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Navarre itself is an open air museum. Art, the passage
of time, and the wealth of its scenery can be appreciated at all times.
However, Navarre also boasts some magnificent museums and it is now awaiting
a Museum of Contemporary Art, projected by the Navarre Government. Perhaps the Museum of Navarre is the most important one of all. Located right in the centre of Pamplona, above the Cuesta de Santo Domingo, this building was formerly the Hospital of Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia. This can still be seen in its 16C façade and chapel. |
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Amongst the prime exhibits we would highlight the
portrait of the Marques of San Adrian, by Goya and Moratín, by Luis Paret,
the spectacular Spanish-Arab casket dating back to 1005 and which comes from
the Monastery of Leire and a lovely mosaic illustrating Theseus and the
Minotaur. |
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The Cathedral of Pamplona also has a sensational
Diocesan Museum, accessed via the street Calle Dormitalería. It is housed
in the old refectory and kitchen, with its peculiar pyramid vault and larder.
The visit will also take you to the beautiful gothic
cloisters of the Cathedral, the Barbazana Chapel and the rest of the
Cathedral. The actual museum displays precious examples of religious art such as images of the Virgin, silver work, highlighting the gothic reliquaries of the Holy Sepulchre and the Lignum Crucis, a 15C reliquary of Santa Espina, |
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the monstrance of the Corpus and its little temple and crosses from different parishes. Amongst the painted works, we would point out the retable of Peralta by Van Dyck. In Corella, you can admire the Museo de la Encarnación
located in the Monastery of the same name and dating back to 1659. You will
find religious art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods and a special
dedication to the work of Antonio González Ruiz, a painter from Corella
born in 1711 and deceased in 1788. He managed to be the first Painting
director of the Royal Academy of Noble Arts of San Fernando. Some outstanding works are the Mystical Wedding by
Santa Gertrudis and the Martyr by San Plácido de Claudio Coello, the bust
of San Pedro Nolasco by Pier Antonio Colici and an Apotheosis of Christ by
Corrado Giacquinto. In the Museum of Roncesvalles, you will discover true
works of religious art which were once at the Royal Collegiate of Santa María.
Particularly outstanding is the collection of silverwork, and we would also
draw your attention to the Romanesque silver Book of the Gospel, a gold and
silver casket, a mid 14C reliquary of Charlemagne’s chessboard and the
Miramamolín emerald which takes us back to the Battle of Navas de Tolosa.
Amongst the paintings, we would point out the Escuela del Bosco, the
Triptych of the Calvary and the Sagrada Familia de San Juan, by Luis de
Morales. More religious art can be found in the Museum of the
Monastery of Tulebras which particularly concentrates on the 16C and 18C. As
well as visiting the Roman tower which holds works of archaeological value,
you can admire objects of great artistic value such as the Virgen de la
Cama, a Baroque carving, and the retable of the Dormición de la Virgen and
the table of the Holy Trinity by Jerónimo Cosida. The Gustavo de Maeztu Museum is in Estella in what was
the Palace of the Kings of Navarre or the Palace of the Dukes of Granada de
Ega. The actual building is worth a visit in itself. It is Romanesque and
has a historic capital which relates the battle of the mythical Roldan with
the giant Ferragut. The work to be seen there are by Gustavo de Maeztu y
Whitney (1887 – 1947), inhabitant of Estella, writer and painter. His
paintings are about women, wine cellars, portraits, landscape. They also
illustrate part of the research this artist began at the time. The Ethnographic Museum of Arteta will take you back to
times of old in Navarre through objects that have now been forgotten.
Craftsmen’s tools of iron, clay or wood, clothes, ploughing equipment...
all in the old house of Fanticorena, built in 1668. The house alone is well
worth a visit. This museum has a famous founder and director, in the person
of the sculptor José Ulibarrena. Another very curious exhibition for railway lovers is
the one at Castejón, next to the RENFE station. Here you will discover what
the railway was like in the past and you can even admire an 1824 fire
fighting cart, street lamps of the past and photographs of trains and
stations. If you are visiting Pamplona, you shouldn’t miss
seeing the Planetarium where you can enjoy, as well as the exhibitions shown
there, a projection dedicated to the world of space shown on a large dome,
20 metres in diameter, receiving the image from 70 projectors pointing to
the stars. It can capture 9,000 stars. Other museums or places of interest indicated in our
routes are the House-Museum of Julián Gayarre in Roncal, the visit to the
Hermitage of Eunate, the Castle of Javier or the one at Olite, the walled
enclosure at Rada, or the ecomuseum of the Windmill at Zubieta, the
exhibition located at Señorío de Bértiz and at Tabar, the museum of the Pérez
de Rada family. In Pamplona, in the University of Navarre, there is the
photographic legacy of Ortiz-Echagüe and the Museum of Natural Science with
over 6,000 objects. In the street Mercado you will find the Pablo Sarastate
Museum and in the street of San Fermín 12, an exhibition of Vida Capuchina.
In petilla de Aragón, you can discover the birth place of the Nobel prize
winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal. |
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