearly three, has been distributed with all due care.”36 In spite of everything, in the manuscript entitled Floresta Española (Spanish Woodlands), written at that very time, and quoted by Iribarren in Pamplona y los viajeros de otros siglos (Travellers to Pamplona in Centuries Past), reference was made to the two castles that the city had then, saying “that the most modern one is of impregnable design and construction.”37
To the galleys on account of some keys A noteworthy episode occurred in 1603. Every day at nightfall, the corporal of the guard had to go to the palace accompanied by two armed soldiers, to hand over the keys of the gates to the Viceroy. But it so happened that one night, the Bishop’s bailiff requested them to leave the keys with him so they could gallop off in search of the Ongoz priest. The corporal of the guard, who was called (36) (37)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 9. IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, p. 31.
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Soria, handed them over in view of the urgency of the matter and the fact that he was dealing with an agent of authority. It was absolutely the wrong thing to do. The Court Marshall considered his recklessness a grave offence and punished the trusting corporal by sentencing him, as the person responsible for handing over the keys, to four years’ rowing in His Majesty’s galleys, "because they passed through the City that night in the hands of a citizen.”38
Works proceed Meanwhile, works were moving forward under the direction of Fratín the Younger, who, on 1 October 1604, reported on the latest developments to the King: “Sir, Don Juan de Cardona, Viceroy of this Kingdom, has provided some money, with which construction of this castle hath continued in its most necessary and urgent parts; and I have thus almost completed as far as their parapets three bastions, one that faces the City and two towards the country, and also a wall that looks to both the city and countryside; and I have completely finished the guard post of the Socorro Gate but for the bridge, on which I am now working. I lack the money to complete the aforementioned, as the Viceroy cannot provide me with any more, having already done much, and more than any other Viceroy... And as Your Majesty well knows the border this castle lies on, and the need it has of repair and completion, I will not plead any further the need for this money...”39 We can gain a fuller idea of what the Citadel looked like at the beginning of 1608 from a plan entitled An Account of the Fortification of Pamplona and What Remains to be Fortified, found among the documents of a meeting of the Council of War held on 20 March. The fortress is represented from an aerial perspective, as it would be seen from a flying object situated above La Taconera. The main gate has the same features as today, but with a drawbridge operated by chains and (38) (39)
IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, note 62. MARTINENA, Ob. cit. doc. no. 10.
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The Citadel in its original state, according to a plan from 1608. IHCM
levers, and a fixed bridge with an exterior guard post and another drawbridge. On the turret, which already had its gallery of little arches, there was a flagstaff in the shape of a cross, and the royal banner of Castile. There were still no exterior ravelins or half-moon fortifications. The bastions have their present-day layout, but with square sentry boxes at their respective outside angles. There is no Socorro Gate. Instead, there is a fountain in the moat, with two basins above it and a little hut. Inside the enclosure, the buildings are organised around a central circular plaza. Some plots have yet to be built on and the largest and longest
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buildings are right beside the interior terrepleins of the curtain walls. Next to the San Antón Bastion can be seen the old medieval church dedicated to the same saint, which would remain encompassed within the Citadel post-construction as the first chapel the fortress had. It appears to have had a little belfry for its bell. The original of the plan, which was unearthed more than thirty years ago around the town of Idoate, is kept in the Simancas archive, and there is a twentiethcentury copy in the Servicio Histórico de Madrid (Madrid History Service).40
A stockade around the moat On 15 May 1608, Philip III issued a Royal Decree from Aranjuez, stipulating that until the works were finished on the moats and parapets, the exterior perimeter of the fortress should be surrounded by a wooden stockade. “I have been informed,” said the King, “that for the Citadel of this City to be well guarded and to assuage the warnings and apprehensions of scaling or incursion that might arise while the moats are being dug and the parapets raised, it is advisable for a stockade to be erected around the verge of the covered way that faces the country; which, with a patrol along its interior in summer and at moments of apprehension, would certainly offer great security; and it could be made of beech, as that is durable and in plentiful supply in this city, growing by the river below; and at half a real (old Spanish coind worth a quarter of a peseta) each one, nails and timber would not cost 500 ducats.”41 Things evidently looked much more straightforward from the Court than from Pamplona, because the Viceroy Cardona, in a letter dated 20 August, painted a less encouraging outlook: “... I have made a reckoning of the distance at which the stockade has to be put, around the Citadel as well as where the city wall remains to be (40) Simancas, Mar y Tierra, leg. 701. (Aparici copy in the SHM). (41) MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 11.
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built... and it is clear that, the said stakes having to be twelve feet high from the ground, they need to go down into it to a depth of at least five, which is sixteen feet in all; and ones of that size cannot come or be brought from the river because of their length, and it would cost a great deal to bring them by oxen, for they will be substantial; and as the beech from these woodlands germinates in the shade, it very soon rots and putrefies, as experience shows with the trunks that go on this river for firewood, which, if they are left in the river for six months waiting for it to rise so they can be carried, being so heavy, arrive in a rotten state and of no use to the people who bought them to burn; and it is sure that the stakes, which will not be so substantial, having to be five feet below such humid earth, with rain on them for eight months of the year, would rot as soon or sooner than the trunks. And experience has shown, in a quantity of stakes that the Castilian Pedro Fernández de la Carrera had brought here for the Socorro Gate, that they could not be brought by the river because they would have to float there waiting for the water to rise, and to avoid such inconvenience he had them brought by oxen, and he had to put much stout oak with them, so that when the stockade was finished, the expense was such that a bridge could have been made with what he spent."42 In view of all these inconveniences, the Viceroy was not in favour of wasting the money from the royal exchequer on building the stockade, but rather of spending it on the excavation of the moat and, with the resultant earth and limestone, proceeding with construction of the covered way and its parapet: “The money to be spent on this,” said Don Juan de Cardona, “should be spent on what is most necessary and will last forever, which is on digging out the moat; and with the limestone taken from there and with earth and fascine, the covered way might be made with its parapet of eight feet high. And that would be done with the first money that Your Majesty ordered to have sent for the said construction, so that with what on the stockade would (42)
Ibid. doc. no. 12.
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be wasted in thirty years, would come to be built the much needed road, a permanent and perfect work.”43 The Simancas archive has a letter from Gaspar Ruiz de Cortázar, who in that year of 1608 was in Pamplona as keeper or governor of the fortress. It demonstrates the zeal that those military men put into their service to the King, above and beyond the specific sphere of their professional activity. It bears the date 22 September and refers to the plan that the Parliament was then nurturing to establish a university in Pamplona. It says, after referring to the imperfections with which he still charged the Citadel: “I am given to understand that this Kingdom aspires to build a university in this City, which it seems to me would bring no little inconvenience should they succeed in their intention; as this Citadel having the qualities I describe, it would be a great impediment thereto, for there would be a great tumult of people, and among them, Gascons and other vassals of the King of France, which is not a good mixture to put together with those who still cannot have forgotten the milk on which their ancestors were suckled; and the students, being young and restless, are open to novelty and easy to stir up, and as this castle can suffer no other detriment greater than treason fomented by the natives and residents, no recipe more capable of such an effect could be found than the students being restless and rebellious besides; and in the frontier towns, where it can be presumed the enemy who seeks to do harm must feel at home, efforts must be made to suppress the opportunity, as that is the main cause that moves the minds that are corrupted, and the mixture of soldiers and students is of great concern to frontier towns...”44
(43) (44)
Ibid. MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 13.
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More from 1608 Along with this letter, a plan signed by Francisco Palear Fratín was sent to the Court, headed Plan of the Castle of Pamplona. This document is of great interest from the viewpoint of the city’s urban history, because it not only includes the plan of the Citadel in its original state and the wall facades of La Taconera and San Nicolás, but also shows the old walls of the medieval enclosure, with the bastions of La Torredonda and San Llorente, erected in the time of Charles V, and the Old Castle, built by order of Ferdinand the Catholic between 1513 and 1525 and partially absorbed later by the bastion of La Reina or Tejería. The plan indicated the advisability of demolishing two demi-bastions situated at the intersection of the city moat with that of the Citadel, “where 2,000 men could gather, without the castle being able to attack them”. Once these were got rid of, the curtain walls were to proceed in a straight line until they met the covered way and esplanade between the fortress and the houses of the town. According to the plan, water covered approximately half the surface of the moat, the rest being dry. The accompanying text proposed “to continue the little moat that faces the country, and with the earth that is taken from there to build the parapet of the covered way, because there is earth nearer to the castle than can be used for its interior terreplein and the expense will be less.”45 From that same year there is in the Simancas archive another document relating to the stockade referred to above: “Prompted by what Don Juan de Cardona hath written about the risks to the Citadel of Pamplona and possible fears that hostile neighbours might attempt an ascent or incursion, and the Council having received this same warning through other channels...the order was given to build a stockade around the verge of the covered way, on the part that faces the country, which, with a patrol along the interior in summer and at other times of apprehension, would be able to ensure security.” (45)
Simancas, Mar y Tierra, leg. 706. (Aparici copy in the SHM).
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A pole in the Citadel In those first years of the 17th century, the custom began to be introduced whereby travellers visiting Pamplona, and particularly foreigners, were shown the Citadel, without it being realised that they were often in fact spies or informers who subsequently gave detailed accounts of the defensive and military features that they had had the opportunity to observe on their travels. Others, if truth be told, found their plans backfired and far from obtaining any advantage from the visit, were relieved of their luggage as they wandered about trustingly observing walls and bastions. That was what happened, for example, to the Polish nobleman Jacob Sobieski, father of King John III of Poland. This figure relates, in the account he wrote of his voyage, that finding himself in our city in 1611, he visited the Citadel accompanied by the owner of the inn he was staying in; and how the innkeeper’s wife and daughter took advantage of the opportunity to steal the money he had put for safe keeping in the wardrobe of his chamber, using a spare key. When he discovered the theft on his return, the crafty women, making out their innocence, “began to shout in Biscayan, which differs as much from Spanish as it does from Polish”. The matter having been reported to the Viceroy, the bailiff turned up at the inn and the thief was soon discovered. But the story had an unexpected twist, as the protagonist himself recounts: “That night, one of the Bishop’s servants came to me and begged me in his name not to insist on death for the innkeeper’s daughter, promising me that the next morning the Bishop would return all the stolen money to me." And so it was. But in spite of it all, the Polish traveller was not reconciled with the city or its people. And he concluded his account with these bitter words: “Leaving Pamplona at the earliest opportunity, I didn’t even look back.”46 What impressions of Navarre must he have recounted on returning to Poland?
(46)
IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, p. 35-36
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Drinking water from the well We can gain some idea of the conditions in which the soldiers of the garrison lived in the first third of the 17th century from the letter sent to King Philip III by Gaspar Ruiz de Cortazár on 23 March 1613: “When Your Majesty granted me the favour of this castle and I came here, I found that the fountain which used to be within it had dried up, and the soldiers therefore sustained themselves with water from the wells, for which reason there were many illnesses among them. And those who were well attempted to leave. And so that they might not all go and leave the castle with no-one in it, the remedy was taken of not allowing the soldiers to leave, and so they were locked in for more than two years, with none but the officers leaving the castle."47 In spite of the troops having to suffer these hardships, the condition of the fortress had improved considerably, it seems, judging by what was garnered in reports dating from a few years later. All that was lacking, in Cortázar’s view, was water in the moats: “... And with this being the best finished and perfected wall of all the castles that Your Majesty has in his Kingdoms, the largest inconvenience that this castle suffers is not having water in the moats, but only in part of the Bastion of San Antón and throughout the Bastion of La Victoria and in part of the Bastion of Santiago; all the remainder is dry and ladders could be brought close with great ease. ... Where there is water now, the moat has not been deepened, and there is therefore a large accumulation of water, which looks like a large river lake."48 In 1628, a bizarre military man from Granada called Don Jacinto de Aguilar y Prado was in Pamplona, at the time of the San Fermín festival. He gave the printers a curious account of the festivities and solemnities with which the city honoured, then as now, the Glorious Patron of the Kingdom. In this brief treatise, written in a Baroque style, both hyperbolic and Gongoresque, it is said of the (47) (48)
MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 16. Ibid.
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walls and citadel: “Everything is fortified with strong walls, garrisoned by three Spanish infantry companies who are always present on guard. It has one of the finest castles known in Spain, with many artillery pieces and a hundred well-paid soldiers.”49
The danger from neighbouring France At the end of June 1633, the Lord of Bertíz sent to the Town Council a verbal message from the Viceroy Marquis of Valparaíso to the effect that, in the face of the imminent danger of a rupture with France, "it were necessary that this Kingdom be very well prepared, and in particular, the work on the citadel or castle of Pamplona finished. And that, in view of His Majesty and his Royal estate being very stretched, he asked for his part that the Kingdom take responsibility for finishing it at its own expense or at least helping with some part of it. And that the Council arrange this using the most moderate means possible, with regard to the fact that, beyond being in the service of His Majesty, it would be of use to and in the interests of the Kingdom, being for its defence and that of its inhabitants.”50 The Council sent Don Ramón de Aguirre to the palace with a note in which they politely excused themselves, pleading the shortage of means that the town coffers suffered from. The Viceroy, who was doubtless expecting this, already had on the table a royal decree from Philip IV, dated 29 June, in which the King ordered him “carefully to inspect the state of the fortifications of those parts and see what will be necessary to fortify and repair in each one”, trying of course to do everything – or at least the greater part of it – with money contributed by the Kingdom, so as not to burden the already very exhausted royal estate even further. As soon as he read the note from the Council, by way of reply he had the letter from the King handed over so that the councillors be made aware of it. For their (49) (50)
IRIBARREN. Ob. cit. p. 38. AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 7
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part, once they were informed of its contents, they agreed to a reply insisting on the poverty of resources which resulted from the continual donations that they had been making - especially the 400,000 ducats contributed during the Viceroy Count of Castrillo's time, and the 20,000 they gave annually in barracks and sales taxes, which had left the town councils in debt and many Navarrese destitute. They closed the document declaring that, apart from everything that had been set out, the Council lacked the legal authority to take a decision of such magnitude without turning to the Parliament that it represented and to which it would have to give an account of its administration at the end of its term of office.51
An interesting piece of graphic evidence In the Simancas archive there is a plan of the Pamplona Citadel, sent with a letter from the Viceroy Marquis of ValparaĂso on 15 December 1635, which in my opinion constitutes the most reliable graphic representation of all those made in the 17th century. The exterior perimeter of the fortress is shown surrounded by a wooden stockade or palisade. The main gate presents the same facade as it does today, with its gallery of little arches on the turret. It is reached by crossing a wooden bridge with a sentry box at the opposite end. Outside, at the gate to the palisade and next to another sentry box, a halberdier stands guard, while two others watch over the way to the moat and the enclosure of the plaza. The interior is represented with great simplicity. Near to the entrance, by the San AntĂłn Bastion, stands the building of the old church and house of the same name, where the governor lived. The buildings are organised around a central circular plaza with a line of trees. Closer to the terreplein of the curtain walls, there are several buildings with triangular bases, destined to be barracks, (51)
Ibid.
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Aspect of the Citadel, with its inside buildings and surrounding stockade, according to a drawing from 1635. AGS
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warehouses and gunsmiths’. And where the explosives store is today, there is a curious construction built on a floor-plan shaped like a balloon or drop of water. Next to the Real Bastion stands a well with its parapet and pulley. And there is plenty of available space, still to be built on. The Socorro Gate did not exist, rather a sort of wooden platform or ramp to go down to the moat, and facing it, a sentry box with its guard.
The Count of Oropesa, driving force of the works At the beginning of 1644, work on the fortifications of the plaza and Citadel was going on under the direction of Dionisio de Guzmán. As had happened on previous occasions, the villages were turned to for manpower, with the services of 20 foremen and 1,000 labourers requested. On 12 January the engineer sent an account to Madrid saying, among other things: “All the moats of the City and castle are dry and very low, and they cannot be dug deeper nor can much earth be taken therefrom as it is limestone, which is such hard soil that little can be done even with picks; and the remedy of this difficulty that I find and judge best is to build said stone counterescarpment in the moat, with a thickness of five feet and height of twenty, which will come to be of use with moats of this depth.”52 Among other very necessary projects, Guzmán had pending the construction of four half moons in the Citadel moat to complete his defensive lines, finishing the gunpowder tower so the explosive material could be kept conveniently, without risk or humidity, and fitting out the barracks to hold 1,500 men. It was also urgent to undertake the cleaning of the wells and to place stone covers over them so as to conserve adequate water reserves. We can see, from a letter sent by the Marquis of Valparaíso to Secretary Tapia in August of that same 1644, that only one of the five half moons planned for (52)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 17. A document from the same year says that the city garrison consisted of 150 soldiers. The 90 in the castle did not receive their pay, which meant that “most of them are naked and begging”. (A.G.N. Guerra, leg. 3, carp. 90).
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the moat was finished and that they were anyway turning out to be unsatisfactory due to their limited dimensions. In his opinion, it was necessary to consult the Count of Oropesa and Captain Jerónimo de Soto, who at that time was to be found directing the fortifications of San Sebastián and Fuenterrabía as chief engineer. From what can be seen, the other four half moons were just made of earth resulting from the excavation of the moats, but without being clad in stone or banked up inside.53 The Viceroy Count of Oropesa reported on 15 August on the works that had been recently carried out on the fortifications of Pamplona. Regarding the Citadel, he said: “The gunpowder tower in the castle is finished, of stonework and flagstones, proof against bombs.” This tower appears to be what we know today as the oven, whose fate was sealed with the construction of the current magazine in 1695. “In the castle, the counterescarpment remains to be built in the moat, and it is important that it be of stone and of the necessary dimensions...; to finish banking the four curtain walls...; to build the parapets of the three bastions and the two curtain walls, and to complete a small communicating gate that has already been begun.”54 Another contemporary account kept at Simancas lists “the work that has been done in this city and castle since his lord Count of Oropesa came to govern this Kingdom". The document adds some new information about the then recently built magazine: “The gunpowder tower in the castle is finished, so that the powder and munitions be safeguarded with stonework that is proof against bombs and panelled within, with much charcoal beneath the boards so that it be better preserved, with its very fine piece of a roof to this end.” (53) (54)
IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, p. 89. MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 18.
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Other, more minor construction work and repairs had also been carried out: “The castle’s sentry boxes and guardrooms have been re-tiled and repaired, and a stockade put opposite the main gate, and other very urgent remedies.”55 On 18 October of that same year, Dionisio de Guzmán sent to the Court a full report,
The bomb-proof oven in 1970, with adjoining buildings. AMP. Arazuri Coll.
clearly and precisely setting out the state in which the different facades making up the city enclosure were to be found, with the defects observed in walls and (55)
doc. no. 19.
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bastions, and the most necessary and urgent tasks listed. The report was accompanied by a plan in which the attention points were marked with letters. Referring to the Citadel, it says: "Of great importance are the five half moons purposed for the moats of the Citadel, of which there is already one made of soil and turf, marked with a C. To me they are all small, and in my opinion it would be advisable to make them more capacious. As for the other things that the report advises remain to be done in service of what has been built in the City and Citadel, as they are terrepleins, casemates, gates, moats and suchlike, it is as well to continue with them, and give them priority among the additions, for they are the most important and without them the construction cannot operate. And all things should be made of brick, to which that soil is well suited and which is more appropriate than earth for the batteries.”56
The termination of the works The Simancas archive contains a report from the following year, 1645, by one of the most prestigious engineers of the day, P. Juan Carlos Lasalle. Like the authors of previous reports, he was in favour or giving priority to work on the Citadel, “for to lose her is to lose the town and not the other way round”. In his opinion, the curtain walls and bastions – from what can be seen still not completely finished - needed to be finally closed up, and the moats given the required width, depth and arrangement, with a counterescarpment and covered way as prescribed by the maxims or general principles of fortification then prevailing. In the explanation of the plan accompanying the report, and which he sent to Court on 1 June, Lasalle included the costs foreseen for the work he proposed doing. To do the half moons, one of which was to be situated in front of the main gate and the other between the Real and San Antón Bastions, 1,200 ducats had been (56)
IDOATE, ob. cit. doc. no. 13.
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Main gate to the Citadel around 1925. Engraved in the stone is: “THE YEAR 1571 BEING VICEROY AND FIE LD MARSHALL IN NAVARRE AND THE PROVINCE BESPASIANO GONZAGA COLONA, DUKE, MARQUIS AND COUNT”. AMP. Arazuri Coll.
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estimated. The ten bridges that were to be placed on the five half moons would work out at about 1,000 ducats. The stone counterescarpment that was to be built along the whole perimeter of the moat would require 8,700 ducats. Other items of expenditure referred to “putting the earth that is lacking in four curtain walls and the five bastions”, “the stonework of the casemates, of three curtain walls and two bastions, to form the parapets” and “adapting the barracks”. The Socorro Gate is shown in the plan, close up against a flank of the Santa María Bastion, and the five half moons that were to be finished and made fit for use sat in the middle of the moat, each one facing one of the facades or stretches of wall.57 It seems that in that same 1645, with the construction of the exterior half moons, work on the Citadel was considered to be over. In the first edition of this book I noted that to commemorate the occasion, the three shields that can still be seen there were placed over the main gate: at the centre, in the place of honour, was that of the royal arms of the Spanish crown - Castile, Leon, Navarre, Aragon, Naples, Jerusalem and Hungary, plus the escutcheons of Portugal and Burgundy and Granada at the tip. On either side, the coats of arms of the two viceroys under whose command the works received their final push: Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Portugal and Monroy, Count of Oropesa, appointed in 1643; and Don Luis de Guzmán y Ponce de León, appointed in May 1646. And a stone that is still visible on one side of the turret over the door is engraved with the strange figure 16456, which in my opinion needs to be interpreted as a correction: 1646 instead of 1645. However, evidence which has subsequently come to my attention would indicate that the shields, and probably also the year inscription, formerly adorned the facade of the vanished Tejería portal and, following the demolition of this in 1918, were salvaged and placed here in 1926 for safekeeping. Such relocations of shields and other items brought from elsewhere and therefore alien to the (57)
Simancas, Guerra, leg. 1592. (Aparici copy in the SHM)
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Copy of Juan Bautista Martínez Mazo’s “View of Pamplona”, painted by Manuel Pérez Tormo, a gift from Mr. Jesús Rubio and García-Mina, Minister of National Education to Pamplona
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town council on the occasion of the exhibition Velázquez y lo Velazqueño, occured in Madrid in 1960. AMP
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monument, if not properly documented by means of an explanatory inscription, end up leaving a false trail that can confuse the historian.
