The Parish Church of Santa María, a magnificent monument of the Merindad, was built for the most part towards the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth in the Gothic style. Construction began in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, although the building would continue to be completed in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its original Gothic ground plan consists of three naves, divided into four bays, together with side chapels and a polygonal chevet. In elevation it is structured with cruciform pillars and is covered with ribbed vaults. At the foot of the nave there is a raised choir, above which begins a high gallery that extends over the side aisles and opens through polylobed arches with Gothic tracery.
To this original plan, in the sixteenth century, were added the tower, the staircase giving access to the choir and the portal, the latter two the work of Juan de Ochoa Arranotegui. 1693 and 1717 the ambulatory was built, following a design by Santiago Raón, perfectly integrated into the Gothic structure, although earlier, in the sixteenth century, the axial chapel had been erected, with a Greek-cross plan and covered by a dome on pendentives. In the eighteenth century a series of ancillary rooms were added, such as the sacristy, over which rises a dome on pendentives, the lavabo room and the chapter house; and on the site of the former cemetery the Chapel of San Juan del Ramo was built, with a dome fitted with a lantern.
Outstanding for their importance are the mural paintings uted in tempera by the Madrid artist Luis de Paret y Alcázar (1747–1799). At the entrance one can see The Angel’s Announcement to Zechariah and The Annunciation. In the dome are Saint John as a Child in the Desert, The Preaching of the Baptist, The Arrest, and Behold the Lamb of God. Finally, on the pendentives he painted allegories of Chastity, Constancy, Holiness and Wisdom.
In the wall at the foot of the church there is a fourteenth-century Gothic doorway, pointed and with three archivolts; in the tympanum the Virgin and Child are represented two angels. The great main portal is a sixteenth-century Renaissance work, conceived like an altarpiece, with a plinth of recessed panels and a main body divided into three vertical sections by Corinthian columns. In the centre opens the door, round-arched and profusely decorated. The portal culminates high above in a round arch on recessed pilasters, generating a quarter-dome decorated with coffering. The whole is covered with figurative reliefs, grotesques and motifs of the so-called a candelieri type. The tower, for its part, consists of a tall shaft and a prismatic bell chamber articulated by pilasters and opened by windows on its fronts.
Inside, on the Gospel side, there is a baptismal font from the mid-sixteenth century and a Mannerist canvas depicting the Baptism of Christ. In the Chapel of San Juan del Ramo there are three Neoclassical altarpieces, the central one housing a Gothic carving made by the Burgundian artist Jehanin Lome. In another chapel we see the Mannerist altarpiece of Saint Catherine, by Juan Bazcardo and Diego Jiménez II, who also made the nearby altarpiece of Saint James. The church’s high altarpiece is Baroque, by Pedro Margotedo, with sculptures by Bernardo de Elcaraeta, a disciple of the great Gregorio Fernández, whose influence is evident. In the axial chapel of the ambulatory there is a Penitent Magdalene, made by Roque Solano following models by Pedro de Mena. In another chapel there is a sixteenth-century Virgin of the Rosary, brought from the church of San Pedro.
In the choir there is Rococo choir seating and two eighteenth-century canvases on the life of Saint Peter; in the sacristy there is an altarpiece with a carving of the Crucified Christ from the first half of the seventeenth century. Other carvings and various pieces of gold- and silversmith’s work are also kept there, among which should be highlighted a processional cross by Luis de Paret, dated 1798, and a reliquary of Saint Catherine from around 1600, both in silver.
The Convent of San Francisco, or San Juan del Ramo, dates from the mid-seventeenth century and comprises the church, the cloister and other dependencies. The church has a Latin-cross plan with a square chevet. It is covered by a barrel vault with lunettes, articulated by transverse arches in the nave, the arms of the transept and the main chapel; by a dome decorated with double radial bands and a central boss over the crossing; and by groin vaults in the side chapels, except for the two preceding the transept, which are covered by small domes with lanterns. The interior, decorated with plasterwork along the cornice and with paintings, achieves an illusionistic effect. On the exterior, built of rubble masonry with ashlar at the corners, the convent-type façade stands out, with two storeys topped by a triangular pediment with a central oculus. In the lower section, four attached pilasters on plinths support a continuous cornice, on which their ball finials are placed.