Royal visit of Philip IV The year 1646 is noted in the annals of the city for the special occasion of a royal visit. On 23 April King Don Philip IV of Castile and VI of Navarre arrived in Pamplona, accompanied on the trip by his son Prince Don Baltasar Carlos, there to swear allegiance to the Fueros (Charters) of the Kingdom and, for his part, to be sworn as the rightful heir by the Three Estates. Following the custom, he was received with all the ceremonial characteristic of such occasions at the portal of the Taconera Gate by the Regiment or Council, Viceroy, Judges and all the other ecclesiastical, military and civil authorities. To mark the occasion, the painter Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, the great Velázquez’s son-in-law, created a “View of Pamplona” which appears to have hung for many years in the now-vanished Regio Alcázar (Regal Palace) in Madrid, moving, following the fire there, to the new Palacio Real (Royal Palace) built on its site. It must have been a magnificent painting, because in the old inventories it appears valued at 100 doubloons more than the widely famous view of Zaragoza by the same artist. The master paintbrush of Velázquez himself might possibly have touched it, as he was with Del Mazo in Pamplona at that time. Sadly, the original painting is today given up for lost and is only known from copies that are little more than mediocre. One version is kept in England, recovered from the “intruder king” Joseph Bonaparte after the Battle of Vitoria and given to the victorious Duke of Wellington by Ferdinand VII. Possibly more than one copy is derived from the sketch for the vanished work. In Pamplona Town Hall there is a reproduction made by Pérez Tormo, a gift from the Minister of National Education, Don Jesús Rubio García-Mina, to mark an exhibition on Velázquez and his world, held in Madrid in 1960.58 The painting shows the arrival of the regal procession at the esplanade that then existed in front of
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the main gate to the fortress. The Victoria and San Antón Bastions can be perfectly made out (though the latter with slightly blurred brushstrokes), as can the moat, the main gate with its turret, the drawbridge and ravelin. On one side, part of the Santiago Bastion. Above the wall, some of the buildings inside the enclosure can be seen sticking up. On the first level, there is a most curious gallery of men and women in period dress, adding life and colour to the composition. A few are strolling, others chat in pairs or little groups, some dance with hands joined and the rest are content to witness the passing of the carriages. The mountain ranges of El Perdón and Alaiz provide the background. In the upper part and crowning the painting, two chubby cherubs hold aloft, in the middle of a Baroque cloudscape, the shield of Navarre wrapped around with a garland. It is recorded that at the same time, an obscure local painter called Lucas de Pinedo painted another canvas, probably more modest, but which, if it had survived, would today be of undoubted interest as a graphic testimony. The Town Council paid him for this creation the sum of 30 ducats from the city coffers.
A new church Once the purely defensive works had been completed with the final touches to the walls, moats and bastions, thoughts turned to providing the Citadel with other buildings that were not specifically military, but necessary for the daily life of the garrison in its various aspects. The original fortress chapel was the old medieval church of San Antón, which had lain at one end of what was then the Taconera meadow, and which was absorbed within the enclosure when Fratín and Gonzaga opted for that site.59 (58) (59)
DEL CAMPO, Visita de Felipe IV a Pamplona (1646). Un cuadro testimonio. Navarra. Temas de Cultura Popular, no. 259. MARTINENA, La Pamplona de los burgos, pp. 310-313
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Although the Antonian order was expropriated and compensated so that they could build a new church and convent with the money on what from then on was called Calle San Antรณn, the viceroys decided not to demolish it, thus saving the royal estate the expense of starting the construction of a new chapel in the citadel.
Inscription commemorating the construction of the old Citadel chapel in 1648. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (J.L. Prieto)
In the mid-17th century, the stonework of the old church must already have fallen into disrepair, which explains why in 1648, when Luis de Guzmรกn Ponce de Leรณn was Viceroy, a new one was built near to the main gate. Like the old one, it too was dedicated to San Antรณn. It was medium-sized, in the Baroque style of the era, set over three naves separated by square pillars.60 But the builders committed the error of not bomb-proofing, which would later be noted as a defect in many plans and reports. Besides, the high brick tower that was added to the most prominent part made an easy and dangerous target in the event of (60)
We have a perfect idea of its ground-plan thanks to a plan from 1765 kept in the SHM in Madrid and its external appearance from some elevavations made around 1725 of all the blocks and buildings inside the citadel.
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bombardment. Attached was a small vestry and house for the vicar and verger. On the main facade, over the door, a stone plaque was placed with the following inscription: IN THE REIGN OF PHILIP THE IIII OF THAT NAME, D. LUYS GUZMAN PONCE DE LEON, VICEROY AND FIELD MARSHALL OF THE KINGDOM OF NAVARRE BUILT THIS CHURCH AND TRANSFERRED TO IT THE INVOCATION OF SAINT ANTHONY OF ABAD FROM THE OLD CHURCH OF THIS CASTLE, WHICH IN THE YEAR OF MCCCLXVIIII WAS CONSECRATED BY DON MARTIN DE ZALBA, CHAPLAIN CARDINAL, BISHOP OF PAMPLONA, WHO WITH THE HOLY FATHERS VRBANO IIII, MARTINO IIII, GREGORIO X, VRBANO V, INOCENCIO VI, ALE XANDRO IIII, ONORIO IIII AND GREGORIO XI GRANTED A PARDON OF A YEAR AND ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE DAYS TO ALL THE FAITHFUL WHO MIGHT VISIT DEVOUTLY AND GIVE ALMS THEREIN. IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD MDCXLVIII. The church was built in 1648, and following its demolition in the last years of the 19th century, a covered exercise ring was built on the site, which was in turn demolished as a result of the Citadel coming under the municipality of Pamplona.
Two distinguished travellers: Brunel y Bertaut In 1655 the noble gentleman Antonio Brunel, Lord of Saint Moritz, visited the city, accompanied by another, Dutch nobleman, the Lord of La Plaatte. In the account that he wrote of his journey,61 he attested to the courtesy shown towards them by the Viceroy, at that time Don Diego Benavides, Count of Santisteban. Following a custom that was fairly deeply rooted in that era, he sent an officer to accompany the distinguished strangers on their visit to the Citadel. (61)
IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, pp. 50-51
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“It is a fortress of five bastions,” noted Brunel, “that Philip II took great pains to build as a defence against attacks by the French. The bastions are clad in stone and the moats are very splendid and in places full of water...They say that it is all upon rock, and although it be the most important city of the kingdom and the only one that can prevent the French from reaching Madrid should they cross the Pyrenees, it is not very well garrisoned. The fortifications are in need of repair in many places and the garrison is paltry, as there are very few soldiers; and to make good the deficiency, they force the peasants of the vicinity to present themselves at the first summons they give. “So that we did not find it so wanting in everything, they had a good number of them come, who mixed with the real soldiers, but it was easy for us to recognise them, for besides many of them not appearing to have wielded a sword before, very few of them carried one, making do with a simple musket or an old pike; and they carried these so poorly, that it was clear to see that they were more used to handling the hoe than arms." As he went round the interior of the fortress, our visitor’s attention was attracted by the hand-driven mill, which could also be operated by horsepower, where the wheat was milled to make the garrison’s bread. “The largest machine of its kind that I have ever seen,” he wrote in his account. On the parapets they observed the paucity of guards and artillery pieces, their attention especially taken by a culverin with the royal arms of France and the initials of Francis I engraved on it. Prudence dictated that as foreigners they were not shown the arsenal, so Brunel could not gauge the number of cannon the Citadel had at its disposal. “That has its own governor , who is appointed directly by the King. He was absent and we were received by his deputy, who lavished great hospitality on us. After we had been round the town, he conducted us to his quarters, where he fêted us with afternoon tea, with rather better intentions and gallantry than good fare." Four years later, in 1659, another French nobleman, Francois Bertaut, Lord of Fréauville and councillor of the Rouen Parliament, passed through Pamplona.
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He also wrote a chronicle of his journey, in which he did not omit the customary reference to the fortress:62 “There is a citadel of five stone-clad bastions, which wants for nothing, save in the interior where there is no terreplein. There is also a great plaza between the Citadel and the city, which does not have walls on that side.” According to his account, he was not allowed to visit it at the first attempt, as there was no officer available at that moment to accompany him. “There were no officers in the Citadel and they did not let us enter, telling us to come back the following day. I believe it was due to the small number of soldiers that were there...” As might be imagined, the General Staff of the King of France would at any given moment be perfectly well informed of the defensive possibilities of Pamplona, thanks to the numerous spies who, in the guise of travellers, pilgrims and things of that nature, continually came in and out of the city, observing to the tiniest detail anything that could be of interest to the neighbouring country.
Money for the walls On 20 May 1665, Philip IV, very close to death, replied by letter to a memorial the Council had sent to him on 29 March, requesting that whatever might exceed the 80,000 ducats offered by the Kingdom for the needs of the Crown be applied “to the fortifications of Pamplona and to closing the walls of the city”. The King made it clear that the whole amount was already committed to defraying the costs of the Royal Armada, which was about to set sail. Besides, His Majesty was given to understand “that 100,000 reals have been allowed for these fortifications from the resources and allocations destined for them and (62)
Ibid. pp. 52-53
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that they will soon be in that Kingdom; and so I send to order that the Duke of San Germán uses that sum to work on those that be most necessary; and if anything should be found wanting afterwards, it will have to be compensated from my Estate...”63 In those years a great deal of activity was certainly rolled out on the fortifications of Pamplona, but directed principally at the walled enclosure of the city rather than the Citadel. Around then the magnificent gates of San Nicolás and La Taconera were built, with their elegant baroque facades, and the Bastion of La Tejería was finished. This was later named La Reina (The Queen), no doubt in memory of Doña María Ana of Austria, Queen Regent on the death of Philip IV and during the minority of her son Charles II, who was known as “el Hechizado” (the Bewitched).
Necessary works in 1669 At the beginning of 1669, the prestigious engineer Don Amador de Lazcano was in Pamplona, carrying out an inspection of the state of fortifications and studying the existing needs of and possibilities for improving the enclosure. In his report, which is dated 26 February, he says in reference to the Citadel: “... And as the Castle, which is the soul of this body,” (referring to the rest of the city) ”is short of earth, as much in the bastions as in its parapets, and in the moats there is more than enough earth, it should be taken from there, as much to make them deeper as to raise with the same quantity the parapets and as much as possible the bastions, using and applying the remaining earth that can be taken for the gaps in its covered way, of which it be so necessitous, as a city which does not have its covered way in good order cannot be said to be placed in a state of readiness to defend itself. And its parapet and banquette should (63)
AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 8
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be made of stone, because in any other form, such as turf or adobe faced with plaster or lime, it then sinks under the dreadful rains of winter. And because at the same time it is advisable to build everything that is left outstanding in this city of stone, as the rest of the walls are, there still remain all the verges or counterscarps of the moats of the Castle and City, widening some and deepening almost all of them, putting the earth on the covered ways to cover the walls, mainly those of the Castle, which are even more exposed than those of the city, and finishing the half moons that have been begun...so that, everything being of stone, it can defend itself against the inclemency of the weather and stand firm whatever the circumstances. Your Majesty might provide in consideration that, in the most secure peace, these works are most necessary, and in the most doubtful, quite inescapable...”64
The eternal penury of the Royal Exchequer On 31 August 1670 the Queen Regent wrote a letter to Don Diego Caballero, reminding him of the need to provide funds to go towards the most necessary fortification works in the City and Citadel, as well as the sustenance of the hundred soldiers and eight gunners of the fortress garrison. “The city of Pamplona and its castle,” said the royal missive, “are Spain’s fortress, on whose defence hangs the fate of the whole monarchy for good or ill...” According to the calculations that had been done, it was believed that 6,000 silver ducats would be enough to cover everything for one year. The Queen therefore bestowed power on the Viceroy so that he could, in her name, distribute rewards of jurisdictions, privileges and honours to the cities, towns and private individuals of the Kingdom who made generous financial contributions to the needs of the Royal Exchequer.65
(64) (65)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 21. AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 9.
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The Viceroy informed the Council on 16 September so that they might be appraised of the matter and, for their part, make the declarations they considered appropriate. Indeed, in their reply, the representatives of the Kingdom stated that until then nearly 160,000 silver ducats from the donation agreed in 1665 had been handed over, as a result of which their houses and estates were in debt and town councils without means, not to mention the constant fear of invasion, given Navarre’s border situation. And that most unpromising situation could become desperate, if towns as well as individuals decided to spend their meagre wealth on the purchase of titles and honours. For all those reasons, they asked that there was recourse to other means of raising funds.66 In those years of the second half of the 17th century, resorting to the powers granted to the Viceroy to hand out royal gifts and favours for money proved an effective and productive method for the Royal Treasury when there was not enough for the fortifications or other war necessities from the total contribution or donation provided by Parliament. The Kingdom sometimes even increased the number set, with the effect of suspending or neutralising this prerogative, thanks to which towns became cities overnight, nobles were created by ordinary legal process on their estates and simple gentry folk saw their houses elevated to the status of ancestral palaces. The Three Estates protested against this abuse on numerous occasions, but not always with favourable results. The Royal Treasury could not bring itself to kill the golden goose which, in exchange for high-flown honours which were little more than sealed sheets of paper, quickly filled their coffers with the hard currency of good doubloons, ducats, reals and maravedis.67 Around this time, Jean Hérault, Lord of Gourvilles, visited Pamplona. He later wrote that on recounting his impressions of the journey to Minister Louvois, “I (66)
(67)
Ibid. In a letter dated 22 September the Viceroy told the Council to use its powers with great care and moderation. In spite of that, he did not cease to use his influence at Court to prevent new honours being handed out for money. MARTINENA, Navarra, castillos y palacios, pp. 125-128.
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told him that Pamplona was no good, and that its citadel, the only fortress that I saw, was built on the Antwerp model".68
The engineer Rinaldi’s report The engineer Jerónimo Rinaldi was in the city in 1672, inspecting the state of the fortifications. In the report or account that he sent to Madrid on 28 October of that year, he wrote regarding the Citadel: “...what is most necessary is to restore this Castle to perfection, because the loss or preservation of the whole Kingdom of Navarre hangs on its loss or preservation; and there is no reason and nor does it serve Your Majesty to fail to put it in a fit condition to resist any enemy attempt.” “This castle has three very large shortcomings: the first is to have the walls of the enclosure so high, and the parapets so thick, that two castles of the same size might very easily be made with the surplus material...” That caused quite a serious disadvantage in case of attack: “The closer the enemy stays to the covered way, the better hidden will he be, and with little trouble will he succeed in breaching the wall without it being possible to stop him.” “The second shortcoming is that, facing each curtain wall, a half moon has been built solely of earth, but of so little capacity that there is not room for twenty men therein...” “The third is that the Socorro Gate is formed close up to one flank and does not have more than a single defence on the other flank. And the bridge is built on (68)
IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, p. 58.
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masonry pillars, so that the enemy will have the best part of the gallery made for him, with very little work, and he will finish it without it being possible to obstruct him.”69 The engineer’s plan for remedying as far as possible the defects listed was, in the first place, to lower the height of the walls and bastions as far as the cordon, while at the same time reducing the thickness of the wall on the parapets and embrasures. With regard to the half moons or exterior defences, they ought to get rid of the five that there were, one at each facade, "as useless and doomed, from having so little capacity" and build just two, larger and more solid, clad in stone, "one to cover the main gate of the Castle and the other, that of the Socorro.” As for the Socorro Gate, which at that time was situated, as the report says, close up against the flank of the Santa María Bastion, Rinaldi proposed that it be closed up and re-done, but situated “in the middle of the curtain wall, so that it might benefit from the defences of both flanks, and in such form as it does not offer cover to the enemy and let him gain the castle, without possible remedy”. The stone for these proposed improvements would simply come from what was left after lowering the walls and bastions to the level of the cordon: “...making use of the material that will be taken out to build the parapet of the covered way and clad the two half moons that are to be built in front of the two gates; and also making use of the earth that will be taken out to complete the Castle terrepleins."70 The Council of War gave the go-ahead, with a few refinements, to Rinaldi’s report, with the projected cost of the works and arrangements for their immediate execution working out at 123,774 silver reals. “All these works, which are to lower the wall and rebuild its parapet, the covered way with its parapet and redoubts, and the two stone half moons; to build the (69) (70)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 23. Ibid. doc. no. 24.
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Socorro Gate in the middle of the curtain wall, removing the present one; to build the two gates to the two half moons with their drawbridges and portcullises on their gates, all with the necessary tools, will cost one hundred and twenty three thousand, seven hundred and seventy four silver reals, valued by the old materials. Not included in this is the excavation of the main moat, nor that of those belonging to the half moons, the cost of which cannot be set due to the varying hardness of the soil.”71 On the carrying out of the works it was decreed: “That it be entrusted to the Viceroy to make public to those that it concerns with the aid of the ministers, with the conditions that must be fulfilled, and that they award that which be of most benefit, offering security in the customary manner.” Which is to say, that the contract was put out to public auction and awarded to whoever presented the most advantageous proposal, subject to the relevant guarantees. That was the usual system in contracting of that type, and is still normally used by the administration in our times. To complement his account or report, Rinaldi drew up a plan of the Citadel, in which are shown the casemates and low places at the angles where the bastions meet the respective stretches of wall; the half moon planned for in front of the main gate, with two wooden communicating bridges, and the Socorro Gate one, which was to be moved to the centre of the curtain wall. It stands there today, the move having been realized many years later. The plan does not include any graphic representation of the buildings inside the enclosure. An appendix contains a cross-section of the wall, with its moat, covered way and parapet.72
(71) (72)
Ibid. Simancas, Guerra, leg. 2,286. (Aparici copy at the SHM).
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Banfi, Domingo and Menni In 1676, in the face of a possible invasion by France, the Council informed the Viceroy that the Citadel lacked artillery and supplies, and that there was no chance of obtaining more resources from the population because – in the words of the document itself – “they have been plundered for donations”. The representatives of the Kingdom had therefore agreed to address a petition to the King, asking him for 24,000 ducats for their most urgent needs. In February, Charles (Carlos) II answered the petition by granting the amount requested.73 In that period, the Viceroy Count de Fuensilada ordered the carpenter Juan de Urrizola to cut 15,000 stakes in the mountains of Lanz, Ostiz, Anué and Ulzama, along with 1,800 oak timbers, for the stockade and other of the Citadel’s fortifications, “without paying a thing”, and without the communities affected being able to prevent him in any way. Parliament compensated the grievance in 1684, nullifying all that had been done and ordering that there be no future consequences. The Peace of Nimega, signed in 1678, came to represent a brief interlude of peace with the powerful neighbouring country and offered a little breathing space in the ever urgent and necessary tasks of fortification. In 1681 the engineer Banfi came to Pamplona to write a report on the walled enclosure. The following year, Don Francisco Domingo y Cueva came and drew a plan of the fortifications of the city and citadel, which was sent to the King with a letter from the viceroy Don Diego de Velandía on 6 August 1682. From this plan we see that all that was finished was the external half moon by the main gate, “clad in stone and lime”; the other four, located by the facades towards the Castle Surround, still lacked stone facing.74 The esplanade for the covered way had also been done. All that remained was “to finish levelling and complete it”.
(73) (74)
IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, p. 92. SHM. Col. Aparici, t. XIII, pp. 409-466. The original of the plan is kept in Simancas, Guerra, leg. 2,543.
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Another engineer sent to our city in that period was Maestre de Campo (the rank just below Field Marshall) Octaviano Menni, whose report is dated 30 March 1683. It says, regarding the Citadel (which it calls the Citadela in the Italian style): “On the outside part, the moat is flawed, so that it is possible to enter and leave from all sides, for want of a counterscarp around it and its half moons, which must need facing, as do the counterscarp and parapet of the covered way, which wants for everything, and the erosion of its earth into the land, so that the half moons and facades of the bastions leave it exposed.”75 A letter from the Marquis of El Conflans sent to Madrid on 25 May 1684 goes into the same points in great detail: “...The four half moons of the castle that face the country are of earth and ruined by the rains, and they cannot serve as defence, and it is necessary to clad them; and the half moon at the main gate of the castle needs to be extended and completed, as it not in a perfect state; and the same diligence must be applied to the covered way and the castle moat, where the building up of some missing curtain walls is also unavoidable, and once these works have been done..., it will be possible to move on to the other fortifications.”76 With the aim of saving the Royal Treasury some expense, it was at that time required of people who came to Pamplona with carts and horses that, “lengthening their journeys, they carry earth for building up the bastions of this City's castle, as well as other loads for the fortifications", without paying them anything and causing them damage and delays. Infraction of rights being claimed in Parliament in 1684, the Viceroy stated that those affected had provided the service willingly, each one carrying just one load; but that if any had been forced into carrying, they would be paid accordingly.
(75) (76)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 26. Ibid. doc. no. 27.
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From Conflans’ letter we know what the true state of Pamplona's garrison was at that time. According to the official roster, the city ought to have had three companies of 300 soldiers each, and a staff of 400 men was allocated to the castle or citadel. Well, according to Conflans’ letter, “in the three companies there are only two hundred and twenty men, among whom there are some invalids, and in the castle there are but fifty soldiers.”76 bis
Fortification of the Castle Surround and the Vauban system The year 1685 sees an important landmark in the annals of the Citadel, with the construction of new exterior defences. Since its initial construction, the fortress had been surrounded by a moat dug out of the earth, two thirds dry and without a counterscarp, and which Philip III ordered to be surrounded with a wooden stockade skirting its whole perimeter. Round about 1680, the exterior defences still amounted, as we have seen, to just a few small and feeble half moons. They were made of earth and had no stone facing; and almost all of them had been ruined by the rains and inclemency of the weather. Only the one defending the main gate was faced and had been improved in recent years. In view of that, the Viceroy Enrique Benavides de la Cueva y Bazán, following engineer Don Juan de Ledesma’s report, undertook the construction of a whole system of half moons or ravelins on the facades facing the Castle Surround, the aim of which was to protect the fortress from a possible attack from outside the city, increasing its defensive capacity and making it harder for the enemy to advance.
(76bis) Ibid.
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Ground plan of the Citadel with the design for new half moons drawn up by Don Juan de Ledesma in 1684. AGS
These exterior fortifications, which due to their serious deterioration are being restored throughout the current year of 2010, are clearly related to siege warfare systems generically known as Vauban after their creator; who, during the reign
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of Louis XIV of France, overhauled the techniques of military engineering originating in the Italian Renaissance that had dominated until then.77 Two half moons or ravelins were built on the facades situated between the Bastions of Santiago and La Victoria, towards the Taconera section, and between the San Antón and Real Bastions, on the section where the San Nicolás gate is. By contrast, as the curtain walls running between the Bastions of Santiago and Santa María, and between the latter and El Real, were more exposed to attack, not only were half moons built there, but these were also protected by broad counterguards surrounding their two facades and thus boosting their defensive ability. Juan de Ledesma’s original scheme, according to the plan sent to the Council of War on 26 January 1685 (and which is kept at Simancas,78 only envisaged the building of four new half moons, without counterguards, and keeping the stonefaced one that already existed in front of the main gate, despite it being smaller than those planned. A report from the Council of the Kingdom, sent to Viceroy Benavides on 10 March 1685, gives us a reliable picture of the state of works on the four half moons at that tim.79 Referring to the Santa Lucía one, which was excavated and reconstructed in 2006 when the new bus station on Calle Yanguas y Miranda was built, it says: “This half moon is finished, and half of the stone and other (77)
(78) (79)
Numerous authors have, on describing the Pamplona citadel, made reference to its fortifications corresponding to the Vauban system. Commenting on a text by one of them, Fco. de Paula Mellado, Iribarren noted: “The construction of the Citadel was begun in 1571. Vauban was born in 1633 and died in 1707. The citadel could hardly have been built according to his first defensive system.” (Pamplona y los viajeros, p. 173, nota). The explanation is, as we have seen, that the fortress’s whole exterior system of defence dates from 1684-86. The new fortifications are therefore fully contemporary with the distinguished siege scientist and can be considered related to his defensive systems, as the military engineers have often maintained. Iribarren himself records it at the foot of plate 29 of the work cited. MARTINENA, Documentos sobre fortificaciones, doc. no. 28. The original plan is kept in Simancas, Guerra, leg. 2,650. (Aparisi copy in the SHM in Madrid). IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, doc. no. 14.
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Coat of arms and inscription commemorating Viceroy Benavides, placed on one of the counterguards on the Vuelta del Castillo (Castle Surround) that were built in 1685. AMP. (J. Cía)
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materials has been brought for work on the counterscarp and gorge; and what remains to complete it has been extracted in the quarry, at the foot of said works”. On 22 and 27 of October the previous year, 1684, work had been contracted on the respective sentry box, counterscarp, gorge and parapet. The excavation of the moat, the deed for which was signed on 7 November, was also finished. As for the next half moon, facing the Castle Surround, and the one next to that, defending the Socorro Gate, although the Kingdom was committed to having them and their counterguards finished by those dates, “the harsh winter storm did not allow to continue; more than the half of it is built, and all the necessary materials near prepared.” Work on the excavation of their moats had been contracted on 8 November and 3 December 1684, and on the counterscarps and gorges to both on 22 December. The last half moon, Santa Ana, which was closest to the Taconera portal, where the pediment of the old military baths was, stood very nearly finished, “as the officer is but waiting for the resolution of what height it must be and for good weather to complete it, the materials being provided. And for its gorge and counterscarp the half of the stone and other materials are prepared at the foot of the works and the remainder extracted from the quarry”. The deed of obligation for excavation of the moat was drawn up and dated 3 December and that for the counterscarp and gorge, 17 February 1685. The Viceroy’s coats of arms, carved in stone to be placed on the wall of the half moons, had their commemorative inscriptions written out in capitals before the notary on 5 January 1685 for a sum of 150 ducats, with the perfectly finished work due to be handed over by the end of May. When the report we have been referring to was sent on 10 March, two of them had already been done and the sculptor was very far advanced with the other two.80 These shields, quartered to display the arms of the Viceroy’s two lineages and crested with a marquisate (80)
Ibid.
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crown reflecting his title as Marquis of Bayonne, can still be seen on plaques retaining the following carved inscription: IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II OF CASTILE AND OF NAVARRE VICEROY AND FIELD MARSHALL OF THIS KINGDOM DON ENRIQUE BENAVIDES I BAZAN, OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE. IN THE YEAR 1685.
The Viceroy’s reservations about the new half moons However, in spite of what it says on the plaques, the half moons were not wholly completed during the viceroyalty of Benavides. In April 1685, he was succeeded by Don Ernesto Alejandro de Ligne y de Croy, Prince of Chimay, who in a letter to the King on 17 May appraising him of the state of fortifications, made it clear that one was totally finished and the other three almost there. The fifth one, situated by the main gate, lacked capacity, and in the new Viceroy's opinion it would be highly advisable to rebuild it, as was done shortly after. Chimay’s report said of the Citadel: “The Castle is regular, with five bastions; it wants terrepleins in some places, which could be made with the very earth that is to be taken from its moat, which also requires to be deepened and for a counterscarp, which it lacks, to be placed there. It also being necessary to adapt the proportions of the parapet, because in its current triangular form it is contrary to best principles, as it should form a trapezoid with a height of five or six feet within and four without, and in any other wise it will not be able to resist the Artillery... It is also necessary to make the store houses bomb-proof, so that the munitions are safe and without the danger that usually results from their being in one place,
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given the hurry and quantity with which they are usually loaded; and it would also be advisable to do likewise with the mill and some barracks.”81 With regard to the new half moons, which he called ravelins, the Viceroy raised some objections: “And although I would wish to avoid telling of defects in what has been built, duty requires me to set out faithfully for Your Majesty’s attention what I have observed, and that is that the four new ravelins, of which one is now finished and the other three near done, ought to have been built more towards the countryside, and especially the one that is finished, for being more within the moat than it should be, it does obstruct the shoulders of the bastions opposite; and having learned that it was planned to build the said ravelins six feet higher than the one now completed, I ordered them not to do so, as it would lead to the disadvantage of their being of equal height with those selfsame Castle bastions, which is contrary to all the principles of fortification...”82
Second portal of the Socorro Gate, in 1967. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (M. Clavero) (81) (82)
MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 29. Ibid.
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The Viceroy said that the ravelin or lunette covering the main gate, where Calle General Chinchilla is today, was ineffective, “because its fronts are of no more than one hundred and fifty feet, when they ought to be two hundred and fifty, so as to cover the gate and the curtain wall properly by overlapping it...for which reason, concerned that, in the case of the enemy attacking this City, he could quite plainly seize the Castle before the city and make the first attack from the said ravelin, it seemed unavoidable to me to order the building of another one that covers the gate and curtain wall and part of the fronts of the bastions to each side; which will be in its construction larger than the other four ravelins through having another fifty feet on each of its fronts; and having weighed the matter up, considering the proposed height of the others, they would have consumed only a little less than what this ravelin will cost, which I regard as the most necessary and important of all and which ought to be built first. And I am sure that with the superfluous expenditure that had hitherto been planned and which I am avoiding, all the money provided by the Kingdom would have been used up, and there will now be enough to finish and leave this ravelin in a state of perfect completion.”83 He still proposed some other improvements to different aspects of the fortress: “...I cannot but submit for Y.M’s knowledge and consideration that the Castle parade ground has very little capacity, and that it is necessary to demolish some houses, so that it be made as large as possible. The Socorro Gate is next to the flank, and for that reason has no other defence than what is opposite; its bridge and the others of the Castle and the City are on rather thick stone supports and these give cover to the enemy, and it were therefore better that they be of wood, as they could be burned as required or removed more easily than those of stone. It is most advisable to work on the covered way, that of the Castle as much as of the City, demolishing an existing part on account of the imperfection it suffers, as it is the first line of defence against the enemy.”84
(83) (84)
Ibid. Ibid..
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Change of engineers The Viceroy’s report ended with some harsh criticism of the two engineers who were at that time assigned to Pamplona: “Nor can I conceal from Y.M’s Royal Attention that I have found two engineers in this City, one of them being Juan de Ledesma and the other Octabiano Menni, and that I cannot and have not been able to use either of them, because Ledesma is notoriously unskilled in the art, to which must be added that in the time of Don Enrique de Benabides, he was so gravely humiliated in a public quarrel that in the Military order, which is so attentive to matters of honour, he cannot obtain access to superiors or even be accepted by the soldiers. And Octabiano Menni has been sick since I came here and I have not seen him, and I have been informed by reliable sources of the imperfections with which the fortification of San Sebastian has been realised, where he attended, and I have seen with my own eyes those that were planned and have been carried out here under his direction; and to those reasons I might add another no less damaging to trust, which is that of some words that he uttered, less respectful than befits a good vassal of Your Majesty.” To substitute them, he proposed having Don Esteban Escudero brought from San Sebastián, “who enjoys my complete confidence, very well versed and with great intelligence in the art of engineering; who is assistant to the Commissioner General and has a salary of 50 escudos...and with this the salary of 160 escudos that Octabiano Menni enjoys could be saved; and with what will be saved from that of Juan de Ledesma, Miguel Gascó will be able to come, also now at San Sebastián and a most satisfactory and intelligent person.”85 Escudero’s main contribution to the citadel was to add the Santa Clara and Santa Isabel counterguards to the half-moon bastions drawn up by Ledesma. They were built in 1689-91 when the Duke of Bournonville was Viceroy.85 bis
(85) Ibid. (85bis) ECHARRI, Las murallas, p. 297 and 321 (no. 26).
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The Kingdom’s contribution The work on the exterior defences of the Citadel was able to be carried out thanks to the generosity of the Kingdom, which was not exactly awash with resources at that time. The Parliament, prompted by Viceroy Benavides, agreed an extraordinary contribution of 30,000 ducats, of which 24,000 was to go to the works.86 Charles II the Bewitched, in a letter dated 22 September 1684, expressed gratitude for the generosity, zeal and loyalty of the Three Estates, while at the same time approving the conditions imposed by the latter for making the payment. One of them was that the quantity agreed did not go to the salary of the chief engineer of fortification works, which should carry on being paid by the Royal Exchequer.87 On 6 October, the Viceroy passed the royal missive on to the representatives of the Kingdom. However, all that money amounted to little in face of the magnitude of the works that had been undertaken. On 31 October, the Viceroy addressed Parliament again, urging them to new economic sacrifices for the walls and Citadel. The King himself had sent 40,000 reals for the most urgent needs, and stipulated that they be increased to 100,000, which was not possible due to lack of funds. The Viceroy therefore beseeched them to increase the contribution “to the amount that might seem sufficient to put this city and its castle in a fit state of defence, as His Majesty expects of the generosity of the illustrious and honourable members of this house.”88 More than two months later, after no little discussion and reluctance, Parliament informed the Viceroy on 11 January of its agreement to increase the previous grant of 24,000 ducats by 10,000. This came under certain conditions, with the warning that the amount should not come out of the treasurer’s coffers until all of the initial allocation of 24,000 ducats had been spent.89 The Viceroy replied the next day, approving the conditions imposed by the Kingdom, and on 30th of the same month the King again wrote a letter of thanks to the Kingdom, signed in his royal hand, and praising the interest it had displayed in his service.90 (86) (87) (88) (89) (90)
AGN. Reino, Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 10. Ibid. AGN. Reino, Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 11. Ibid. Ibid. Las condiciones, en la carp. 12.
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The treasurer Aranguren’s accounts PWe know from the accounts presented in the following years by the treasurer Aranguren that the works began in their first phase with funds from the Royal Treasury. In those accounts the ravelins or half moons were designated with the following names: Santa Teresa, covering the main gate; San Fermín, closest to the Taconera portal; San Saturnino and San Francisco Javier, in front of and right by the Socorro Gate respectively, each with its counterguard; and San Ignacio, closest to the San Nicolás Gate. At first the accounts also refer to the Benavides and Socorro ravelins, which was apparently what San Saturnino and San Francisco Javier were initially called, but which clearly designated the same fortifications. The two half moons of San Fermín and Sam Ignacio were built by the master stonemason Pedro de Azpíroz, the cost rising to 66,875 reals and 3 cuartillos, of which the Royal Treasury contributed as much as 34,630 reals. The other two ravelins and half moons of Benavides and Socorro were carried out under the supervision of the stonemason Domingo de Aguierre, reaching a total cost of 67,027 reals, of which the King contributed 3,000 ducats. Jorge de Ibero made the San Fermín ravelin’s sentry box; those of the three other ravelins were made by Juan de Arrechea, who charged 1,647 reals for three of them. The same masons also built the counterscarps and gorges. Juan de Miura charged 15,616 reals for digging the moat in front of the San Saturnino ravelin, while Ignacio Iguacen and Martín López de Heredia received 21,811 for digging those of San Ignacio and San Francisco Javier and banking up their counterscarps.91 Notable among the lesser items is a payment of 3,000 reals to the assistant Don Domingo Montenegro, “for the excavations that he made in the foundations of the ravelins of Venavides and Socorro” and 1,317 reals and 28 maravedis for digging the San Ignacio moat “in accordance with the measurements Juan de Ledesma had taken, with variations regulated by Pedro La Sala”. Other items
(91)
AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 17. (copy in carp. 19).
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Santa Isabel Counterguard, Socorro outer gates, Santa María Bastion and Citadel moats in 1926. AMP. (J. Galle)
refer to the construction of the parapets; it is also recorded that the sculptor Juan de Miura was given 1,650 reals “for the four shields that he made for the outside of the four half moons”, and the stonemason Matías de Ugarte 32 “for the occupation and job of putting the coat of arms in the ravelin of San Ygnacio.”92 It appears that the last ravelin to be built was Santa Teresa, in front of the main gate of the Citadel, on which the master stonemasons Pedro de Azpíroz and Domingo Aguirre worked. It cost 55,605 and a half reals, from which amount 6,000 reals had to be discounted, representing the value of “the stone from the old half moon”. The gate cost 7,176 reals and 4 maravedis,
(92)
Ibid.
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plus 4,908 reals that were given in materials. On this occasion the sculptor Miguel de Labayen charged 500 reals for carving the two coats of arms that were put on the wall and another 40 for the relevant inscriptions; he took and transported the stone from the mason Juan de Miura for 340 reals. In the sentry box, a cylindrical course of stones was placed, each one with a letter carved on it to form the name of the ravelin. This job was also carried out under Labayen’s supervision. Those stones, which were without doubt removed when that fortification was demolished around 1890, were kept for some thirty-plus years in one of the bomb-proof store houses or vaults, where many Pamplonans had the opportunity to see them, without then being aware of their significance. Labayen also sculpted three stone pyramids, which were placed over the gate, charging 100 reals. For his part, the gilder Juan de Sada received 270 reals “for having gilded the four stones and two signs on the ravelin of Santa Theresa”. 38,000 bricks were used on the parapet at a cost of 1,824 reals. The caprenters Juan de Urrizola and Lope de Goicoechea worked on building the bridges connecting the ravelins with the Citadel gates, and on putting up ladders to make access from the moats easier.
The moat counterscarp and other works There is another book of accounts, presented by the treasurer of the Kingdom, Jerónimo de Aranguren, and approved on 5 August 1687, that faithfully reflects how 11,454 ducats given for the work of building the counterscarp around the moat were spent, along with other complementary tasks that remained pending.93 From some entries in this account it can be seen that gunpowder was used to blast the tufa of the foundations. Work was divided into five sections or zones, each corresponding to one of the bastions of the Citadel, and each
(93)
Ibid. carp. 16.
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assigned to different master stonemasons. Jorge de Ibero took on and carried out the stretch opposite the San Antón Bastion for 11,353 reals and 10 maravedis; Francisco de Ugareta, the stretch opposite the Santiago Bastion for 16,518 reals; Pedro de Ayanz, the one opposite the San Juan el Real Bastion for 15,776 reals; Miguel Yoldi, the one opposite the Santa María Bastion for 14,974 reals; and Juan de Miura, the stretch matching the Victoria Bastion for 13,236 reals.
Outer portal of the Socorro Gate in 1926, when its drawbridge still existed. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (J. Galle)
They also worked on the low places, which were fitted out on the flanks of the five bastions, to increase the number of emplacements for artillery pieces; naturally, there were two platforms for each bastion, one for each flank. Ignacio de Iguacer dug four of them and Juan de Leiza the other six. The paving and masonry took place under Jorge de Ibero, for 320 reals.
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Pipes were also put in for drinking water. Pedro de Ayanz charged 50 reals and 3 cuartillos for “sixty pipes to conduct water from the fountains to put them in the principal moat” and another 244 reals “for importing the stone that was used in the fountain that stands on the counterscarp facing the Real Bastion”. The carpenter Pedro de Arrasqueta was engaged in dismantling and re-building the main gate bridge. Pedro de Azpíroz charged 688 and a half reals for the two stone pillars that he made to support the bridge deck. The wood was supplied by Juanes de Beúnza, Pascual Oyarzun and one other, and the expert reconnaissance was done by Miguel de Abaurrea. A second bridge was made to connect the Santa Teresa ravelin, where the portcullis was, and working on it were the carpenter Arrasqueta and stonemason Miguel de Andiazábal, who carved eight stone pillars. In addition 509 loads of gravel were bought “for the three bridges there are before entering the castle.”94
Repairs to the main gate Other jobs carried out at this time consisted of dismantling the old main gate guardhouse, work done by the builder Martín García de Lasterra, and building a new exterior guardhouse in the Santa Teresa ravelin, for the vault of which 9,300 bricks were used. The third accounts book from those years gives us clear evidence of how the 16,925 reals was spent that was entrusted to the treasurer Aranguren for the stonework of the barrelled vault of the main gate which today opens onto the Avenida del Ejército.95 The work was carried out under the supervision of the master stonemason Pedro de Azpiróz, who charged 5,500 reals. Meanwhile, his colleague Jorge de Ibero was working on the construction of that gate’s new guardhouse, charging 1,210 reals for it. Work was also carried out on the (94) (95)
Ibid. Ibid. carp. 14.
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posterns that lead on to the low places of the five bastions and which they serve to connect with the moats. Juan de Leiza was specifically working on digging the foundations that were to support the vault “in the castle postern which lies behind the Castilian’s house”.
Cannon, vaults and markers for the glacis At this time, following the advice of different engineers, a new set of cannon of varying calibres was brought to boost the defensive capacity of the city and Citadel. The mounts were made by the carpenter Esteban de Urrizola, being subsequently waterproofed with tar brought from San Sebastián by the Viceroy’s majordomo. The master gunsmith Juan de Repáraz charged 882 and a half reals for making up the cases. These artillery pieces included several mortars. Another curious piece of evidence in the accounts is that, in order to clear the fortress’s central parade ground, the order was given to cut down the 21 trees that were there, to be used in subsequent works. The last accounts book in this series presented by the treasurer Aranguren covers the expenditure made with the 34,000 ducats that the Olite Parliament gave for fortifications in 1688.96 It goes up to 1690. One of the works it mentions is the construction of a cavalier or commanding position that was built above the Real or San Juan Bastion, and which can still be seen today. Work also continued on the Santa Teresa ravelin in front of the main gate, "to accommodate the terreplein, parapet and banquette", as well as on its covered way. In addition, construction of the two wings of the guardhouse continued, one on each side of the entrance to the Citadel, with the stonemasons Pedro de Azpíroz and Jorge de Ibero working on them, and (96)
AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 31. (Copy in carp. 33).
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apparently in charge of the bulk of the works. The former was paid 12,854 reals and 8 maravedis for the stone for the guardhouse on the left and its vault, with 14,000 tiles also being used. Another entry mentions a payment of 3.064 reals and 24 maravedis to Sebastián de Huarte, for the “excavation he has done between the store houses and barracks of the castle to build up the vault of the Socorro Gate” and in another part of the enclosure. Aspíroz was given 2,479 reals and 16 maravedis that were due to him “for the stonework and carving that he put on the pediments of the vaults of the storehouse and on the main gate of the castle”. Other entries refer to more minor jobs, but which are interesting to us from different perspectives. Ten officers and two labourers busied themselves with a couple of mules in “painting the openings of the castle tower”, where there had apparently been a fire shortly before. Work was also done on “the two columns in front of the guardhouses of the main gate of the castle” and on the road and paving of the entrance and its small square. The Citadel’s three wells were cleaned up, repaired and covered with carved stone vaults made by the mason Juan de Juanena for 1,166 reals and 13 maravedis. One of these wells was know as “the well of chains”. A tank was also made for the fountain situated on the San Saturnino ravelin’s counterscarp, employing the labour of 36 officers. On the same ravelin three stone sentry boxes were also built, the mason Francisco Inchausti charging 1,200 reals for them.97 At this time the grounds forming the esplanade of the Castle Surrounds were marked out, along with other areas close by the fortification “from the San Lorenço ravelin to the Tejería ravelin” by placing 98 markers or boundary stones made by the mason Francisco de Ugareta for 171 and a half reals – which is to say, at 7 cuartillos for each boundary stone. The aim was to clearly establish in future the dividing line between the glacis or esplanade (97)
Ibid.
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of the walled enclosure and “the parts that are the property of this city and outside it”. Situated at the angle of each bastion, the Citadel’s five sentry boxes were also re-tiled, with the master carpenter Lope de Goicoechea charging 150 reals for this job.
Further contributions from the Kingdom All these works, initiated at the end of 1684 under the direction of Ledesma and Menni, continued from the beginning of 1686 under Esteban Escudero, suggested by the Viceroy Prince of Chimay. This engineer, whose military rank of cavalry captain earned him a salary of 1,100 reals, drew up a new plan that introduced several modifications on Ledesma’s, although in reality it turned out to be, in its general outlines, a continuation of it. Don Marcos Pastor and Don Domingo Montenegro appear in the accounts as his assistants. From 1688 to 1690 three military foremen appear as well: Don Pedro Ruipérez de Orduña, Don Juan de Rogibal and second lieutenant Don José de Etayo. Recorded as substituting Rogibal, who was absent for several months serving the King on other assignments, are the other second lieutenants Don Andrés de Tobar and Francisco de Castro. For its part, the Council of the Kingdom appointed José de Lacoaga as foreman, with special responsibility for the purchase of lime and other materials, besides control over the manner in which they were used.98 In April 1688 Parliament, prompted by the Viceroy Duke of Bournonville, gave an extra 30,000 ducats for fortifications in view of the military preparations that were being observed in France.99 Another 4,000 ducats were added to this amount, offered by the mutually dependent valleys of the Andía mountains to (98) (99)
Ibid. Partidas 126 a 132 de la Data. AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carpetas 20 a 28.
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avoid being sold to Don Diego Ramírez de Baquedano. In March and April of the following year, the main cities were forced to mortgage all their estates and assets so they could raise the total amount agreed, which was handed over at the end of April, “in the certainty that work has not stopped due to lack of money and that it has duly continued". There were also problems with the labourers that the towns had to send, with only 49 of the 200 due to turn up having answered the call, and scribes and bailiffs having to go and summon them. The expropriations also led to conflicts. In July 1689 the Council requested that the Viceroy indemnify, from the money handed over, the proprietors of the lands occupied by the new fortifications of the city and citadel.100 The Viceroy appointed Esteban Escudero to take the relevant measurements, but he roundly refused to recourse to the funds handed over by the Kingdom for the walls “as there will not be enough to finish those of the castle, whose swift completion is of such import". He insisted besides on “not allowing work be done on the glacis of the counterscarp in any part, leaving at least 50 or 60 feet of glacis free, as required, in all parts". In spite of these discrepancies, the Council, in a letter addressed to Carlos II on 20 July 1690, praised the Viceroy Bournonville in glowing terms, because “with his singular intelligence in the methods of fortification, applied to the castle...with the interior and exterior fortifications that have been done, in a state of being completed, so it is able to defend itself according to the manner that war today is waged, being without doubt one of the best castles that there is in Europe.”101 Father Alesón, who continued Father Moret’s Annals of Navarre, elaborated the same idea in his time, when he included in the pages of that work the following paragraph: “... Since the bastion was put up, no enemy forces have attacked from this quarter in a century and a half, while from all others our Spain has been (100) (101)
Ibid. carp. 29. Ibid. carp. 32. At the same time efforts were made to influence the King to send funds with which to finance the city’s external fortifications and moats that needed to be built.