The cloister, square in plan, has two storeys, the first of ashlar masonry and the second of brick. In the chapels of the collateral aisles there are striking paintings imitating altarpieces, to which wooden altarpieces from the church of San Pedro were later attached, reducing the illusionistic exuberance of the fully Baroque painting. Among them there stands out one of lively design from the beginning of the eighteenth century, with a large trilobed niche housing a Baroque Crucified Christ of acceptable quality. In the main chapel, the Baroque pictorial display on walls and vaults is clearly evident. The decorative appearance of the chevet is completed by two large canvases on the side walls, representing the Baptism of Christ and the Preaching of Saint John the Baptist. The high altarpiece, in Neoclassical style, contains a gigantic Baroque carving of Saint Peter seated. The choir has Baroque stalls with plain panels separated by decorated small columns. In the sacristy there is a Baroque chest of drawers finely carved with decorative scrollwork, above which is placed a carving of San Juan del Ramo from the second half of the eighteenth century.
The Hospital of Santa María de Gracia, or Basilica of La Soledad, stands in the middle of the urban centre and functioned as a hospital from its foundation at the end of the fifteenth century until 1576. Although the church is Gothic in origin, preserving from that period its layout, the covering of the chevet, a very robust Gothic arch on one side and one of the façades, it was transformed in the sixteenth century. At that time, a columned hall was built above it for meetings of the members of the confraternity of the Vera Cruz, together with a brick addition to the portal, which has two lintelled balconies and low vaults with coffers and rosettes preceding the main chapel. The rest of the nave is covered with a low Baroque barrel vault with lunettes. On the Gospel side is the richly decorated Baroque urn of the Holy Entombment. It contains a seventeenth-century articulated recumbent Christ of great dramatic force. Presiding over an altarpiece is the relief of the Trinity, from the workshop of the Jiménez family. On the other side, in the niche of the transept, there is a Rococo altarpiece of broken outline. The carvings of the titular saints, Saint Roch and Saint John, are from the sixteenth century. Various processional floats are kept there. The presbytery is centred by a Neoclassical altarpiece, and on the sides hang two canvases from the first half of the seventeenth century. In the meeting hall there are several carvings of Crucified Christs.
Located to the south of the town, on the Way of Saint James, stands the Hermitage of Santa María de Cuevas, documented in the fourteenth century, although the present building is Baroque. It consists of a nave of six bays, with niches on the Gospel side, and a square chevet covered by a dome with a lantern on pendentives. Next to the church are the meeting hall and sacristy, which partly make use of the medieval structure. On the Gospel side there are a Magdalene and figures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul from the first half of the seventeenth century, the latter related to the Jiménez workshop. In the altarpiece of Saint Martin, the central niche contains the saint on horseback dividing his cloak with the poor man. This sculptural group is not from the Baroque period like the altarpiece, but from the beginning of the sixteenth century, with Hispano-Flemish influences. Presiding over the small baldachin altarpiece in the presbytery is the Virgin of Las Cuevas, in Gothic style, from the late fourteenth century.
The Hermitage of San Martín de Tidón, now in ruins, was a late Romanesque building whose roof was remodelled in the seventeenth century. On the exterior, built of good ashlar blocks, thick buttresses enclosing the chevet are preserved, with a window opening in the centre. Also preserved is the doorway, with a round arch with moulded beadwork and an archivolt decorated with a reticular pattern.
Remains survive of the Hermitage of La Trinidad de Cuevas, a thirteenth-century work with a rectangular plan and polygonal chevet. It formed part of the Way of Saint James and from 1303 was a commandery of the Collegiate Church of Roncesvalles. Beside it there were some dependencies of ashlar and rubble-stone masonry, whose entrance was a sixteenth-century round-arched main doorway. In the Cemetery Chapel, on the Gospel side, there is a carving of the Magdalene of classicising and academic bearing, while presiding over the room are a Crucified Christ and a Renaissance Virgin of Sorrows from the early seventeenth century, related to the workshop of Bascardo and framed by Solomonic columns. In the collateral altarpiece there is a canvas of the Christ of Burgos. In addition to those mentioned, there were other hermitages, most of them of medieval origin, which had been the churches of the villages that formed the urban nucleus of the town, such as San Andrés de Perizuelas, San Miguel, San Lorenzo and, in a ruinous state, San Andrés de Longar.