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invaded several times by land and sea. This took a long time, even if the citadel of Pamplona was left in a bad state due to the lack of exterior fortifications, which were not completed until our own. But after that it has stood ever inviolable, as though respect had preserved the integrity of its honour.”101 bis
The new magazine and the gunpowder store At the start of 1690, the accounts kept refer almost exclusively to the works carried out on the enclosure of the city, especially on the facades of San Nicolás, Taconera and Gonzaga, which means that, generally speaking, the defensive state of the Citadel was considered satisfactory.102 The only new build realised in it during those last years of the 17th century was the gunpowder store, which still stands, faithfully restored, and the food warehouse or cellar, redesigned some years later, in 1720, and which is today known as the gunpowder block or store. In a letter addressed to Parliament on 3 September 1691, the King referred to the urgent necessity there was to “build a storehouse for the purpose of keeping separated and under guard the gunpowder and other supplies of war which must be held in reserve for whatever might come to pass”. In view of that, he had given the order to the Viceroy to carry out the work, in spite of “my Royal Treasury” being “as exhausted as is commonly known.”103 The magazine was constructed under the direction of Hércules Torelli, following the model devised by Vauban, and according to the date carved on one of its stones, it was put up in 1694. It is a solid building built on a rectangular plan, with sturdy buttresses on the two side walls, “between which there are small apertures, having a width of three inches, called respiradores, so that the storehouse might breathe and keep the gunpowder dry” and with a stone dado (101bis) Anales del Reino de Navarra, lib. XXXVI, cap. IV pi V. 19. (102) Ibid. y leg. 2, cap. 2 y 13. (103) AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 34.
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in the middle to prevent accidental or deliberate fire.104 The vault is half-barrelled, bomb-proof - able to resist the mortar projectiles of that era, with a maximum calibre of 14 inches - and outside it is covered by a pitched roof. On the main facade, above the door, there is a restrained ornamental detail composed of two pilasters and a triangular pediment, where some shield or commemorative inscription was probably supposed to go but never did; recently it has held a simple sign which says: MAGAZINE OF THE CITADEL. The gunpowder block or store, although redesigned by the engineer Sala in 1720, has an external structure very similar to that of the magazine.
The magazine, built in 1694 by Torelli, as it was in 1970, with its surrounding stone wall. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (104)
PRIETO. La Ciudadela de Pamplona.(Unpublished report kept in the Pamplona Municipal Archive, edited in 1965).
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In January 1692 the Estella Parliament awarded a new grant of 30,000 ducats for the fortifications, increased within a few days by another 8,000, which were meant to go almost entirely to the city walls, not those of the Citadel.105 This time works were directed by Hércules Torelli and Esteban Escudero, who died at the beginning of 1696, with Dionisio de Salazar taking over. Torelli had to considerably modify Escudero’s plan, which is the one that they had been implementing up till then, and this was therefore the source of some tensions. The Viceroy Marquis of San Vicente sought the adivce of the Mastre de Campo Arias and the Lieutenant General of Artillery Pastor, who were of the opinion that Torelli had committed grave and obvious errors, proving himself to be “completely incompetent”. For his part, Torelli dismissed his detractors as inexpert and ignorant in the field of civil and military architecture.106 In December 1695, Parliament came back to give another 30,000 ducats for fortifications, to be paid in two instalments, in 1698 and 1702.107 But the Royal Exchequer could not allow such a delay. In these years the Viceroys acquired successive powers to award favours, titles and honours in the name of the King, to private individuals or communities offering hard cash to the Royal Treasury in partial alleviation of its penury. The Navarre Parliament viewed this system favourably.108 Torelli sent a plan to the Court in 1696 with its corresponding report, in which he put that in the Citadel enclosure there were “some barracks and storehouses for flour, grain, arms and gunpowder”, but that they were not bomb-proof. There was a bomb-proof tower which could serve as a magazine; two bread ovens had been put there and he proposed transferring them to a vault below the terreplein, which was too damp to keep gunpowder in. The current magazine was under construction and was expected to be finished the following year. Tall traverses had been made in the five bastions, still lacking (105) (106) (107) (108)
AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 37. IDOATE, Las Fortificaciones, p. 95. AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 1, carp. 41 y 42, y leg. 2, carp. 12 y 21. MARTINENA, Navarra, castillos y palacios, pp. 126-128. A power went to the Marquis of Valero in 1693, another to the Marquis of Conflans in 1697 and another to the Marquis of San Vicente in 1699. (Fortificaciones, leg. 2, carp. 12 y 21).
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their embrasures. The casemates had to be raised to the level of the covered way, so as not to have an adverse effect on the low places. The four wells that there were, supplied by rainwater, “will be able to hold water, in time of siege, for fifteen days". Torelli proposed making a cistern with enough capacity for an emergency. It was also necessary to properly connect the exterior
Gunpowder store before its restoration in 1972. AMP. (R. Bozano)
ravelins to the covered way. In 1699, on the eve of the change of dynasty that would come in the wake of Charles II the Bewitched’s death, the Marquis of Góngora presented a far from encouraging report to the King on the state of the city’s defences. The larger livestock roamed freely over the parapets and embrasures, causing considerable damage. The garrison – 500 soldiers spread over three companies – could barely guard the six gates and sentry boxes of the wall. The Citadel, for its part, had 250 soldiers and 8 gunners. As a minimum requirement, it was considered necessary to increase troop
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numbers by 100 more infantry and 40 gunners.109 Such was the lamentable scene offered by one of our chief fortified cities at a moment when events were approaching that were going to be decisive for the history of Spain.
Philip V’s engineers. New projects In the Spanish War of Succession, Navarre was a firm supporter of the Bourbon Philip V, Duke of Anjou, against the other pretender to the throne of Spain, the Archduke of Austria. When it was all over in 1714, thoughts turned once again, with the arrival of peace, to undertaking work on the Citadel. But now it would not be a question of improving the fortifications as such, apart from in some small details, but rather attention came to focus fundamentally on the barracks and other auxiliary buildings within the enclosure. At this time the Royal Corps of Engineers was created in Spain (April 1711), in imitation of the French one, a measure which would lead to a notable advance in the field of fortification and military construction in general. The major and minor cartography that has reached us from this period possesses, apart from its high quality and technical precision, an appreciable artistic beauty on account of the fineness of the drawing and the richness lent it by the use of watercolour and coloured inks. As early as 1718 we find working in Pamplona the engineer Francisco Larrando de Mauleón, who signed the plan for improving the magazine; and in 1719 Ignacio Sala, who kept up an abundant correspondence with the Engineer General Don Jorge Próspero de Verbom, and who authored the plans for reforming the granary and wine cellar, later called the gunpowder block; of the bomb-proof vaults on wither side of the Socorro Gate; of a plan to improve the gorges and flanks of the bastions; and of another for a new and artistic facade (109)
IDOATE, Las Fortificaciones, pp. 95-96.
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for the main gate that was never realised. In 1720 Alejandro de Retz drew up an initial general plan for improving the whole fortified enclosure of Pamplona, which it soon became apparent was unrealisable due to its exorbitant cost. Shortly after, in 1726, Verboom himself came to Pamplona, drafting a new and definitive general fortification plan for the city and citadel that would serve as a reference point throughout the 18th century for all subsequent engineers. Although only a few of the best proposals were implemented by him, it was taken as the basis and starting point for some partial plans, such as those for El Redín and the forts of San Bartolomé, El Princípe and San Roque, which were actually realised and in large part survive today. Around that time Pedro Moreau, Luis de Langots and Carlos Blondeaux also began to work; theyhave also left us some interesting plans for different – and now vanished - buildings in the citadel. An early letter from Durán to Verbom, dated 18 June,110 referred to a new fort that was to be put up in the Cruz Negra. Once it was built, the engineer said, “it will be advisable to give the citadel counterguards on the bastions, as indicated in the plan, so as to render it more worthy of respect in the face of the most serious attack; and as H.M. has been appraised of the utility of this type of work and has already approved the plan for them, I shall say no more about the matter, save that the three counterguards on the countryside part must be built first; nor will I utter a word about the new buildings within, indicated in yellow, whose particulars I sent to the Court at the beginning of this year in a personal plan of the Citadel, and whose cost is not included in the aforementioned estimate.”
(110)
SHM, Documentos fortificación, 4-4 – 12-6. Verboom had got in contact with Vauban in 1702, who put him in charge of building several defensive works. Later, in 1716, he directed the construction of the now-vanished Barcelona citadel.
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The new Socorro Gate and the proofing of its vaults Those new counterguards, one each for the Real, Santa María and Santiago Bastions, were never built, though there are plans signed by Luis de Langot in 1724. What was done at the time was to change the siting of the Socorro Gate, which had previously been hard up against a flank of the Santa María bastion, and which was moved to its current location at the centre of the curtain wall. The related vaults were also bomb-proofed. They can still be seen on both sides of the gate, and their plans are kept in Madrid, along with the letter giving an update on the process that Don Ignacio Sala wrote to Verbom on 30 October of that same 1720.111 In it he said:
Original plan of the old and new Socorro gates, and of the bomb-proof vaults built in 1720. AGS (111)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 30.
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“On the first sheet Your Excellency will find the plan of the thirteen underground vaults that I have created in this Citadel, building the Socorro Gate in the middle of the curtain wall after closing up the old gate, which lies very close to the flank, and so the Court may resolve to adapt the fixed bridge or build it again, because the old one is of very little value; and although Y.E. will not find the gate exactly in the middle of the curtain wall, I have had to leave it there so that the gate might open directly onto the passageway between the two barracks.” He was referring to the now vanished San Felipe and Santa Isabel buildings, which then stood next to the interior face of the wall. Regarding the new Socorro Gate then being built, Sala wrote: “The facade of the gate, whose design I have not sent with this dispatch as I have not had the time to copy it, is adorned in a Tuscan order with the Royal Arms in its pediment, and the drawbridge is constructed with a bascule or low counterweight, as Y.E. might infer from the plan.”112 To put in the foundations of the vaults, the engineer recounts in detail how he dug until he hit the tufa “which is at the same level throughout and I have therefore completed my vaults without there having been the slightest movement or break in them, which is a very usual thing in the constructions of this country..." He describes the faults that he found in the way the old foundations were laid, having hit the foundation of the wall on opening the breach “to place the Socorro Gate” and on the wall of the old gate’s tunnel, which made the construction of the last of the thirteen vaults problematic. All that led him to say, in malicious reference to his predecessors, “... I cannot be persuaded that all these things were done through ignorance, want of care or desire to save money, so the motive would necessarily have to be theft...” In the same letter, Don Ignacio Sala also refers to the work that he carried out on the granary or provisions store – what is now known as the gunpowder block – to double its capacity. (112)
Ibid.
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Bomb-proof vaults built by Sala in 1720, on the terreplein of the Socorro Gate curtain wall. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (R. Bozano)
“On the other sheet, Y.E. will find the work that I have carried out on this Citadel’s granary, which previously was a small groined vault, of half brick thickness and, more than that, the central walls and pillars were decidedly not well done; and although it is not easy to join a new work to an old one, I have tried to take all precautions necessary to this end, and I can assure Y.E. that it has been no easy task, but that it has been done to my satisfaction and now, thanks be to God, I have almost concluded it, as well as the underground vaults, which I hope will be completely finished in the coming month, should the weather permit.”113 Apart from these works, which were carried out under his direction and which still stand, Sala planned some improvements to the Citadel’s fortifications which would never be implemented. One of them consisted in modifying the flanks of the five bastions’ low places so as to be able to put a larger number (113)
Ibid.
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of artillery there in case of attack. At the same time, two posterns for each bastion were to be opened “as Y.E. did for the Citadel of Barcelona, and not as in this Citadel, which only has three posterns for several bastions, which, depending on whence the exterior defences be attacked, would make it necessary to go round half the moat of the Citadel to retreat or go to their aid.” He also proposed placing cannon in proof vaults, placed on naval mounts, their mouths sticking out of the wall “so that within there would only be smoke from the vent; and besides these cannon only need to be fired two or three times during the advance, and the problem of smoke in such large vaults would be of very little account". In a subsequent letter, dated 26 December of that same 1720, Don Ignacio Sala informed the Marquis of Verboom that the works he had directed were at an end: “I have now concluded the two main works of the underground vaults and the granary. All that remains is for me to complete some repairs and certain other small tasks.” It would appear that there was also a plan to provide the main gate with a new facade as, according to what the engineer stated to his superior, they had recently requested from the Court “the Architectural facade for the main gate of this Citadel (which is the one that was sent to Y.E. ), there being an acute shortage of money for this as well as for other very necessary tasks, and for which reason I refrain from proposing some.”114 The new Socorro Gate, which as we have seen was built anew on its current site, consists of a segmental arch flanked by pilastered ways in the Tuscan order, which sustain a lintel in which the following inscription can be read, though the last line is today only partly legible due to the stone chipping off: HAEC PORTA AUXILII SURGIT REGNANTE PHILIPPO CERTA OBSESSORUM SPES PATRIAE QUE... S........ US
(114)
MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 31.
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Above, forming the ornamental top of the facade, is a plain shield with the simplified version of the arms of the Spanish monarchy – the quartered shield of Castile and Leon – crested with the royal crown and, in the escutcheon, the
The Socorro Gate, opened here in 1720. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (J. Cía, 1952)
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lilies of the Bourbon dynasty. At the end of the 1970s, as part of the restoration work carried out on the Citadel, the bridges joining the gate with the esplanade of the Castle Surround via the Santa Isabel ravelin and counterguard were restored, their stone parapets put up again and antique paving laid, to great aesthetic effect, even if it turned out to be a little uncomfortable for pedestrians. It must be said that this paving is in fact anachronistic, given that the surface of the bridge deck dates to 1850. Previously it was a simple wooden board, with a parapet also of wood, supported on stone pillars.
The heyday of military cartography The Army’s Geographical Service keeps several plans of the bomb-proof vaults built in 1720 on the inside face of the Socorro curtain wall. One of them shows that two circular ovens had originally been planned between the old gate, where the chapel was eventually situated, and the first of the vaults built by Don Ignacio Sala.115 The same archive also holds another plan of one of the fortress’s five bastions, with the above engineer’s proposal “to increase the gorges and walls of the flanks, building beneath each flank a vault of 15 fuesas (about 32cm) long to house the garrison, provisions and other things in time of siege, with 4 little vaults where various other cannon can be put, which the enemy cannot remove with his artillery or bombardments, and a small gate in each flank.” (115)
SGM. Cartoteca, nos. 391 y 392, with some differences. As Major Prieto made clear in his report on the Citadel, written in 1965, a building was considered to be bomb-proof when it could resist the impact of the mortar projectiles of the time. In the 18th century these were generally not more than 32 cm calibre (14 inches) and they fired 78kg shells. Maximum reach was calculated at 2,800 metres - and firing at 60º, which produced the greatest effect, some 2,400 metres. A 1 metre thick vault was enough to resist these, not exceeding of 6 metres in diameter. Vauban advised in his treatise a thickness of 2 metres. A two-pitch roof was placed above to keep out moisture and leaks.
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The plan contains three variants or different solutions, based on right angles or curves.116
Plan of one of the Citadel’s five bastions, with two designs by Ignacio Sala for enlarging the gorges and the number of embrasures on their flanks. SGE
Plan from around 1725, taking two sheets of the elevation of all the barracks and buildings then within the Citadel. Most noteworthy in this sheet are the main gate with the exterior portcullis and the now vanished Santa Teresa lunette or ravelin. IHCM
(116)
SHM. Plans, no. 1,993. 30.
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There are also other interesting plans of what is today known as the gunpowder block, which then served as a cellar on its lower floor and as a storehouse or depository for provisions in the upper one.117
Plan drawn up in 1720 to bomb-proof the current gunpowder block, which then housed a cellar on its lower floor and a provisions store on the upper one. AGS
Adjoining it, closer to the central parade ground, was the bakery. Others refer to the alteration of the magazine built in 1694, which now, impeccably restored, functions as an exhibition venue, and to the other, more basic gunpowder store which then existed and which amounted to simple little huts with pitched roofs, surrounded by a palisade.118 Another plan is of the oven, the building of which has been preserved, although the ovens as such were taken out when the interior was adapted to its present (117) (118)
SGM. Cartoteca, nos. 393, 400 y 402. Ibid. no. 397.
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use as an exhibition space. From yet another plan from the same period, around 1720, we know what the governor of the Citadel’s house or pavilion was like, built at that time near to the main gate guardhouse, and which already had a ground floor and two upper storeys, one of them a type of attic. The old governor’s pavilion was the house or convent attached to the primitive church of San Antón and which remained standing after the Citadel chapel was rebuilt in 1648. Canon Don Fermín de Lubián, in his Account of the Holy Church of Pamplona, written around 1740, noted this interesting reference: “... It is most necessary to know that the old church of San Antón is what today serves as the parish church in the castle, dedicated to the same saint, and that it was built and consecrated by the Lord Cardinal Don Martín de Zalba. The Antonine convent was attached to it, and I have even managed to acquaint myself with part of the convent house, with a stone stone shield bearing the cross of the saint, and there the Duke of Medinaceli died or was killed. In my time the house was completely demolished, and today it is a small square attached to the parish church of the Castle...”119
The Duke of Saint-Simon and a dish of ajoarriero Around the same time, in 1722, the extraordinary ambassador of France, the Duke of Saint-Simon, visited Pamplona. Following an old tradition of courtesy towards distinguished visitors, he was authorised to view the Citadel. In his account, published subsequently and collected by José María Iribarren in his work Pamplona y los viajeros de otros siglos (Travellers to Pamplona in centuries past),120 the duke put down some brief impressions of his visit: “On awaking,” he wrote, “I requested permission (from the Viceroy) to see the citadel, where no foreigner is allowed to enter. I went there with my attendants the following morning. I visited wherever I chose and I found it most splendid and well tended, as was the garrison, which received me with a presentation of arms and the thunder of cannon. From there we went to see and give thanks to the Governor, (119) (120)
LUBIÁN Y SOS, Relación de la Santa Iglesia de Pamplona, p. 87. IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, p. 71.
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who shortly afterwards came to seek me out again, to bid us goodbye.” It so happened that the Viceroy’s authorisation to visit the fortress meant the French nobleman had to make the sacrifice of first having to partake fulsomely of a serving of Navarrese ajoarriero (cod cooked with eggs and garlic), which he reports had no merit and whose oil was odious; but which, making a show of the proverbial French civility, he felt obliged to try in honour of his host. The Pamplona fortification works continued in 1725, with the area around the Francia Gate and the Redín fortress occupying most of the engineers’ attention. To that end, and so as to be able to call on the necessary manpower, the Viceroy Count de las Torres addressed the Council on 7 August, charging them with levying the towns until they had raised a thousand men to work on the walls.121 The supply of lime and the transport of materials again became, as on previous occasions, a source of tensions and conflicts between the representatives of the Kingdom and the military authorities, fundamentally on account of the prices and salaries to be paid. On 22 December an official letter was sent to the Viceroy asking him to order that payments be made to the towns of the Goñi valley and elsewhere who transported lime for work on the Citadel: the rate was to be a real and a half per 10 arrobas (= 110–160kg), with carriage of 3 maravedis paid for every theft and league of a full return journey.122 For his part, the Viceroy asked the Kingdom, on 7 August, to agree a precaution of having the towns of the region prepare 20,000 fascines or planks for use in the works.123 A new office of Deputy to the Viceroy dealt with payments that had to be made to the people who hauled wood for the fortifications.124
(121) (122) (123) (124)
AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 2, carp. 28. Ibid. carp. 29. Ibid. carp. 30. Ibid. carp. 31.
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The new weapons room and other projects Also dating from 1725 is the planned construction of the new artillery arsenal, which we know today as the Sala de Armas (Weapons Room), and whose ample premises are now used for concerts, exhibitions and diverse cultural activities. The plan, kept in the Madrid military archives, carries a November date along with the signature of the prestigious engineer Don Jorge Prospero de Verboom, who created the Barcelona citadel.125 The plan and elevation show the building practically as it is today, the only difference being that one of the lateral facades has a chamfer rather than a right-angled corner. It also appears that the stairs were initially planned for the central part rather than at one side as they are now. There is another similar drawing for this building, with plan and elevation, with no date or signature but which without doubt is from the same period. It shows small variations from what we have just described. From statements found in documents of the period, we know that the construction of this arsenal took many years – in fact more than twenty-five, apparently due to work having been suspended on several occasions. Another of the Marquis of Verboom’s projects, which he never came to realise, was for an advanced hornwork, which according to the engineer should be built “in front of the Citadel facade formed by the Bastions of Santiago and Santa Maria, with the aim of uncovering the deep terrain that lies in front of the houses of San Juan de la Cadena.”126 This new exterior fortification, had it been built, would have taken up a good part of the esplanade of the Castle Surround, the stretch corresponding to the Socorro Gate entrance. This partial plan, like the previously mentioned one for the new counterguards proposed for in front of the angle of the bastions, and which was not realised either, is filed with the plan and general project for improving the city’s defences that was formulated in 1726. It would serve (125) (126)
SHM. Planos, no. 1,993. 33. The plan for this hornwork, which would never be realised, is also included in Cermeño’s general plan of August1756 and in Daiguillon’s of May 1794. Engineers were referring back to it right into the 19th century.
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1725. Plan by Pr贸spero de Verbom for the Weapons Hall in the Citadel. IHCM
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as the obligatory reference point for successive engineers throughout the 18th century.127
The Weapons Hall in January 1970, prior to its restoration. It was built between 1725 and 1752. Work was much delayed. AMP. Arazuri Coll.
An interesting plan is kept in the military archives of Madrid from 1725, comprising two sheets.128 The first of these contains the elevations, a little schematic if very precise, of the main, side and rear facades of all the buildings that then existed within the enclosure: vaults or bomb-proof storehouses, church, magazine, barracks, blocks, sheds and oven; of which only one has survived to our times. The second sheet covers the structure of the bastions, with their flanks and low places, the main gate with its turret, the guardhouse, the gate of one of the exterior ravelins, a bastion with its (127) (128)
The counterguards were planned by Don Luis de Langots in 1724. There are plans of them in the SGM. Cartoteca, nos. 386 a 388 y en SHM. Planos, no. 1,874. SHM. Planos, no. 1,993, 17 y 21. The 2nd sheet is reproduced on page 105.
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flank and arrangement of embrasures, and several cross sections of the whole fortification. Until the mid 18th century there is an evident gap in the documentation and cartography as regards the Citadel. It appears that no significant works were either planned or carried out. At least there is no evidence that they were. There were just excavations and levelling of earth on the esplanade of the Castle Surround, which started in 1726 and were still going on in 1742. The first evidence of any activity, though not of any special relevance, was in 1751. On 24 November, the engineer Juan Bautista French reported to the Count of Aranda that the pipe conducting water from the Citadel to the enclosure had been finished: “The receptacle for the new fountain in the Citadel has been finished. In accordance with Your Excellency’s orders the waterwheel and its cogs have been repaired and the pipe completed, the
1725 design for the fountain that existed at the centre of the Citadel enclosure. AGS
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water running abundantly this morning to its destination, and the troops and people of the Citadel will be able to enjoy its benefits without hindrance."129 We have already stated that the fortress’s weapons hall or arsenal, the plan for which dates from 1725, would take many years to complete: more than a quarter of a century. In 1752 the Royal Treasury assigned 250,000 reals for the completion of the project and of the Los Reyes ravelin at the Francia Gate, where important improvements were also made in those years.
Zermeño and his plan to remodel the interior 1756 is a landmark year in the history of the Pamplona fortifications, with the arrival in the city of the prestigious military engineer Don Juan Martín Zermeño, who presented King Ferdinand VI with a complete and detailed plan for bomb-proof buildings – barracks, blocks and other auxiliary structures – to be built inside the citadel in place of those already there. All these new constructions added a certain elegance to the essential solidity, while keeping within the sober perimeters of military architecture. In fact, Zermeño’s rationally conceived plan meant a complete realignment of the interior space of the fortress, based on regular blocks arranged symmetrically around a rectangular central parade ground. The original radial structure, with streets leading off from a small central plaza towards the fortress ascents and the middle of the five curtain walls, was therefore to be abandoned. The plan, which in its ambition was without doubt beyond the means of the Royal Treasury, was not given serious consideration due to its high cost, estimated at some eight million reals.
(129)
Ibid. Docs. Fortificación, 4-4 – 12-13.
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The project, along with its corresponding drawing done in many coloured inks and an interesting report, was sent to the Court on 17 August of that same 1756. The description of the Citadel contained in the report is one of the most accurate ever given.130
The Citadel in 1756 “This fortress comprises,” wrote Zermeño, “ a regular pentagon , whose external aspect is 338 and a half Castilian yards. The proper rules of fortification have been observed in its construction, with all its lines and angles proportioned according to the best precepts. There are five high flanks in the bastions, with capacity for six cannon, and low places for two, these being connected by vaults below the terreplein, and there are posterns in three of them or exits to the moat by the rear of the shoulder. In these, which are very robust, there is space enough for three cannon, so that each flank may contain eleven with which to oppose the enemy and defend the opposite face, the moat, covered way and esplanade, it not being easy to evade their fire, in particular from the low places; and besides the high flanks, there is a cavalier in the Real Bastion. “Of the five facades of which it consists, one of them faces the city, the two that adjoin this are to be found where it meets her, flanking her enclosure both within and without, and the two that remain face towards the countryside. In one of these the Socorro Gate is situated, and in the first, the main gate to the city. All have good ravelins to cover their curtain walls, and in front of the two that face the countryside there are counterguards surrounding all of their moat, covered way with parade ground and esplanade. The main enclosure is in good condition and its walls are of the finest construction, all of carved stone. Although of lesser (130)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 34. There are many contemporary copies of the plan. The original, signed and dated by Cermeño, is kept in the SGM, Cartoteca, no. 413. One copy is in the SHM (Planos, no. 1,993, hoja 69) and another the same in AGN, framed and exhibited in the corridor of the upper floor.
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quality, the ravelins and counterguards also have good walls and the counterscarp is faced with masonry, but they lack stairs to connect them, as do all the other exterior fortifications, and the covered way has no parapet or traverses. The esplanade is very low and the ravelins and counterguards that serve to cover them suffer from the same defect. The enclosure as well as all the fortifications are in a state of total abandonment, over-grown with grass, with livestock grazing everywhere, trees planted even on the main part of the parapets, and in the low places gardens have been established, as I have reported; but now everything is being cleared, and is in large part already done.”131 Generally speaking, it is fair to say that apart from the shortcomings indicated, which were more a matter of detail, Zermeño found the Citadel to be in an acceptable state when it came to the fortifications as such. In marked contrast, he judged the buildings inside, even some built in recent years, in an extremely unfavourable light. “Within the Citadel there are several buildings - barracks, blocks and storehouses, and a church; but most of them are so weak and flimsy that they give no cause to make special mention of their circumstances, not one of them being worthy of conservation, above all those that are so costly as to need considerable amounts to be spent annually on their repair, without them being fit to withstand a siege, in addition to their very limited capacity in consideration of the needs of this fortification. “Anyway, there are only two that are useful and worthy of attention. One is the gunpowder store, of sound construction and ample capacity, built but a few years ago; the other, a naval provisions store, currently serves as a granary in its main space or floor and the one below is intended to be a cellar.”132 In this paragraph Zermeño refers to the magazine that is today known as the gunpowder store or block. Of what is today known as the Weapons Room, (131) (132)
Ibid. Ibid.
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1756. Plan by Juan Martín Zermeño to raise the military buildings inside the Citadel anew. IHCM
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completed in 1752, he says: “Although an Arsenal that had been begun has been finished in recent years, it is not worthy of conservation, because in addition to it being small for the Citadel, its floor is so poorly constructed due to the arrangement of its timbers and their want of girth, that the Artillery officers have not dared to load it, as even without this circumstance they are already broken in some places; and as much for this as for its situation, the design would break, and it is advisable to demolish it, making use of all its materials in the works that are to take place.” With regard to the vaults built thirty years before in the curtain wall of the Socorro Gate, and which still survive practically as they were then, Cermeño said: “In the curtain wall between the Bastions of Santa María and Santiago, there are different proofed vaults, below the terreplein, which were built many years ago; but there having been deposited in one of them (so it is said) a quantity of live lime, it soaked up the humidity and with the force of its fermentation burst the vault that it was in, and the ruin thereof damaged those that were close by, which are underpinned, and all of them are so damp on account of their little ventilation that they can only serve as stores for things of the type that are not subject to ruin from that cause.133 “There are also two vaults in the main gate which today serve as guard houses and can be useful, as there is another one to the side of those mentioned in the curtain wall of Santa María and Santiago, which was formerly the Socorro Gate." In the first instance, the engineer is referring to the two that were situated on either side of the vaulted tunnel which gives access to the enclosure in the vicinity of the Avenida del Ejército. The one on the right survives intact as it was then, and the one on the left dates to when this part of the wall was redone in 1970, having been demolished in 1890 to allow various military buildings to be put up. The second reference is to the last vault in the Socorro curtain wall, where throughout the 20th century (133)
Ibid.
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the Citadel chapel stood; there was a small pediment in front of its door. It constituted the entry and exit tunnel from the last years of the 16th century until 1720, when the current one was built.
Some buildings that never happened Zermeño’s plan related fundamentally to the military buildings situated inside the enclosure, whose layout was completely reconceived, absolutely doing away with the old radial arrangement. Of the existing buildings only the magazine and provisions storehouse (today called the gunpowder block) were to be kept. Everything else was to be built anew. To begin with, the engineer proposed the construction of five infantry barracks, on a long rectangular plan, formed of vaulted and juxtaposed naves. They were to be just one floor, situated alongside and parallel to each of the curtains of the wall, between the entries to the bastions. Apart from this, starting from the main gate, opposite the guardhouse, a first line of buildings ran perpendicular to the wall: two officers’ blocks; another building for the General Staff, with a residence for the governor of the fortress, the King’s lieutenant and the sergeant major; a church laid out on a Latin cross, with side chapels and endowed with a residence for the chaplains and, to the back, another for the engineers; and two other officers’ blocks. A second line of buildings was envisaged after this first one, integrated into four blocks and arranged with two on either side of the central parade ground. This was to be square, replacing the old circular little plaza. Three of these blocks were to house officers and one of them, furthest to the right, was to be a military hospital. Finally, a third row was planned, comprising just three buildings: a cavalry barracks on two floors; a magnificent artillery arsenal with a central courtyard and simple porticoed facade; and a building for the ovens, with naves to store grain and flour and for making bread.
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“In these proposed buildings,” said Zermeño in the report accompanying the plan, “I have remained mindful of the need to keep costs low, omitting superficialities and eschewing adornments, without depriving them of anything essential; yet without losing sight of the fact that, for all that they are simple, their decoration is an indication of the power of their sovereign owner. Once all these plans had been executed, we could be well assured that it would be one of the best arranged citadels there could be, not having, as indeed it does not have, any defect in its fortification.”134 The reality is that, as far as the fortification as such goes, Zermeño’s plan did not propose any reforms worthy of rehearsing here. It just included one small modification of certain details in the exterior ravelins and counterguards, the construction of stairs in them and caponiers to protect communication with the ravelins across the moat, and the construction of the parapet and traverses on the covered way bordering the perimeter. In spite of it being a much studied plan, and though the bomb-proof buildings proposed in it might be said to have been an inescapable necessity in the mid 18th century, none of it was ever realised. The Citadel continued as it was, and its interior retained its old radial structure with little trapezoidal buildings, until the keys were handed over to Pamplona town council in 1966.
Amici, and a report commissioned by Aranda On 20 October of that same 1756, the engineer Don Jerónimo Amici wrote, on the orders of the Count of Aranda, Director of the Royal Artillery Corps, another report on the general state of the city and Citadel, which generally speaking coincides with Zermeño’s, though adding some details.135 With regard to the Citadel, he begins by lauding “the great aptitude of the man responsible for its (134) (135)
Ibid. IDOATE, Las fortificaciones, doc. no. 19.
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conception , in how well it is situated and in the most beautiful arrangement of both its high and low flanks”. The walls and bastions were in a good state of preservation, apart from the parapets of the low places “which are entirely ruined and some of them occupied by gardens”. The moat counterscarp lacked connecting stairs, as did the ravelins and exterior counterguards, of which he says they are “of much inferior material to those of the main enclosure” and whose parapets were almost buried and did not give a view over the countryside. Of the buildings inside the fortress, whose demolition and redesign Zermeño proposed, Amici says that they were “so feeble and ill founded, that if the Citadel were to come under siege, it would be necessary to abandon it before time, to avoid exposing its garrison to the enemy’s continual fury and to the fatalities that his bombs would occasion, there being no safe place to hide among the ruins”. The only ones that were bomb-proof were the three vaults in the main gate curtain wall, the magazine (“beautiful and very capacious”) and what is known today as the gunpowder block: “two vaults joined together that serve as granaries”. Of the twelve vaults on either side of the Socorro Gate, he says that “apart from being damp, they are thin and feeble on account of their poor material and the lack of girth in their vertical supports, three of which have already sunk, from which it can be inferred that they are not bomb-proof.”136 The report ends with a reference to the two building projects that had then begun with the approval of the Court: the new aqueduct and water tank, and the main gate guardhouse. It says that following a request by Zermeño, both were suspended on the ministry’s orders, as they were not designed to be bomb-proof and because a general plan for all the buildings inside already existed, subject to approval, thanks to Zermeño himself.
(136)
Ibid.
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A plan by none other than Amici is kept in Madrid, dated 1 July 1757 and showing an aqueduct or covered pipe conducting water to a tank behind the Weapons Room. The excess water, by means of a small shaft, passed under the barracks that there were then opposite the Socorro Gate vaults, to clean their common areas, before going on to pour into the moat on the left flank of the Santiago Bastion.137
Other projects in the reign of Charles III In terms of projects, there was a new period of activity between 1764 and 1767, principally under the direction of Don Francisco Llovet. A plan of the Weapons Hall - or artillery arsenal as it was then known - survives from 29 December 1764, which includes a proposal to lower the cornice, substitute the brick floors with wood, and the pillars and beams with segmental brick arches, while preserving the rest of the building much as it was.138 Another plan from the same period contains the floor plan of the Citadel church, built in 1648, with the design for a new residence for the vicar and sacristan.139 The church, according to this plan, comprised three naves separated by pillars; it had adjoining, at either side of the presbytery or head, a bell tower and vestry, and adjacent to the left-hand nave, a long storehouse. The house to be built was also attached to the facade, built on two floors and with a small courtyard at the back, and next to it was a small cemetery surrounded by a fence that formed an angle to meet up with the sacristy wall. Several plans signed by Llovet survive from June 1767, relating to the main gate guardhouse. On one side it was planned to construct a new building for distinguished prisoners and, on the other, a residence for the General Staff officers.140 It appears that the present guardhouse, with its two porticoed huts on (137) (138) (139)
SHM. Planos, no. 1,993, hoja 51. Ibid. hojas 55 and 56. Ibid. hoja 22.
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either side of the small access plaza, was begun in 1756, with work being interrupted at Lieutenant General Zermeño’s request. The earlier guardhouse, built at the end of the 17th century, was situated in the old vaulted entrance tunnel, on the right as you enter from the present Avenida del Ejército. Opposite was the guardroom or military prison. What was being attempted now was the completion of the new guardhouse, but putting both buildings up, two stories each, over its premises. The facades clearly reflect the style of military buildings from the time of Charles III, which always retained a certain baroque air within the traditional martial austerity. Throughout these years, as can be seen, attempts were made to improve the military buildings inside the enclosure rather than the fortifications as such. There is a plan, signed by Carlos Lemaur on 8 January 1774, which shows the new barracks then built next to the Santa Isabel, on the site where the Old Gunsmith’s previously stood.141 It was a simple, long, two-storey building. On the ground floor it had a porch, with wooden pillars supporting a continuous balustraded balcony, also of wood, which served as the upper floor gallery, and to which access was gained via a stairway situated to one side. The barracks was covered by a four-pitched roof with dormer windows.
Report by the engineer don Antonio Zara We know from an account of the military buildings existing in Pamplona, sent by Don Antonio Zara on 21 August 1784,142 that there were five barracks inside the Citadel at the time. The one known as San Felipe was occupied by the recruitment banners of the Irlanda, Milán and Bravante regiments, and had a capacity of 392 beds. The Santa Isabel, which could hold 436, housed (140) (141) (142)
Ibid. hojas 32 and 33. SHM. Planos, no. 1,979 MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 38.
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three companies of Invalids. The new barracks, apparently built in 1773, had capacity for 288; the Victoria, occupied by two detachments of Cavalry and Artillery, for 134. And the one known as the Barracks of the Exiles, should it not serve that end, had room for 78 beds. It indicated that, apart from these, room could be made for 364 more in the thirteen vaults by the Socorro Gate, including “the one which formerly served as a Church”. The ones by the main gate, which had previously served as guardhouse and guardroom, were considered useless “due to the great seepage of water”. Near the gate, below the curtain wall terreplein, there were two more guardrooms, “one of them called the Water because of the great quantity that leaked there, and the other the Friar". The latter, which no longer exists today, was the gloomy setting for the long and cruel agony of a friar of the Victoria Order, who died there, chained in a cage for having supported the Archduke of Austria during the War of Succession. Zara’s account also contains some brief but interesting descriptions of the main military buildings: The provisions store comprises two bomb-proof vaults, the length of the cavity being 46 yards and the width of each one 7 yards and the dividing wall 3 and a half feet. They have a basement and the ridges are tiled to avoid leaks. “The oven is bomb-proof, with a simple building, which part encircles it, for the distribution of bread. “The gunpowder store is also bomb-proof, its ridge tiled; the cavity is 26 and a third yards in length and 9 and a half yards in width; it has the appropriate fence around it. This as well as the oven and the provisions store do not suffer from dampness, on account of being separated from the terreplein and tiled. “The Artillery arsenal is a new though simple building. It has two floors and an attic. Its height is much greater than that of the parapet. On the lower floor are the gun carriages and heavy pieces; on the main one there are shelves for more than five thousand rifles; today there are 2,597. The attic accommodates the light pieces. Between this building and the gunpowder
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store lies another building which serves the same purpose, and next to the San Felipe barracks, another old one which forms a block. The large houses in the Bastions of San Antonio, La Victoria, Santiago and Santa María are put to the same end. The walls in some of these buildings are of wood and but one brick thick and in others a mixture of brick and adobe, but all are covered with tiles. In the Real Bastion there is a shed to protect the carriages of the mounted cannon for salutes.143 “The sentry boxes at the salient angles of the five bastions are large and covered with tiles. In the Santiago Bastion the landlord has gunpowder for sale, and that of the Santa María Bastion was kept in my time as a provisional extra supply for the City, there being room there for sixteen barrels of gunpowder. “The Victoria barracks, the Provisions Store, the two stables with room for 30 beds and the nearby flourmill form a block, though separated from the store, which goes between, by two tiny cul-de-sac alleys. The flourmill is very well conceived: it has two stones, which can be moved by two horses. But it has been so neglected that I believe all the wood of the machine to be rotten, as that building, which has a single-piece roof, has served as a place for the sergeant majors to lay down grass; I do not know if the same happens today. “The church is attractive and quite large, as is the house of the King’s Lieutenant. These buildings are simple, like the barracks. So are all the others, which are called pavellones, and have two floors to house officers and vary in size from large to small. The large ones, including that of the King’s Lieutenant, the Sergeant Major, the Adjutant, the Vicar and two others which serve as a bakery and butcher’s, number five and twenty and form eleven blocks. The small ones number fifteen, two of them without use, and all together they make up two blocks. Some of the large blocks have a basement, but without any vault, which causes harm to the timbers on account of the water which comes in through the loopholes...In general, the walls are of brick and many are only one thick, with (143)
Ibid.
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buttresses to support the corresponding bridges. In summary, the walls are a mixture of stone, brick and, in some cases, medium woods. So that some of them have the true texture of an eggshell, which condition, in part, the barracks of the exiles cannot avoid.”144 There is another account, dated 29 December 1785, of the state of Pamplona’s fortifications and military buildings, which adds little to what we have previously covered. Its sole contribution is the information that the Socorro Gate bridge had still not been built at that time.145 There is yet another report, signed by Don Juan de Villalonga on 19 November 1787 and sent to Madrid instead of the one written by the engineer Cabrer and which Don Manuel de Azlor found unsatisfactory. It has nothing new to say either. In fact, it simply reiterates everything that Zermeño and Amici had previously made clear. Of the fountains in the moat it says that they had not dried up throughout the whole summer; and with regard to the old idea of surrounding the covered way with a stockade, it explains that there were some twenty thousand stakes in the royal storehouses for that purpose.146
The lightning rod and fear of gunpowder With the War against the French Convention that was declared following the execution of Louis XVI by revolutionaries in 1793, Navarre once again lived through moments of great tension, its towns and valleys – especially those of La Montaña – throwing themselves into the usual preparations for war. Although the enemy army came dangerously close to Pamplona, the walls of the Citadel again acted as deterrent and the feared siege never materialised. On 21 April 1794, the Council of the Kingdom requested that General Don Ventura Caro remove the gunpowder from the Citadel to avoid it endangering the vicinity, and take it to the Arazuri Palace or Eulza House.147 It seems there were 2,615 (144) (145) (146)
Ibid. MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 39. SHM. Docs. Fortificación, 4-3 – 1-7.
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quintals (=100 lb) in the magazine and the soldiers refused to have it outside the City when they might need to use it at any moment. In view of that and in face of the danger caused by frequent storms, the authorities organised the installation of a lightning-rod, which was then a relatively novel device, having been invented some forty years before by the renowned Benjamin Franklin. According to the artillery commander Portillo, adequate provision of the city required 8,000 quintals of explosives. The lightning-rod was a source of great fear locally; according to some doomsayers, it would attract the sparks and shocks and could cause a catastrophe that would destroy the town, wiping out its inhabitants. The explosions in the magazine in 1670 and 1733 had still not been erased from the collective memory. General Caro tried to alleviate the Council’s fears in a letter dated 2 May,148 but did not succeed. In its reply, the Council of the Kingdom insisted on spelling out the dangers, including the possibility that a prisoner or some chance accident could cause a disaster. If a move was agreed, the Council was committed to transporting the gunpowder as necessary in a single day, using 200 horses and resorting if required to mobilising the inhabitants and requisitioning carts and carriages to do it. The whole aim was to avoid having gunpowder in the Citadel magazine.149 Apart from that, as usually happened during time of war or invasion from France, the Viceroy requested that the Kingdom provide workers and operatives to work on the fortifications, putting them in a state of defence. Commissioners were appointed to go off to the towns and villages and recruit the 500 peasants required. Many of them did not turn up, while others abandoned the works because they were not paid the wages due, with the Court having to intervene to prevent the punishments envisaged by the military regulations being inflicted on them. Those that remained were put up in the old church of La Compañía, confiscated after the expulsion of the Jesuits.150
(147) (148) (149) (150)
IDOATE, Las Fortificaciones, note 98. Ibid. Ibid. AGN. Fortificaciones, leg. 2, carp. 32 a 35.
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General Hurtado’s ambitious project After the cessation of hostilities that resulted from the Peace of Basel signed in July 1795, thoughts turned again to new projects, though without the haste demanded by foregoing circumstances. On 7 September 1796, General Don Antonio Hurtado sent a general plan of the Pamplona fortifications to Madrid, including in it all the improvements planned to boost the defensive ability of the enclosure.151 Some months later, on 31 May 1797, he drew up a new one, this time relating exclusively to the Citadel, “with the plan and costings of the works being proposed, as much relating to its fortification as to the proofing of its military buildings, in fulfilment of the Royal Order, so that it be in readiness to mount a vigorous defence as required.”152 Along with the general plan kept in the Madrid military archives, there are several individual plans of the different partschemes or detail studies. As regards fortification, Hurtado’s scheme proposed covering the low places of the bastion flanks with bomb-proof vaults,152bis and fitting out casemates on the faces and backs of these to draw low fire to the moat. In addition it included the installation of a system of countermines outside the bastions and counterguards,153 as well as the placing of stockades to garrison the covered ways.153 bis It also proposed digging small, secondary moats in the one along the wing of the counterguards, “to fire without risk on enemies trying to approach their respective walls.”154 On the interior face, which looks towards the city, a line of trenches was planned to facilitate possible retreat “after the troops of the Citadel have made a most vigorous defence therein”.
(151)
SHM. Planos, no 1,874. Together with Hurtado, the engineers Jiménez Donoso, Heredia, Casanovas and Masdeu also worked. (152) SHM. Planos, no. 1,993, hojas 44 y 50. Also in SGM. Cartoteca. no. 430. (152bis) SGM. Cartoteca. no. 431. (153) SGM. Cartoteca, no. 432.1. (153bis) Ibid. hoja 2. (154) SGM. Cartoteca, no. 433, hoja 1.
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Plan of the Citadel in 1797, with General Hurtado’s scheme for improving its defence and rebuilding all the military structures inside. IHCM
As for the buildings inside the fortress, Hurtado proposed – like Zermeño before him – demolishing all that was there and building it up anew with a different layout. The new structure would be based on three concentric pentagonal rings; the outer one hard up against the terreplein of the enclosure’s five curtain walls; then an intermediate one, and finally a third, whose inside face would form the new parade ground. The blocks of the new construction would of course be bombproof, with porches that had segmental arches on sturdy rectangular pillars.154 bis
(154bis) Ibid. hoja 2
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For swift passage from the blocks to the wall’s parapet, the installation of revolving (or tornante) bridges was planned, which were to be supported on the flat roofs, and by means of a 90-degree turn on pivots, would enable communication without having to resort to ramps or steps. If the bridges were taken away, each pentagon became a self-contained enclosure in case of retreat.155 None of this ever became reality – without doubt, as on previous occasions, because of its high cost. Once the fear of a possible siege by Convention troops subsided, the good intentions that had been forming cooled and the old walls of Pamplona and its citadel were once again left in the same state as they had been found. A subsequent report by the Corps of Engineers said of the shelved project: “Any step taken that follows the thoughts and plans of Hurtado will be an essential improvement for the defence of the Citadel.”156
Two documents from 1800 In 1800, the French archaeologist Alexandre de Laborde visited Pamplona, taking notes and making sketches that would later be published in a descriptive guide to Spain, the first volume of which came out in 1808. In it the following paragraph is dedicated to the Citadel: “... Its rocky situation makes it strong; it has five bastions faced in stone and good moats; a deep pond, of considerable extension, making it difficult to approach the side from where it could be attacked. This citadel has a beautiful tower, several storehouses, a plaza adorned with trees and a parade ground at the very centre of the fortress. This is round and opens onto five large streets which lead to the five bastions. A hand-driven mill remains which has quite an ingenious structure and would prove very useful in the event of a siege. It is a large machine made up of many (155) (156)
SGM. Cartoteca, no. 437. SHM. Docs. Fortificación. 4-4 – 12-2
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wheels which turn five millstones with as many hoppers. It can mill 120 loads or 360 quintals of wheat every day. It is operated by hand or can be made to move with two horses.”157 In 1784 all the wooden machinery was to be found in a rotten state, according to what the engineer Zara said. In June 1801, the secretary of the Pamplona Town Council, Don Joaquín López, sent with municipal approval a description of the city to Madrid for inclusion in the Diccionario Geográfico-Histórico de España (Geographical-Historical Dictionary of Spain) which was then being prepared by the Real Academia de la Historia (Royal Historical Academy). As an appendix to that description, another, very succinct one was sent of the fortifications of the city and citadel, though it is not worth reproducing here as it adds nothing to what we already know. Just the final paragraph strikes me as being interesting. It says: “This Citadel is one of the fortresses that justly deserves the good reputation that it has in Europe, and it will be much more worthy of respect when the works that are considered necessary are carried out, such as proofing of the vaults, mines and other necessary tasks to sustain a siege, in accordance with the methods and advances that have been made today in the means of attacking cities.”158
1808: a French general’s stratagem The only time the Citadel was taken and occupied by enemy troops was not through an assault or capitulation after a formal siege or a vigorous attack, but was due to a simple stratagem which strikes us today as improbable in its sheer puerility. It happened in 1808 as a result of the invasion of Spain by Napoleonic forces: the Francesada, as it has traditionally been called. The episode has been recorded by numerous authors, going into varying degrees of detail. For my part, I consider it interesting to reproduce here the version (157) (158)
IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, pp. 107-108. MARTINENA, Pamplona en 1800, pp. 26-27. The original manuscript transcribed here is kept in the Real Academia de la Historia.
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given by Cavalry brigadier Don Antonio Ramírez Arcas in his Itinerario descriptivo de Navarra (Descriptive Guide to Navarre), published in 1848, as it is a rarely encountered work and was written by a soldier forty years after the events in question.159 “On 16 February (1808) and due to the restrictive confines of Roncesvalles, General D’Armagnac set off for Pamplona with three battalions, and when he appeared without notice at the city, he was without impediment allowed to billet his troops within. The Frenchman not being content with this demonstration of friendship and trust, he requested that the Viceroy, Marquis of Vallesantoro, let him put two Swiss battalions in the citadel, under the pretext of having suspicions about his loyalty. The Viceroy refused this, claiming that it was not lawful to agree to such a serious request without authority of the Court. A suitable reply and duly worthy of praise, had the vigilance matched that required by the critical situation of the city. But such was the carelessness, the incomprehensible negligence, that even within the very same citadel the French soldiers did go every day seeking their rations, without even the ordinary precautions in time of peace being taken. Not to be taken so unawares, General D’Armagnac had arranged beforehand to lodge in the house of the Marquis of Besolla, because that building being situated at the head of the esplanade and opposite the main gate of the citadel, he could more easily lie in wait there for the opportune moment for the execution of his premeditated plan. His first attempt frustrated by the Viceroy’s rebuff, the Frenchman planned to resort to a shameful ruse. On the night of 15 to 16 February, he ordered that, one by one and with studied dissimulation, a certain number of grenadiers come armed to his inn, while the next morning a select band of soldiers, in disguise and led by the chief of battalion Robert, went to the citadel to collect their provisions as usual. It was snowing and, under the pretext of waiting for their chief, they began at length to divert themselves by throwing snowballs at each other. With this entertainment they distracted the attention of the Spanish soldiers and, running and playing in (159)
RAMÍREZ ARCAS, Itinerario de Navarra, pp. 72-73. A shorter, but no less interesting, account of the facts can be seen in Nombela, Crónica de la provincia de Navarra, pp. 42-43.
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such manner, some of them went onto the drawbridge to prevent it from being raised. Shortly and at an agreed signal the remainder fell upon the guardhouse, disarmed the careless sentries and, taking over the remaining troops’ rifles that had been placed in the gunsmith’s, they cleared the entrance for the hidden grenadiers in D’Armagnac’s house, who were closely followed by all the others. The treachery was performed with such neatness that barely had the unwary Viceroy received word, than the French had taken complete possession of the citadel. D’Armagnac then wrote to him with some satisfaction an official letter in which, while he begged pardon for the necessity, he flattered himself that in no wise would the true harmony proper to two faithful allies be disturbed.”160
Blockade of the city in 1813 And so it was that the Citadel, and with it the city of Pamplona, were left in the power of the French troops, remaining under Napoleonic dominion for five sad long years - until in 1813, after an exhausting blockade, Spanish forces under the command of General Don Carlos de España and the Prince of Anglona secured its liberation.161 The Governor of the city was General Cassan, who at the start of the siege had high hopes of receiving help from France. Facing a shortage of provisions, the besieged tried to break out on 10 October but they were repulsed and obliged to withdraw back inside the city. In view of that, they even considered blowing up the walls. General España warned them that if they caused any harm to the city or its inhabitants, he would order for the officers to have a knife run through them and for the troops to be decimated when the moment of surrender came. Negotiations began on 24th and the surrender was finally signed on 31 October, at the San Pedro de Ribas monastery on the banks of the Arga. At half past four in the afternoon of that same day, the besieging forces entered the Citadel by the Francia and Socorro Gates. The siege had lasted 128 days, from 26 June till 31 October, without the artillery (160) (161)
Ibid. Ibid. pp. 87-88.
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having caused – as the minutes of the Town Council session of 1 November 1813 put it – “the slightest collapse in any of the buildings or any harm to the inhabitants.”162 After the city had been regained, it was clear to see that the French had seriously thought about blowing up the Citadel before handing it over. According to a military report from the period, there were “nine shafts in the terrepleins, to a depth of 14 to 16 feet, and two branch tunnels at the bottom of each one, at the end of which they put cavities for explosives.”163 This detail also appears in Sebastién de Miñano’s Diccionario Geográfico (Geographical Dictionary), published in 1827.164 It must be said that the French army had very competent and well-trained engineers, such as Captain Du Bourg, who in June 1809 wrote a detailed report on the Pamplona fortifications, pointing out their defects and proposing very well-judged solutions.165 Regarding the Citadel, he suggested the advisability of building lunettes in front of the heads of the bastions facing the Castle Surround, providing them with underground connections; giving the buildings that were not bomb-proof a protective wooden shell, building casemates and completing the underground defence system by means of galleries and countermines. Several of these plans would later be taken up by Ferdinand VII’s military engineers. A report written in those years praised “the good and abundant quality of water that pours into its moat, which by means of pumps and a simple dam is conveyed up to the garrison.” The same document makes reference to the lack of countermines - “there are only three galleries that are almost unused”, which can still be seen in the moats, full of rubble and stagnant water – and to the shortage of bomb-proof buildings. Those that were there were simple and in a ruined state “after the French surrendered the city and citadel, as were the
(162)
(163) (164) (165)
OLEZA, La recuperación de San Sebastián y Pamplona en 1813. pp. 97-101. Hennel de Goutel is interesting on the blockade of the city by allied forces in La general Cassan et la defense de Pampelune. (París, Perrin et Cie 1920) pp. 297. SHM. Docs. Fortificación 5-4-8-6 and others. MIÑANO, Diccionario Geográfico-Estadístico de España y Portugal (Madrid, 1827). t. VI, p. 420. SHM. Docs. Fortificación, 5-4-4-17.
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embrasures and crests of the parapets.”166 Another, similar report, dated 16 January 1814, makes the same points and adds, referring to the vaults situated together at the Socorro Gate, that “their construction is so bad that the greater part of them is continually leaking water, and they are the only resort in case of siege.”167
The Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis During the siege that Pamplona was put under by the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis (i.e. the French army of Louis XVIII) between the months of April and September 1823, the Citadel, defended by liberal forces under the command of Brigadier Sánchez Salvador, was the main objective of the besiegers. In the middle of September, it was bombarded using eight 24-inch batteries. This had an immediate effect, with the surrender being signed on 17th of that month, the second day of the bombardment. The French army, which came this time to restore Ferdinand VII to the full absolutism his sovereignty, entered the city by the Taconera portal and the Citadel by the Socorro Gate.168 A military report from 1830 refers to the existing galleries in part of the moat by the Santa María Bastion, “whose floor is below the level of the moat, for which reason it is necessary to descend to each by thirteen steps”. One of them was 63 yards long and the other two 65, and they had “doors and openings at intervals to allow departure in the required directions.”169 They were covered over many years ago, having been rendered useless by rubble and stagnant water, which made it impossible to go more than a few steps into them. In February1832, José Parreño wrote an account of the barracks then in Pamplona. From this we know that there were three of equal size for the infantry, “in adequate condition”, with a capacity for 1,200 men. They lacked toilet (166) (167) (168) (169)
MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 44. MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 45. SHM. Planos, no. 1.895, 1 y 2; 1.929 y 1.993, hoja 31. MARTINENA, ob. cit. doc. no. 45.
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facilities, “which is why the troops are obliged to go to those that have been built in the wall”. Nor was there a “courtyard where they could eat food and for the comfort of the troops”, the fortress plaza supplying this necessity; soldiers were allowed to go there because, there being no other exit than the main gate, the guards could prevent “the loss of troops”. There was also a triangular cavalry barracks, in fair condition, with a capacity for 78 men and 75 horses. It was at that time occupied by an artillery company.170
O’Donnell uprising On the afternoon of 1 October 1841, General O’Donnell took over the Citadel with the agreement of those in command there, rising up against the government of Madrid. Only one battalion from the city garrison joined them. Captain General Rivero, along with the rest of the troops and the civil authorities, stayed loyal to Espartero; but lacking sufficient forces to encircle the fortress, he confined himself to establishing a double line of barricades to make it difficult for the rebels to attack the city.171 On 4 October, a committee of notable residents came to the Citadel to parley, with the aim of avoiding the bombardment of the city. No-one else was allowed to enter. The Town Council issued an edict, in which it said: “All persons apprehended entering or leaving the Citadel of this city will be put in the disposal of the proper authority, not being competently authorised to that end”. The engineers raised parapets facing the fortress, especially at the end of Calle San Antón, with the active collaboration of the locals and even some inmates from the prison. More than 50,000 reals were spent on these works. To meet the cost of this and other urgent necessities a loan was resorted to, which depended on the contribution of the wealthiest citizens. Thanks to its fortresslike nature and strategic position, the old medieval tower of San Lorenzo was (170) (171)
SHM. Docs. Fortificación, 4-3-4-1. DEL CAMPO, Pamplona durante la regencia de Espartero, pp. 30-45
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designated as a watch post to check on the comings and goings of the rebels and, should the need arise, to shoot at them with rifles. The National Militia and a group of armed peasants were entrusted with this task in exchange for some ready cash. As a result, it received several artillery hits from the Citadel which damaged its fabric and led to it having to be part-demolished some years later, in 1852. A first intimidatory bombardment took place on 4th and 5th, without any major consequences. On 10th (Isabel II’s birthday) and the following day, O’Donnell, seeing that the hoped for reinforcements were not arriving, subjected the city to intense bombardment, using cannon, howitzers and mortars. This left 3 inhabitants killed and 12 wounded, as well as causing substantial material damage to the people’s houses. According to the historian Lafuente, around 1,500 grenades and other projectiles were fired. On 13 October, O’Donnell left the Citadel towards Estella territory to recruit volunteers; but after making a circuit, passing through Ulzama and Baztán, he decided to cross the border into France. Azcárraga was left in charge in his absence. On 14th, with the arrival of troops loyal to the Government, it could already be stated that the attempted coup was heading towards complete and utter failure. However, Azcárraga still held out for a few days, until on the 25th, at 8 in the morning, his troops abandoned the fortress, handing it over to the forces loyal to Espartero. The minutes of the council session of that day record: “That today at 8 in the morning the Citadel was evacuated by the rebels and that the loyal troops immediately entered, including the battalion of the National Militia with banner unfurled. That to celebrate such an auspicious event, His Lordship agrees and determines that tomorrow, at exactly 12 noon, a solemn Te Deum be sung in the chapel of the Glorious Patron Saint Fermín and that all authorities and corporations are invited.”172
(172)
Ibid.
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To commemorate the events, the Town Council commissioned Don Miguel Sanz y Benito to paint a picture of the Citadel, Taconera and San Lorenzo Tower, showing armed soldiers of both sides at the height of hostilities.173
A plan for a fortified line in 1849 In November 1849, the Captain of Engineers Don José María Vizmanos wrote an interesting report on the city fortifications. Referring to the Citadel, he began by demonstrating that the most likely point for a possible attack was – as the Frenchman Du Bourg had previously observed – the Santa María Bastion and neighbouring half moons. “As was proved in the year 1823, in the siege mounted by French troops, as on the fourth night of the trench being opened at that point, the fire of the attacking front was extinguished and the city on the point of capitulation.” After reviewing Hurtado’s plans (in 1797 he had proposed the construction of a lunette and a hornwork in front of the existing walls and an entrenched field from the Real Bastion to Mendillorri), Vizmanos expounded his plan. It consisted of building detached forts or lunettes at the most salient points of the Iturrama hill or slope. They would have a 40 or 50 yard frontage and flanks of 20 or 25 yards. A second line would be drawn to complement this, in the gaps or spaces between the ones in front, at a distance of one rifle shot from both the front line and the walled enclosure respectively. They should have a frontage of 100 to 102 yards and flanks in proportion. Apart from this, it was also advisable to raise the half moons and exterior counterguards and to entrench the gorges of the three outside bastions – Sanat María, Santiago and Real.174 That same year, in Volume XII of the Diccionario Geográfico-Histórico Estadístico de España (Statistical Geographical-Historical Dictionary of Spain) by the Navarrese Pascual Madoz, one of the most complete and detailed descriptions that has ever been made of the Citadel was published. It was (173) (174)
The picture, a watercolour, is kept in the Pamplona Municipal Archive and has been totally or partially reproduced on several occasions. SHM. Doc. Fortificación, 4-3-3-11.
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included under the entry Pamplona. It has subsequently been copied, more or less to the letter, by authors such as Torres Villegas, Madrazo, Alvarado, Urabayen and others.175
Pamplona’s worst enemy In August 1854, the Town Council presented a request to Isabel II, asking her to reform the structure of the Citadel so that its enclosure and interior esplanade could be used with a view to expanding this city, stifled by the corset of its fortifications. The document said that “the Citadel being placed to the west of said city and separated from it by wide moats and esplanades, a large extension of land is left empty which could be used for buildings of public utility, if on that part the fortress was joined to the city walls to form a single fortification. The continuing increase in population and the consequent lack of housing that has been noted recommend the idea, in addition to which, its execution would require no sacrifice on the part of the State, assuming that the value of the materials from the part that would have to be demolished would far exceed the cost of modifying the fortress..." It went on to go over the history, remembering what happened in 1808 and 1841, when the occupation of the Citadel by enemy forces had brought grave consequences for the people, instead of security and protection. “... And with the current military uprising it was at great risk of suffering a similar fate, such that it might well be said that Pamplona’s most appreciable enemy is her Citadel. It should therefore be of little surprise that her honourable and peaceable inhabitants look on it with aversion and fright, nor that this Council, faithful interpreter of their interests and sentiments, has taken every opportunity to raise its voice against the existence of so destructive a neighbour." By contrast, if the requested reform were carried out, the city would be relieved of its fears, “without losing its importance for the general defence of the Nation.”176
(175) (176)
MADOZ, Diccionario, t. XII, p. 644. AMP. Correspondencia, leg. 70, no. 79.
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Santiago Bastion, moats and Socorro gate in 1944. AMP. (J. Cía)
One of the pavilions surrounding the central square, used as Officer’s Residence. AMP. Arazuri Coll.
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I cannot be sure that the report written on the city by Don Mariano Moreno that September came as a consequence of this petition by the Pamplonan municipality, though I am inclined to think it did. It contained a meticulous description of the fortifications, pointing out their circumstances and defects.177 Regarding the Citadel, it was clear that it had vulnerable points and was not, therefore, the impregnable fortress that Philip II dreamed of and built. Moreno coincided with Vizmanos' view that the easiest point of attack was the Santa María, which the city artillery could not protect with its fire; while the assailant could safely keep his munitions and reserves in the dry river bed currently occupied by the University of Navarre, a very short distance away but out of reach of the city. On 13 September 1858 the engineer Don Cándido Ortiz de Pinedo signed a draft fortification plan for the city of Pamplona, which would mean a total remodelling of the old enclosure of the 16th and 17th centuries.178 The whole South and West front of the city was to be organised on the basis of a regular line of equal-sized pentagonal bastions, alternating with half-tambours or semicircular casemates deployed in the moats, in the middle of the intermediate curtain walls, but separated from them. Vauban´s systems, revolutionary in their day, had given way to the new theories of Montalambert and Carnot, on which Ortiz de Pinedo´s plan was largely based. It was the well-considered plan that, had it been put into effect, would have placed Pamplona in the forefront of the fortified cities of the age. It would have been, however, another exorbitantly expensive work, in an era when the days of permanent fortifications were already numbered; and, from the point of view of the current study, it must be said that it would have meant the disappearance of the Citadel, whose preservation the plan did not consider.
(177) (178)
SHM. Docs. Fortificación, 4-3-3-13. SHM. Planos, no. 1.950, hojas 2, 5, 8 y 9.
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The carlists blockade the city During the last Carlist War, Pamplona suffere a new and exhausting blockade, this time by forces loyal to the pretender Charles VII, who controlled the whole Pamplona Basin. It lasted from the first days of September 1874 until 2 February 1875, and the scarcity was such that dog and rat meat came to be sold in the market. The governor of the city was Field Marshall Don Manuel Andía and the garrison was formed by four companies of the Cadiz reserve, 150 gunners, the same number of civil guards, 300 border guards and the peasants of the National Militia. Neither the railway nor the telegraph were functioning and they received no newspapers. Nor was there water from the fountains, as the Carlists had cut the Subiza pipe, though thanks to the ingenuity of the industrialist Salvador Pinaqui, water could be brought up from the river by means of an efficient system of pumps.179 On this occasion, the role of the Citadel was limited to firing rifles at some Carlist groups who ventured towards the Castle Surround and Cruz Negra, and to launching the odd cannonshot towards Cordovilla and other towns where movements of the faction had been observed. As per normal in such circumstances, it also served as a depository for arms, provisions and munitions, as well as an occasional prison for inhabitants of the city known to be sympathetic to the cause of Don Carlos. Some missiles fired from San Cristóbal by the Carlists’ Krupp batteries flew over the city, coming to land on the fortress glacis. On 21 January 1875, the salvoes that announced - some days after the event - the proclamation of Alfonso XII as King of Spain, were also fired from its bastions. Salvoes were also fired to mark the two visits that the young monarch made to our capital on 7 February of that same year, shortly after the blockade was lifted by General Moriones, and on 28 February 1876, following the (179)
At least two diaries of the siege are known to exist. One of them, written by the Chief Administrative Officer Don Mariano Balesta, was published by Idoate: Diario del bloqueo puesto por los carlistas a la plaza de Pamplona... in Rev. Ppe. de Viana, 1961, pp. 217-231. Another, also written by soldiers (Rodríguez Undiano and Sánchez del Águila), was Diario del bloque de Pamplona, published in the Cuadernos de la Cofradía del Pimiento Seco in 1973. Leandro Nagore, in his work Apuntes para la historia (1872-1886) Pamplona, 1964, pp. 282 paints a different picture, from the Carlist point of view.
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withdrawal of the Pretender to the throne of France. Two days earlier the troops of six Carlist battalions had handed over their arms in the fortress, before returning home. On 29 February the last military dispatch was signed. During the months of blockade Colonel Don Luis Llaverón was governor, and he had within his enclosure one company on duty and four artillery, as well as six fixed guard posts and several patrolling. There is a reconstruction plan for the deck of the Citadel’s fixed bridge, dating from November 1876 and signed by Enrique Pinazo; it was approved in Madrid in February of the following year. A firm type of road surface was to be laid over the deck, with an arched section and cast iron railings, and everything supported by stone pilasters reinforced in the middle of each stretch.180 As a result of the Carlist War, it was now obvious that the walls and Citadel had lost defensive capability in the event of attack, due fundamentally to the reach and potential of modern groove-bore artillery. In view of that and given the proven strategic advantages of the positions adopted by the Carlists for siting their batteries, which caused so much harm to the city during the siege, the decision was taken to position a fortification – casemated in accordance with the latest advances in military engineering – on the summit of Mount San Cristobál. Work on the new fort began at the start of 1877. It was officially known as the Alfonso XII and its construction represented the inauguration of a new phase in the history of Pamplona’s system of defence. However, this step did not necessarily entail, as many expected, the disappearance of the walled enclosure or Citadel. The walls were to endure with their guards and sentries still in place until the second decade of the 20th century, and the Citadel would continue to be a military zone until 1966.
(180)
SHM. Planos, no. 1,993, hoja 41.
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The first enlargement of the city: the Citadel loses two bastions In October 1887, Don Serafín Mata y Oneca presented at the Town Hall several plans for enlarging the city, whose potential for expansion was very limited as the walled enclosure was still standing in its entirety. One of the plans – which was worthy of the municipal approval it received – proposed building the new blocks on the existing glacis or esplanade between the Citadel's inner moat and the Taconera and Valencia walkways, today known as the Sarasate. That made it necessary to obtain prior authorisation from the War Ministry to demolish the San Antón and Victoria Bastions and to fill in the moat situated between the two of them, requesting the subsequent transfer of the resulting lands.181 The plan was approved by law in Madrid on 22 August 1888. Subsequently, a Royal Order of 21 March 1889 authorised the demolition of a two thirds part of the two bastions concerned and of the length of wall between that of San Antón and the fortress gate, with work due to be undertaken the following month. After approval of the plan on 28 September, it was necessary to extend a stretch of the Taconera Wall until it joined the angle of the rump of the Victoria Bastion, around where the present-day Avenida del Ejército goes in. In the glacis, 9,592 cubic metres of earth were removed before they could proceed to handing them over to the city on 24 April. The contractors were Messrs Cestona, Izurrategui and Navaz, spending 20,626 on wages. The transfer document for the land was signed before the notary Don Polonio Escolá on 30 May 1889 and the amount was 750,000 pesetas, to be paid in several instalments. The resulting area of land available to build on was 22,736 square metres.182 The layout of the new streets gave rise to what in the urban history of the city is known as the Primer Ensanche (First Enlargement). On the land right by the Citadel, the new barracks and diverse military quarters were built from the (181) (182)
ALVARADO, Guía del viajero en Pamplona. p. 12. AMP. Expediente Ensanche.
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The artillery firing salvoes from one of the Citadel bastions in 1898. AMP. (J. Altadill)
beginning of 1898; the site is now occupied by the buildings and road of the Avenida del Ejército, the Comandancia Militar - which was originally a block of military houses - and the present-day auditorium and conference hall. The moats there were filled in, with two ravelins or lunettes disappearing: Santa Teresa, which guarded the main gate and where the outer gate known as the Rastrillo was situated, its demolition authorised by the Captain General in July 1889,183 and Santa Lucía, between the bastions of San Antón and Real, which were rehabilitated and restored in 2006, at the same time the new underground bus station was built. In February 1890 it was agreed to transfer inside “the fountain that stands at the entrance to the Citadel, on the lands that were being levelled.”184
(183) (184)
AMP. Minutes of Pamplona Town Council , lib. 119, p. 376. (10 August session). AMP. Ibid, lib. 121, p. 147 y ss. (2 February session).
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The Town Council agreed, in its 18 January 1890 session, to dedicate to General Chinchilla, Minister of War in Sagasta’s cabinet, the new street then planned from Calle Navas de Tolosa up to the Citadel’s main gate. It was a mark of gratitude for his efforts in making possible, in spite of great difficulties, the realisation of what was for then a genuinely ambitious project.185
The Citadel as prison: Some notable inmates It is well known that the Pamplona Citadel served for a long time as a State prison, being a fortress considered to offer maximum security. Leaving aside those prisoners locked up for matters to do with the Inquisition, many notable personalities from the nobility, the militia, politics and the world of letters suffered the darkness and rigour of its cells - people who for different reasons and in different periods lost the favour of the King. In a sense, it can be said that on many occasions it played for the Spanish monarchy the same role as the Bastille did for the Kings and Queens of France. In the first years of the 18th century many met their ends here: the Duke of Medinaceli, who died in prison, the Marquis of Leganés, the Count of Requena and several other unfortunates, among them some members of religious orders, for no other crime than their loyalty to the Archduke of Austria, Pretender to the Crown of Spain, who was defeated by the supporters of Philip V in the long War of Succession. In the mid 18th century one of the barracks inside the enclosure was designated an exiles’ prison; it was next to the Socorro Gate. According to a report made by the engineer Don Antonio de Zara in August 1784, in the stretch of wall in which the main gate opens there were “below the terreplein of that curtain wall two cells, one of them called the water because of the great quantity that leaked there, and the other the Friar.”186 The latter owed its name to a brother of the (185) (186)
ARAZURI, Pamplona, calles y barrios, t. I, p. 280. MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 38.
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Santa Isabel Counterguard and Socorro Gate in 1944, when the process of their progressive deterioration was beginning. AMP. (J. Cía)
Santiago and La Victoria Bastions, Santa Ana Lunette, moats and, in the background, houses of the Primer Ensanche (First Enlargement), in 1914. AMP. (A. Gª Deán)
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Victoria order who was locked up there in 1709 for being a supporter of the Archduke, and who died of hunger after a long agony chained inside a cage, an event which stayed long in the memories of those who witnessed it.187 Another report in 1786 refers to the two vaults situated either side of the entrance tunnel to the Citadel, one of which is still there. It says of them that, although useless “due to the quantity of water that leaks”, they were essential “for the punishment of those whose crimes and misdemeanours are not worthy of a cell, and in which are usually kept more than one.”188
Citadel buildings and parade ground in 1960. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (Clavero)
(187)
(188)
I know of an interesting manuscript, titled Relación exacta de la prisión y muerte de Fr. Francisco Sánchez, Religioso Mínimo de la Victoria, a small 7-page notebook, in which the then vicar of the citadel Don Francisco Ximénez y Esparza relates in full detail the torture that P. Sánchez suffered. He was locked up in “the vault next to the San Antón casemate, where a cage of one square metre was prepared, made of strong stakes” from 10 August 1706 until 11 November when he died, louse-ridden and filthy, with his fetters cutting into his bones. The event must have been so seared into the collective memory that the cell, demolished at the end of the last century, would still be know in the next as el Fraile (the Friar). MARTINENA, Documentos sobre las fortificaciones, doc. no. 39.
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In 1792 the enlightened and distinguished Count of Floridablanca was arrested in his house, Hellín, and locked up in the Citadel. He was one of the most notable personalities of the reign of Charles III, who fell from grace in the time of Charles IV after the Count of Aranda came to power and sued him for misappropriation of funds. At that time the Inca Yupanqui was also a prisoner here, who managed to write in the solitude of his cell an Outline of the History of Navarre. In 1801 Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo, former Minister of State, was confined for several months and left practically incommunicado – deprived of light, paper, inkwell and books to read. In 1811, during the French occupation, the celebrated Navarrese guerrilla Javier Mina also passed through these cells. From 1814 to 1820, the famous poet Manuel José Quintana suffered prison here for his liberal ideas, by order of Ferdinand VII. Thanks to the protection of the Marquis of Vessolla and the Viceroy Count of Ezpleta, the rigours of incarceration were softened and he could even host a literary salon of great prestige in the building that he occupied, attended by, among others, the priest and man of letters Don Alberto Lista.189 José María Iribarren recorded the curious fact, which I have subsequently seen confirmed in documents from the period, that some nobles in the 18th century had their sons locked up in the Citadel when they fell in love with plebeian or otherwise unsuitable women, preventing them with this most forceful measure from contracting marriage in dishonour of their noble condition.190 The Parliament that sat in 1780-81 petitioned by law for the prohibition of the abuse that existed whereby the viceroy or military chiefs might grant “licence or permission to walk freely through the city or go to their homes or localities, to those that the ordinary Justices have sent to the Citadel.”191 As can be seen, what is now known as ‘Category D’ or open prison is not exclusive to our times.
(189) (190) (191)
Memorias del Conde de Guenduláin, published by the Prince of Viana Institute in 1952, p. 41. IRIBARREN, Pamplona y los viajeros, pp. 109-111. Cortes de 1780-81, ley 37.
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Nave inside the gunpowder store in January 1973, undergoing restoration. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (R. Bozano)
The moats and glacis of the fortress have also on many occasions been mute witnesses to numerous executions, generally by firing squad, the last of which took place during the Civil War of 1936 to 1939. The space close by the Socorro Gate was usually employed for this sad purpose, on the Castle Surround part, next to the parapet of the covered way bordering the moat. Altadill wrote in 1916 that, at the time, that gate always used to stay locked and was only opened when there was an execution.
Cession of the Citadel to the Municipality By decree of General Don Francisco Franco, Chief of the Spanish State, on 21 May 1964, the historic complex of the Citadel, with its external defences, moats, bridges and various annexes, was ceded to the Municipality of Pamplona. The Military Governor was General Don Antonio Miranda. The cession was intended to give the building a cultural and recreational purpose, without the fortifications – which had to be maintained and restored - being subject to any possible future
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alterations.192 To ensure the fulfilment of the conditions laid down in the decree, as well as the material integrity of the assets transferred, a trust was set up, comprising different authorities and various civil and military representatives. All the same, the formal handover of the fortress to the city dragged on for over two years, the time required to install in other buildings the facilities and services to be provided within its enclosure. On Saturday 23 July 1966 the solemn handover of the Citadel to the Municipality was enacted. The Military Governor of Navarre was Major General Don Ramiro Lago García and the Mayor of the City, Don Juan Miguel Arrieta Valentín. The ceremony began in the morning, in the municipal reception hall, with the reading of the deed of cession by the notary Don Serafín Hermoso de Mendoza and the signing of the document by the authorities. The mayor gave a brief speech in which, among other things, he made plain “the city of Pamplona’s gratitude for this cession, which satisfies one of its oldest and most noble aspirations, secure in the knowledge that it will able to justify that trust, making the bastion of the Citadel one our Spanish Homeland’s most outstanding cultural-historic complexes”. The military governor responded with another speech, evoking the heroic exploits of Navarre and the historic past of the Citadel, which he described as “a truly historic jewel of Renaissance fortification.”193 From there the authorities and invited guests went to the outside wall of the old barracks in Calle Yanguas y Miranda, which at that time cut across the Avenida del Conde de Oliveto, and there they proceeded to a symbolic inauguration of a small stretch of what would later become the Avenida del Ejército. At one in the afternoon the ceremony of taking possession was enacted. With the authorities and all their retinue present in front of the Citadel gate, the military governor formally handed over the keys to the mayor, then went to hoist the Pamplona banner up some flagpoles, next to that of Spain, while the bugles blew the city salute and the Basque dancers and gigantes (papier-mâché giants) (192) (193)
BOE, no. 129, 29 May pp. 6968-6969. See Diario de Navarra, 24 July 1966.
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Four moments from the ceremony in which the Town Council of Pamplona took possession of the Citadel, on 23 July 1966. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (J. Galle)
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danced for the first time inside the old enclosure. Straight away, the guard of honour marched past, symbolising the leaving of the fortress by the army. That day there was a big fiesta in Pamplona. There was a dance in the Castle Plaza and fireworks, as on the nights of the San Fermín fiesta. “What to do with the Citadel?” wondered Ollarra (a veteran Navarrese journalist, who famously survived an assassination attempt by ETA in 1980) in his column in the Diario de Navarra. “For now it’s enough to clean and smarten it up and to go about slowly converting it into a park for all Pamplonans to enjoy; then to replace missing stones, deepen moats, restore bastions and build up again what time has ruined. It is all a long and expensive process.”194 The decree of cession foresaw the creation of a museum and library of military history, based on the old Museo de Recuerdos Históricos (Museum of Historical Memories), which kept important material from the Carlist Wars. An open air theatre, exhibition halls and playing fields and gardens were also to be provided. All of it, of course, without affecting the structure of the fortress, “which must be carefully preserved, given the unique value of its military architecture”. The trust that was created as a result of the cession, which included the Field Marshall of the 6th Region and the Mayor of the City, would draw up a standing order with a view to making it all a reality. For carrying out the necessary works, they could depend on contributions from the State, the Council of Navarre and the Town Council. According to the measurements made prior to the cession, the different elements making up the Citadel complex had the following areas
(194)
Ibid.
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Interior of the enclosure ..........................................45,360 square metres Walls and terrepleins ..................................................32,176 square metres Moats ............................................................................................40,000 square metres External fortificationworks.....................................13,305 square metres Covered way ...........................................................................10,000 square metres Glacis or esplanade..................................................135,000 square metres The sum of these partial measurements gave a total area of 275,840 square metres.
A city in miniature When the Citadel came to be the property of the city, there were within its enclosure a series of military buildings that formed a mini town, with a radial
Aerial FOTO of the Citadel in 1953, with the old blocks and buildings that once stood within it. AMP. TAF
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system of narrow streets converging on the central plaza or parade ground. In May 1965, Major Don Luis Prieto Gracia wrote a historical description the fortress, including plans and references for all the buildings making up the complex.195
The Governor’s Pavilion, rebuilt in 1906, situated near the main gate. AMP. (J. L. Prieto)
Entering by the main gate and passing the guardhouse, there was, on the right, the governor’s house, reconstructed in 1906 where previously the field park and military dovecot had been, with an area of 450 square metres. Opposite, on the left, was the artillery store, built in 1918, covering 766.62 square metres. Adjoining it, towards the parade ground, was the covered exercise ring, built in 1897 on the site of the old 17th-century church, amounting to 788 square metres. Next to the gunpowder block and the oven, both still in (195)
PRIETO, La Ciudadela de Pamplona (Unpublished report kept in the Pamplona Municipal Archive).
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Military buildings inside the Citadel at the time of its cession to the City of Pamplona. J.L. Prieto. 1 Main Gatehouse 2. Artillery Command H.Q’ s Pabellón and offices 3. Covered exercise ring 4. Artillery store 5. Pabellón A 6. Gunpowder store 7. Pabellón D 8. Engineers’ depot 9. The bells store 10. Pabellón B 11. Weapons Hall and Artillery depot 12. Pabellón azul (Blue barrack)
13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.
Garages Garages Infantry barrack Garages Artillery barrack Second adjutant’s pabellón Engineers’ depot Little store Explosives store Cavalry barrack First Adjutant’s pabellón Governor’s house Bomb-proof oven Barrack
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existence, was one of the Engineers’ depots with an attached store for trench frames, built in 1881 and partially demolished in 1918. It was 212 square metres. Behind the gunpowder store, close up by the wall, there was an old 17th-century cavalry barracks, laid out on a triangular plan, and on the part by the Santiago Bastion, the artillery barracks also from the same period – though this one was square - and some garages. Next to the Socorro Gate, along the length of its curtain wall, was the Infantry barracks, dating from the 17th century, though altered on several occasions, with an area of 1,920 square metres. In front of the weapons room, which survives to the present, there were two garage premises. Next to the magazine, which also survives, was the storehouse called La Campana (697 square metres) and another two of the Engineers depots, built in 1918 (440.92 square metres). Finally, almost entirely surrounding the central parade ground, were the so-called pabellones, designated for officers to live in: the Pabellón Azul (Blue Block), improved in 1893, occupied 209.95 square metres; Pabellón B, 323.96; D, 207.50; and A, 332.15. The last three were reconstructed or at least totally reformed in 1906. Next came the Artillery Command HQ, dating from 1880, over 202.95 square metres, and finally, the buildings set aside for the first and second adjutant, also 202 square metres.196
Demolition of the buildings All the buildings mentioned, within their typically military aspect, presented a great variety of types and styles. Although they had in large part been rebuilt in the last years of the 19th century or first few of the 20th, there were plenty dating from the 17th or even earlier, a period from which there is not an abundance of barrack buildings surviving today, and the few that do exist are considered to be of great historic interest. Among the modern ones, the exercise ring, the governor’s pavilion and some of the other buildings were not short of a (196)
Ibid.
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certain architectural distinction and could have been preserved for various purposes. However, at the time the decision was made to demolish them with the aim of gaining the maximum possible free space for conversion into a green
The now-vanished military exercise ring, built in 1893 on the site of the old Citadel chapel. Beside it, the artillery store. AMP. (J. L. Prieto)
zone. All that survive are the oldest and most archeologically interesting buildings, and that in large part because fortunately they were close to the wall and did not therefore get in the way of the plan to set out a large landscaped plaza that would come to occupy practically the whole inner space of the Citadel. There were even serious doubts over whether to preserve the noble eighteenthcentury edidfice that was weapons room. On 20 January 1967 the Marquis of Lozoya, a distinguished professor and History of Art writer, visited the Citadel, accompanied by the mayor, the Director of the Institución Príncipe de Viana (a Navarrese cultural institute) and the municipal archivist, with the aim of putting their ideas together on how to restore the complex. They sought to determine which buildings possessed some architectural or historical value before initiating the tasks of cleaning up and
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February 1970. Demolition of the Governor’s Pavilion. To the right, the artillery command headquarters and the exercise ring. In the background, the guardhouse. AMP
demolishing the blocks occupying the enclosure. For the Marquis of Lozoya, the buildings perfectly reflected the age in which they were erected: on the one hand, Spanish grandeur from the time of Philip II and, on the other, the period of decline at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. That idea was, as we shall see, to guide the action of the municipal pickaxe in subsequent years, sparing only a small number of exceptions.
Conservation of the oldest In the previously mentioned report by Major Prieto, there was an epigraph containing an assessment of the archaeological value of the fortress complex. It said:
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For its perfect expression of the style of the 16th-century Italian school, the Citadel is a jewel of the art of bastioned fortification. It is similar to the Antwerp citadel, built some years before. “In Spain it can be considered unique and for that reason the most important, given that of the other works in a similar style, such as those of Barcelona, Jaca and Figueras, one (Barcelona) has disappeared and was of much more modern construction, from the year 1715 and reign of Philip V. Jaca is also from a later date (1595), and both smaller and of lower quality. Figueras is also later – 1750, the reign of Ferdinand VI. “It is a work, in its totality, of the 16th and 17th centuries - pre-Vauban, yet perfected by the teachings of that distinguished master, its diverse elements worthy of preserving intact as a perfect and unique example of permanent fortification in its most splendid realisation, in an age when the art of war was at one with other forms of art. It is a work of warriors and artists. “The whole exterior is of indisputable archaeological value: covered way, moats and external constructions. Likewise the whole terreplein or wall.” Apart from the fortifications as such, considered – as we have just seen – to be an historic-artistic unity, all that would remain standing was the guardhouse, with its two porticoed huts, built in 1756; the old bakery oven, with its curious teardrop-shaped ground plan and apparently dating from 1640; the so-called explosives block and former provisions store, with its two vaulted parallel naves, built at the end of the 17th century, and to which an upper floor was added in 1720 to serve as a granary, leaving the one below as a cellar; the weapons hall or artillery arsenal, planned in 1725 though not finished until 1754; and the sturdily-buttressed bomb-proof magazine, whose construction dates from 1694. All these buildings, beautifully restored in the 1970s, are currently given over to exhibitions, concerts, conferences and other cultural events. The guardhouse, the first thing the visitor sees on going in by the Avenida del Ejército, still lacks a clearly defined function, as do the dozen bomb-proof vaults on either side of the Socorro Gate, apart from the one that houses the public toilets.
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On 20 November 1969 the plan for demolishing the rest of the buildings was approved, with the sum of 535,000 pesetas awarded in February of the following year to the Company Excavaciones Pamplona, plus another 200,000 for the demolition of sheds in moats and bastions.
Restoration of walls, bastions and buildings In April 1970, the Town Council provided an extraordinary budget of 689,400 pesetas for the restoration of the bridges over the moat to the Socorro Gate.197 At that time the ornamental top of the second of the gates was restored. Years later, in June 1995 restoration work was carried out on the outermost gate that leads onto the glacis of the Castle Surround, which had deteriorated much more.198 That gate retains over its arch a stone plaque with an inscription, today almost wholly illegible, which curiously was the one with the longest text of all those in the walled enclosure. It apparently mentioned the Duke of Bournoville, who was Viceroy between 1686 and 1691. The restoration of the three bridges of the Socorro Gate, to which was added inappropriate medieval-style paving based on pebbles, and their resulting conversion to public walkways, opened a new means of communication between the centre of the city, the Castle Surround park and the densely populated Iturrama district. Shortly after, on 29 June 1970, the reconstruction plan for the external stretch of wall running between the San Antón Bastion and the main gate of the Citadel was approved. The budget was 1,977,726 pesetas, and restoring the 140 metres of wall required the use of 4,500 tons of masonry stone that had been put aside for the purpose.199 The works began in October and were completed (197)
(198)
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AIPV (Archive of the “Príncipe de Viana” Institute), legajo. 53/expte. 19. Thanks to the director of that archive, Charo Lazcano Martínez de Morentin, for the opportunities he has always given me to research it. The works were carried out by the pupils of the Town Hall Workshop-school, subject to authorisation by the “Príncipe de Viana”. The plan for reconstructing the portal was approved by that institution in 1989. AIPV, leg. 166/24 y leg. 127/5. The authorisation on the part of the “Príncipe de Viana”, in AIPV, leg. 53/15.
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in June of the next year, giving a new apsect to the Avenida del Ejército. It is a pity that they did not then also rehabilitate the terreplein on the inner face of the wall, which would have restored the visual integrity of the inside of the enclosure, while also making it possible for the visitor to go round the whole perimeter on all five sides of the pentagon. From that date on, for more than five years, the restoration of most of the walls and bastion was carried out with the use of specialist masons, as well as of the buildings left standing inside after the demolition of those previously there. On 27 April 1871, a plenary session approved the cost of 2,400,000 pesetas for the restoration of the main gate – the one on the Avenda del Ejército – with its vault, porch and guardhouse, as well as the roof of the magazine. On 30 November of that year it was agreed the administration would restore the gunpowder block and bomb-proof oven, with a budget of 3,000,000 pesetas, both subsequently being given over to the Caja de Ahorros Municipal (Municipal Savings Bank) to use as an exhibition space and for other cultural ends.200 In that same 1971, the Town Council’s Committee for Culture and Public Relations, chaired by the Lieutenant Mayor Don Javier Rouzaut, who did so much for these old stones, carried out a survey among 400 residents of Pamplona to find out the citizenry’s preferences as regards what should be done with the Citadel complex. The consultation covered ten areas of the city and people of different ages, sexes, social and educational level etc. Its team of social workers was led by Don Francisco Azcona. The different possibilities suggested had the following levels of acceptance: 1. Green zone with historic buildings restored...............................................................42.4% 2. Green zone only..........................................................................................................................................35.8% 3. Building a medieval-style city with craft shops .......................................................10.5% 4. Sports complex...............................................................................................................................................6.5% 5. Setting up a public theatre ................................................................................................................4.8% (200)
In principle, the agreement referred to turning the gunpowder block into a museum of the city and the oven into an exhibition hall, AIPV, leg. 56/64
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Beginning of reconstruction work on the wall adjoining the main gate in October 1970. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (E. Mina)
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Reconstruction work on the Citadel wall facing the Avenida del Ejército. June 1971. Arazuri Coll. AMP
The military garages, already demolished, and the old Infantry barracks in February 1970, shortly before its demolition. Behind them the Socorro Gate. AMP. Arazuri Coll.
The results of the poll were released to the press in mid September. In view of the survey data, the direction subsequently taken by the municipality with regard to the historic complex was consistent with the popular will.
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Interior view of the main gate guardhouse in January 1970, before its restoration. AMP. Arazuri Coll.
In February 1972 the Town Council suggested the option of not building on the site of the former Artillery barracks in Yanguas y Miranda, land capable of sustaining housing, for which the Army was asking 83,492,175 pesetas. Lieutenant Mayor Rouzaut proposed altering this residential purpose, even at the cost of losing money, and keeping the site free of buildings as a protected environment or respect area for the Citadel. And so it is today, once again a green zone, after having served for many years as a fairground for stalls and attractions during the San Fermín celebrations. On 29 December 1972, with 16,000,000 pesetas spent on restoration and refurbishment work, the Town Council agreed to request that the Citadel complex be declared a National Heritage Monument. The initiative was successful, and on 8 February the following year the relevant Decree (332/1973) was signed and published in the Spanish Official Gazette on 27 February. On 9 October 1973 the explosives block and bomb-proof oven were inaugurated, following their total – and as the press said, faithful, tasteful and accurate – restoration. The mayor Don Javier Viñes gave a speech in which he went over the history of the restoration process the old fortress had been through. That same
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Gunpowder store and bomb-proof oven in January 1973, their restoration on the point of completion. AMP. Arazuri Coll. (R. Bozano)
year, the Town Council looked into the possibility of turning the explosives block into a museum of the city, an initiative which would quickly be dropped. The restoration of the Weapons Hall was also undertaken, the old arsenal of the citadel and an interesting mid 18th-century building. The plan was approved in 1973, subject to the “Príncipe de Viana” cultural institute and the Navarre Savings Bank signing a co-operation agreement to defray 50% of the costs.201 The works were allocated the following year a total of 11,142,811.67 pesetas and were finished in 1976. In those years the possibility of turning it into an Ethnographic Museum was considered, and in 1982 the corresponding plan was commissioned, approved and funded, but in the end never implemented.202 With 60 million pesetas having been spent on the Citadel (and only 15 of them obtained as subsidies), the plenary Town Council session of 26 October 1976 (201) (202)
AIPV, leg. 56/9 (proyecto) y leg. 57/20 (adjudicación y liquidaciones). Final settlement of costs for the work carried out dates from 1976, AIPV, leg. 65/133. The report proposing this use for the building dates from 1975, AIPV, leg. 60/21. Payment of the bill for the project, amounting to 622,185 pesetas, was approved in 1983, AIPV, leg. 97/109.
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debated a motion put forward by Don Javier Rouzaut that proposed an extraordinary budget of another 20 million to complete the works, leaving moat repairs to a later date. In the end, after heated discussion between the various political tendencies, the decision was made to include the amount in the five-year plan for priority investments. To give some idea of the increase in costs experienced in the decade from 1970 to 1980, the budget for restoring the Santa María Bastion, which was approved on 13 February 1979, reached a total of 14,996,304 pesetas. The restoration plan for the Santiago Bastion, whose cost was calculated in June 1980 at 15,972,116 pesetas, required the approval of an additional budget of 26,000,000 the following August.203 Some time before, in 1975, the corresponding plan for the Real Bastion had been approved. It has to be said, given that the fortress was now a National Monument, several subsidies from the Ministry of Public Works and Town Planning were forthcoming to help meet the costs.204 In 1987 the moats were cleaned up, with the previously existing irrigation ditches turned into canals, and a pedestrian way with cycle path laid out around the whole perimeter.205 Fortunately, an old town plan from 1969 giving the go-ahead for the construction of swimming pools and sports tracks in the moats was shelved. It had not paid sufficient heed to the fact that the environs of monumental buildings deserve to be treated with as much respect as the monuments themselves.
(203) (204) (205)
For the restoration of the Santiago Bastion, the Government of Navarre paid a sum of 8,000,000 pesetas in 1980, AIPV, leg. 76/81. Ministry approval for the plan for the Real Bastion, in AIPV, leg. 61/74. The relevant plan had already been presented before for the approval of the “Príncipe de Viana” Institute in 1982, AIPV, leg. 90/132.
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Commemorative stamp of the Citadel issued to mark the National Philatelic Exhibition (EXFILNA) held in Pamplona between 25 June and 3 July 1988.
A pleasant recreational space The interior of the Citadel enclosure is today one of the most popular public parks in the city. The wide open space that resulted in 1970 from the demolition of the old military buildings is today occupied by artificially watered landscaped lawns where children can play freely. Willows and other trees offer some shade on hot days. In 1981 some modernist sculptures were installed: one by Chillida, which served for some time as a labyrinth for children’s games, and others by Vicente Larrea and Ramón Carrera, acquired for one and a half and one million pesetas respectively. Wooden benches for people to sit on and traditional style wrought-iron lampposts complete the ensemble.
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Current state of the Citadel.
1. Main gate 2. San Antón Ravelin 3. Gunpowder magazine 4. Santa Lucía Ravelin 5. Real or San Juan Ravelin 6. Weapons Hall 7. Santa Clara Ravelin and counterguard. 8. Santa María Bastion
9. Santa Isabel ravelin and counterguard 10. The Socorro Gate 11. Santiago Bastion 12. Santa Ana ravelin 13. Gunpowder pabellón 14. La Victoria Bastion 15. Oven 16. Santa Teresa Ravelin
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Some details remain outstanding, such as the reconstruction of the sentry boxes belonging to the five bastions, which could be done in accordance with the old plans that are kept in Madrid, and the tidying up of the parapets, the chemin de rondes, access ramps to the bastions and entry-posterns to the low places. As for the external defences, until very recently the counterguards and ravelins that face the Castle Surround were still to be reconditioned; they were completely over-run with brambles and thickets whose roots actually levered the ashlars out of place. Some detail on the first and second gates of the Socorro also needed restoring. I do not know whether perhaps in future it will even be possible to think about re-installing the drawbridges instead of the current provisional decks, which should not remain indefinitely. It is clear that around 1870 the old medieval system of levers was done away with, by which they nestled in openings above the gate when the bridge was up. This was substituted by a system of wheels, springs and counterweights, known by the 19th-century military engineers as the Derché manouevre and which can still be seen in operation at the Francia or Zumalacárregui Portal. For two or three years now they have been put into service on the evening of 5 January, with the bridge being lowered so that the procession of the Three Kings might make its entrance into the city. I believe it was in 1986 that the Town Council agreed to the creation of Britishor American-style landscaped areas, with lawns watered by sprinklers and paved walkways, on the esplanade and other land attached to the fortification, traditionally known as the Vuelta del Castillo (Castle Surround).206 Work came to an end, if memory serves, in 1987. The improvement was begun some months before, by way of a trial run, in the area closest to the Avenida Pío XII, and although it initially gave rise to a certain amount of controversy, the results ended up being favourably received by the public. These days this extensive park, situated right in the centre of the town, is the real lung of the city and is frequented by a good number of walkers. (206)
Approval for the plan for a public park in the Castle Surround had been requested in 1982, AIPV, leg. 90/118.
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The curious detail might be added that on 27 December 1968 the Town Hall approved the purchase of the 78,886 square metres that made up the land of the glacis - the popular Vuelta del Castillo - for the sum of 3,272,308.10 pesetas. According to contemporary press reports, its market value would have fetched somewhere around 300 million. Ten years later, in December 1978, 5,500,000 pesetas were approved for levelling and laying out the Vuelta, including installation of benches and the sprinkler system for the grass. Another interesting item regarding the Citadel was Royal Decree 1424/86, dated 6 June, which abolished the Trust set up in 1964 following cession of the fortress to the Municipality. At the end of February 1987, the Frenchman François Baschet installed an original musical fountain in the small pond at the centre of the parade ground, at a cost of 1,200,000 pesetas. The parts were forged in Gerardo Brun's workshop. It consisted of 16 pairs of rotating metallic flowers of different heights, pushed round by the wind or jets of water from the pumps. Finely tuned balls and pipes hung from them and, when they knocked together, they made harmonious sounds. It did not last long. After being vandalised and repaired on two or three successive occasions, it was dismantled and withdrawn permanently. What perhaps ought to be done is to reconstruct the lovely fountain that used to exist. The original plan for it, drafted by Carlos Blondeaux in 1725, still survives.207 Around the same time, a work by NÊstor Basterrechea was put in one of the landscaped spaces, near the Weapons Room: a rustable steel sculpture, on a concrete pedestal. The piece was acquired by the Town Council for 5,000,000 pesetas, after having been exhibited on the occasion of the conference on Witchcraft and Occult Sciences, held in Pamplona in 1986. Mention must also be made of another matter, which although it never became a reality, also forms part of the recent history of the citadel, and that is the plan (207)
This plan shows the elevation, section and detail. The original is kept in the General Archive of Simancas and is reproduced on page 112 of this book.
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to locate the Centre for Contemporary Art inside the historic enclosure. The initiative was given impetus by Doña María Josefa Huarte in a letter sent to the Government of Navarre in 1997, in which she proposed bringing it into being and endowing it by signing an agreement between the Regional Government, the Pamplona Town Council and the Huarte-Beaumont Foundation she represented.208 The proposal was considered in several quarters, among them the Navarre Board of Culture. In the end, for various reasons, location on this site was discounted.209 One of the last improvements carried out inside the enclosure, which was very necessary and was executed with utmost skill in 2006, was the paving of the
Old main gate guardhouse.
(208) (209)
AIPV, leg. 189/63. The Council of Navarre’s report on the proposed agreement is kept in the “Príncipe de Viana” Institute’s records, as is that of the Council’s Heritage Commision, which went into more specific detail about the siting of the centre in the citadel, AIPV, leg. 206/13.
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interior roads with tiles and cobbles. They kept the radial layout dating from the earliest days of the citadel. These roads are used not only by those attending civil weddings or exhibitions and cultural events that are held in various restored buildings, but also by the considerable number of citizens who daily pass through there as a convenient and direct means of communication between the town centre and the Iturrama area and even, though further away, the University of Navarre too.
Restoration of the counterguards and ravelins In recent years the Town Council has undertaken an important task that had remained outstanding for a long time and was becoming not only necessary but urgent. I refer to the restoration and rehabilitation of the external defences of the citadel: the four ravelins or lunettes that remain of the five that were originally there and the two counterguards that look towards the Castle Surround, with their corresponding stretches of moat, counterscarp and covered way. With that, the old fortress would regain its original features in four of its five fronts, with the sole exception of the one that gives onto the Avenida del Ejército, where for obvious reasons restoration would today be unfeasible. This process, which closes a crucial chapter in the history of the Pamplona fortifications, began in 2006 with the construction of the new underground bus station. The remains of the Santa Lucía ravelin, which lay buried beneath the car park on Calle Yanguas y Miranda, were restored, with reconstruction of the facing stonework that was missing and recovery of the part of the moats that had been lost, including its counterscarp and covered way. It is difficult to be precise about the cost of this reconstruction, because although in its essentials it cost 1,802,360 euros, many other details were swallowed up in the general budget for the station works, which reached a total of 38,575,152.58. At the same time restoration work on the Real Bastion – right by the ravelin - was also carried out. In this instance, the cost was 311,444.15 euros.210
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Remains of the San Antón Bastion which came to light during excavations carried out as part of work on the Palacio de Congresos de Navarra-Baluarte (Navarre-Bastion Conference Hall).
A view of Real or San Juan Bastion.
During 2010 a lot of significant activity on the exterior constructions has been logged. In the first half of the year the restoration of the Santa Clara ravelin was completed, with its counterguard, moat and covered way. The budget was (210)
Final certification for works on the ravelin and curtain wall of the Real Bastion, in AIPV, leg. 274/5.
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Esplanade where the fairground used to be sited during the San Fermín fiestas and where the new Pamplona Bus Station was built, a project that included the restoration of Santa Lucía Ravelin with its covered way and glacis.
3,259,961.98 euros. The work had to include the repositioning of a good part of the ashlars, given the grave deterioration and ruin caused to them by the shrubs – some of them medium-sized trees –that had grown on the parapets and along the pointing of the courses of stone. No sooner had these works been finished than more under the same programme and type of intervention were begun on the Santa Isabel ravelin and counterguard – with the peculiarity that the outermost portals of the Socorro Gate are situated there, which inevitably adds to the complexity of the task. The budget for this intervention amounts to 3,691,663.85 euros. And in November of that same 2010 the restoration of the Santa Ana ravelin has also been undertaken, towards the Edificio Singular (Singular Building) part, which has required the demolition of the pediment that occupied part of its moat and which dated from 1940, when the now-vanished “General Mola” Stadium was there with its military swimming pool and other sporting facilities. These last two undertakings – in Santa Isabel and Santa Ana – are scheduled to be completed in 2011.
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Pictures of the ravelin, guard and counterguard Santa Clara Ravelin’s guard and counterguard following their restoration in 2010.
That concludes, in broad outline, the history of the Citadel of Pamplona which, together with Jaca, constitutes one of the two unique testaments left standing today to the robust military elegance that the impregnable “fortresses of State” built by the House of Austria once had. Its old stones, which today watch children play and host jogging sportspeople and strolling pensioners alike, preserve within their hidden nooks and crannies more than four centuries of the history of this our city.
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List of the keepers of the Citadel of Pamplona and their lieutenants, showing date of appointment and their reference in the books of Mercedes Reales (Royal Concessions).
D. Hernando de Espinosa
25–03–1572
lib. 7 fol. 155
Teniente, Gaspar Cerón
25–05–1578
lib. 12 fol. 258v.
Diego de Guevara
30–08–1586
lib. 13 fol. 118v.
D. Juan de Castilla, Caballero de Santiago
26–07–1587
lib. 13 fol. 142
D. Sancho de Villava
10–11–1590
lib. 13 fol. 181v.
Juan de Anaya Solís
18–07–1594
lib. 13 fol. 272
Teniente, D. Antonio de Solís, Capitán
08–11–1594
lib. 13 fol. 277
Diego de Ávila y Guzmán
28–01–1596
lib. 13 fol. 302
Teniente, Pedro López de Jaén
09–03–1596
lib. 13 fol. 303
D. Antonio Bracamonte
24–11–1597
lib. 13 fol. 351v.
Teniente, Francisco Sánchez del Canto, Alférez
03–02–1598
lib. 13 fol. –––
Teniente, Fernán López de Arellano, Capitán
22–11–1602
lib. 13 fol. 441v.
Pedro Fernández de La Carrera
–––
–––
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Capitán Pedro Hernández Ramada
10–07–1604
lib. 13 fol. 462v.
Capitán Juan de Zornoza
04–03–1607
lib. 19 fol. 296v.
Capitán Gaspar Ruiz de Cortázar
05–10–1610
lib. 20 fol. 202
Teniente, Martín Jaureguiberría, Alférez
25–09–1611
lib. 20 fol. 212v.
Capitán D. Alonso Martínez de Lerma
05–12–1614
lib. 21 fol. 2v.
Félix Paz
15–12–1614
lib. 20 fol. 358
Teniente, Juan de Goitia, Alférez
18–08–1618
lib. 21 fol. 260
D. Juan de Espinosa, Sargento Mayor (por muerte del Coronel Domingo de Idiáquez)
18–08–1619
lib. 21 fol. 364v.
Juan de Araquemada
13–02–1621
lib. 22 fol. 32
D. Felipe de Beaumont y Navarra
02–10–1622
lib. 22 fol. 122v.
Teniente D. Juan de Oco y Ciriza (por muerte de D. Diego de Ávila y Mendoza)
25–08–1627
lib. 22 fol. 415v.
Capitán Luis Díaz de Armendáriz en ausencia de D. Juan Castelví)
23–03–1637
lib. 25 fol. 15
D. Jimeno de Perezopluxes, Barón de Puebla–larga de Valencia –––
–––
Teniente, Alférez Onofre de Villafuerte
06–09–1638
lib. ––– fol. –––
Castellano interino Oger Rodríguez 17–11–1639
lib. 25 fol. 178
D. Juan de Eulate, Gobernador (por muerte de Jorge Rodríguez)
08–09–1640
lib. 26 fol. 22
Dionisio de Guzmán, Maestre de Campo y Teniente General
07–05–1641
lib. 26 fol. 81
Bernabé Antonio de Salazar, Caballero de Santiago
26–02–1644
lib. 27 fol. 42
Teniente, Miguel de Salazar, Capitán
06–07–1656
lib. 28 fol. 164v.
Teniente, D. Juan Ortiz de Cadarso 04–08–1659
lib. 28 fol. 258v.
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D. Baltasar de Rada, Maestre de Campo
18–07–1663
lib. 28 fol. 383v.
Teniente, D. Juan de Oviedo, Capitán
16–08–1669
lib. 29 fol. 287
D. Francisco Angulo y Castro, Maestre de Campo
25–11–1672
lib. 29 fol. 398
Teniente, D. Juan Antonio Urdienza, Capitán 10–01–1675
lib. 29 fol. 442
D. Pedro de Ulloa Rivadeneyra, Maestre de Campo
13–04–1677
lib. 30 fol. 48
D. José García de Salcedo, Maestre de Campo
25–07–1682
lib. 30 fol. 124
Teniente, Ángel Basilio, Capitán
15–09–1682
lib. 30 fol. 152v.
Teniente, D. Juan Zabalza, Capitán
31–12–1682
lib. 30 fol. 157
D. Dionisio de Araiz, General de Artillería
05–04–1686
lib. 30 fol. 280
Teniente, D. Pedro Martínez de Balanza
12–04–1686
lib. 30 fol. 416
D. Carlos Nicolás de Eguía, Maestre de Campo
09–03–1691
lib. 31 fol. 137
D. Francisco de Luna y Cárcamo
1702
–––
D. Juan Cruzat, Marqués de Góngora, Gobernador
17–06–1705
lib.33 fol. 146
D. Jacinto del Pozobueno, Maestre de Campo
16–12–1709
lib.33 fol. 444
Teniente de Rey, D. Francisco Ibero, Caballero de Calatrava y Sargento Mayor 05–09–1709
lib. 33 fol. 459
D. Tomás de Idiáquez, Mariscal (por ausencia)
lib. 34 fol. 398
18–04–1716
D. Juan González, Ayudante General Guardia de Corps 16–04–1717
lib. 34 fol. 498v.
D. Antonio Santander, Mariscal de Campo
20–12–1732
lib. 37 fol. 196
D. Felipe Solís, Brigadier
31–07–1741
lib. 38 fol. 8
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D. Jaime de Silva, Teniente General 19–10–1746
lib. 38 fol. 326
D. Juan Gregorio Muniain, Mariscal de Campo
lib. 39 fol. 40v.
05–12–1753
D. Bernardo O´Connor de Pheli
08–03–1760
lib. 39 fol. 101v.
D. José Carabeo
–––
–––
D. Onofre de Córdoba Ramírez de Aro
10–10–1763
lib. 40 fol. 180
Marqués de Casacagigal
09–11–1779
lib. 41 fol. 47v.
Vizconde de Palazuelos, Mariscal de Campo
14–01–1784
lib. 41 fol. 238v.
D. Jerónimo Girón
21–02–1786
lib. 41 fol. 175
D. Vicente Dusmet
26–10–1789
lib. 42 fol. 99v.
Marqués de la Cañada
–––
–––
D. Manuel Bretón
20–10–1799
lib. 42 fol. 233v.
D. Pedro Ignacio Correa
06–07–1802
lib. 43 fol. 10
Marqués de Ferrera
07–04–1803
lib. 42 fol. 146
D. Antonio María Roselló
15–08–1814
lib. 43 fol. 271
D. Santos Ladrón de Cegama
31–03–1824
lib. 44 fol. 79v.
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Sources used Archivo General de Navarra (AGN, General Archive of Navarre) Secciones de Fortificaciones, Guerra, Mercedes Reales, Cartografía. Archivo General de Simancas (AGS, General Archive of Simancas) Planos. Archivo de la Institución “Príncipe de Viana” (AIPV, “Príncipe de Viana” Institute Archive) Expedientes relativos a las murallas y ciudadela de Pamplona. Archivo Municipal de Pamplona (AMP, Municipal Archive of Pamplona). Ficheros temáticos y Sección Fotográfica. Instituto de Historia y Cultura Militar, Madrid (IHCM, Institute of Military History and Culture, Madrid). Colección Aparici (Copies of Simancas papers) Secciones de Planos y Documentos de Fortificación. Servicio Geográfico del Ejército (SGE, Army Geographical Service). Cartoteca Histórica.
Bibliography ALVARADO, Fernando de, (Pseudonym for Mariano Arigita) Guía del viajero en Pamplona. Madrid, 1904, pp. 85–86. ARAZURI, José Joaquín, Pamplona, calles y barrios. Pamplona, 1979–1980, 3 vols. DEL CAMPO, Luis, Visita de Felipe IV a Pamplona (1646). Un cuadro testimonio. Col. Navarra, Temas de Cultura Popular, nº 259. DEL CAMPO, Luis, Pamplona durante la regencia de Espartero (sept, 1840–jul. 1843). Pamplona, 1985. 103 pp. ECHARRI, Víctor, Las murallas y la ciudadela de Pamplona, Pamplona, 2000, 535 pp. HENNEL DE GOUTEL, Baron, Le general Cassan et la defense de Pampelune. (25 juin–31 octobre 1813). París, 1920, 297 pp. IBARLUCEA, Dionisio de, Atlas de la provincia de Navarra. Pamplona, 1886, 88 pp. IDOATE, Florencio, Las fortificaciones de Pamplona a partir de la conquista de Navarra. Rev. Príncipe de Viana, 1954, pp. 57–154. IDOATE, Florencio, Diario del bloqueo puesto por los carlistas a la plaza de Pamplona. Rev. Príncipe de Viana, 1961, pp. 217–231. IDOATE, Florencio, Catálogo del Archivo General de Navarra. Sección de Guerra. (años 1259–1800). Pamplona, 1978. 626 pp. IDOATE, Florencio, Esfuerzo bélico de Navarra en el siglo XVI. Pamplona, 1981. 447 pp. IRIBARREN, José Mª, Pamplona y los viajeros de otros siglos. Pamplona, 1957, 247 pp.
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LUBIÁN Y SOS, Fermín de, Relación de la Santa Iglesia de Pamplona. Editada por la Cofradía del Gallico de San Cernin. Pamplona, 1955, 114 pp. MADOZ, Pascual, Diccionario Geográfico–Histórico–Estadístico de España, t. XII. Madrid, 1849, 643–644 pp. MADRAZO, Pedro de, Navarra y Logroño, t. II. Barcelona, 1886, pp. 375–380. MARTINENA, Juan José, La Pamplona de los burgos y su evolución urbana (ss. XII–XVI). Pamplona, 1974. 351 pp. MARTINENA, Juan José, Documentos referentes a las fortificaciones de Pamplona en el Servicio Histórico Militar de Madrid (1521–1814). Rev. Príncipe de Viana, 1976, pp. 443–506. MARTINENA, Juan José, Pamplona en 1800. Col. Navarra. Temas de Cultura Popular, nº 309. MARTINENA, Juan José, Navarra, castillos y palacios. Pamplona, 1980, 158 pp. MARTINENA, Juan José, Cartografía navarra en los Archivos Militares de Madrid. Pamplona, 1989, 318 pp. MARTINENA, Juan José, El recinto amurallado de Pamplona, Rev. Castillos de España, nº 104, 1995, pp. 19–32. MEMORIAS de don Joaquín Ignacio Mencos, Conde de Guenduláin (1799–1882). Editadas por la Institución Príncipe de Viana. Pamplona, 1952. 259 pp. MIÑANO, Sebastián de, Diccionario Geográfico–Estadístico de España y Portugal, t. VI. Madrid, 1827, 420 pp. NAGORE, Leandro, Apuntes para la historia. (1872–1886). Pamplona, 1964, 282 pp. NOMBELA, Julio, Crónica de la provincia de Navarra. Madrid, 1868. 112 pp. Novísima Recopilación de las leyes del Reino de Navarra. Edición realizada conforme a la obra de don Joaquín de Elizondo. Biblioteca de Derecho Foral. Pamplona, 1964. 3 vols. OLEZA, José de, La recuperación de San Sebastián y Pamplona en 1813. Pamplona, 1959. 186 pp. ORBE, Asunción, Arquitectura y urbanismo en Pamplona a finales del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX. Pamplona, 1986, 238 pp. PRIETO, José Luis, La Ciudadela de Pamplona, (Unpublished memoir, with photographs and plans, written in 1965 and kept in the Municipal Archive). RAMÍREZ ARCAS, Antonio, Itinerario descriptivo de Navarra. Pamplona, 1848, 200 pp. RODRÍGUEZ UNDIANO, E. y SÁNCHEZ DEL AGUILA, J., Diario del bloqueo de Pamplona (1874–75). Pamplona, Cuadernos de la cofradía gastronómica del Pimiento Seco, 1973. 92 pp. TORRES VILLEGAS, Fco. Jorge, Cartografía Hispano Científica, t. II. Madrid, 1857. pp. 141–143.
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Other published works San Bartolomé Fort Interpretation Centre for the Pamplona Fortifications Various, Pamplona, 2011 Fortificaciones de Pamplona. Pasado, presente y futuro (Pamplona Fortifications. Past, Present and Future) Various, Pamplona, 2010
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Other published works
The Citadel of Pamplona
San Bartolomé Fort Interpretation Centre for the Pamplona Fortifications Various, Pamplona, 2011
Five living centuries of an impregnable fortress
www.murallasdepamplona.es
978-84-95930-50-7
Five living centuries of an impregnable fortress
The Citadel of Pamplona
Fortificaciones de Pamplona. Pasado, presente y futuro (Pamplona Fortifications. Past, Present and Future) Various, Pamplona, 2010
Juan José Martinena Ruiz