The town was surrounded by a belt of ashlar walls, with moats around it and four barbicans at the centre of each of the flanks, the one at San Pedro still standing. The castle, trapezoidal in plan, performed a special defensive function, with part of its walls incorporated into the town wall itself. From the late 19th century onwards the castle was gradually destroyed, its plots being used for houses and other buildings, whose lower parts still preserve remains. The Estella Gate is today a stretch of ashlar wall opened by a semicircular arch with prominent voussoirs; in the upper part there is a coat of arms on a double-headed eagle, with an open crown as crest and four quarters in its field. The Trinidad Gate, plastered over as a result of ed repairs, is a 17th-century work, opened by a depressed ashlar arch. House no. 10 in Calle Algarrada consists of one ashlar section and others in brick, dating from the 18th century, with a much-altered semicircular doorway. Houses nos. 14, 16 and 18 follow the same scheme, the first preserving 16th-century ironwork on the door. No. 20 displays a 17th-century coat of arms on a strapwork cartouche, with mermaids as supporters, holding it while also grasping fleurs-de-lis, and a helmet as crest.
At the end of this street stands another house combining ashlar and brick, with an old wrought-iron balcony on the second section and a wooden eave at the top. Beside it is a 16th-century ashlar wall with a semicircular arch. In a rear alleyway there survives a doorway from the first half of the 17th century, with a straight opening framed by moulding, Tuscan pilasters with recessed shafts on high pedestals supporting a triangular pediment. It is attached to a wall of large ashlars on which rise two sections and a brick attic, with a window fitted with a 16th-century grille of Gothic tradition. The municipal Balcón de Toros, in Plaza del Coso, is an ashlar building of two sections, each opened by nine semicircular arches on pillars. Its ends are articulated by superimposed Tuscan pilasters, with smooth and fluted shafts, supporting striking friezes, the second section with triglyphs. The whole is crowned by a double wooden eave with carved brackets and pendants richly decorated with fleshy foliage, dating from the final years of the 17th century. Small square brick towers rise at the corners, opened by semicircular balconies. The building is presided over by a small coat of arms of the city — five bars — set in a strapwork cartouche and crowned by an open crown.
No. 6 in the square is an 18th-century Baroque building, with three sections and an ashlar attic, with continuous balconies and openings framed by lugged surrounds on the second and third sections. Beside it stood the Clergy Balcony, demolished in 1965. There follows a long rubblework wall, with a first ashlar section containing straight doors and openings with flat lugged frames. Nos. 14 and 16 consist of a first ashlar section and two further sections and an attic in brick. In the basement of no. 21, the springing of thick walls is preserved. Continuing on the east side is an 18th-century work with a lower ashlar section opened by three lintelled doors and the same number of windows, with flat lugged frames. Above the outer doors are small shields of the city accompanied by rocaille ornament and crowned by an open crown. Above this first section are three brick blocks, each composed of two sections and an attic.
No. 11, facing the old castle, corresponds to a house from the second half of the 17th century, with a lower ashlar section, two further brick sections with balconies, and an attic with a gallery of double small arches. On the corner with Calle Algarrada stands the monumental palace of Unda y Garibay, from the second half of the 17th century, forming a large block with three façades on which two sections of ashlar and brick are followed by an attic also in brick, with a gallery of double small arches and balconies on all three fronts. Facing Calle Algarrada, there is a coat of arms from the second half of the 17th century, with a quartered field and a helmet as crest. Inside, this house preserves a square light well developed over three sections, the two upper ones with lintelled balconies framed by flat bands with lugs. It is covered by a hemispherical dome with lantern on pendentives. Calle Algarrada and Calle Mayor, no. 3 displays in its lower section a 16th-century pointed arch, now blind, above which rise two brick sections with old wrought-iron balconies. No. 1 displays a coat of arms from the second half of the 17th century, with a strapwork cartouche in orle and a helmet as crest.
No. 19 in Calle Mayor corresponds to the palace of the Añoa y Busto family, an 18th-century Baroque work characterised by its broad horizontal development. The first section and mezzanine are in ashlar, and the second is in brick, with a long balcony of rich ironwork; it is topped by an attic with a gallery of small arches and Baroque wrought-iron balconies, crowned by a wooden eave with double carved brackets. Inside, a Baroque staircase is preserved. The shield on the façade, from the first decade of the 18th century, is bordered by spectacular foliage wrapped in scrolls, with a lower mascaron naked children; as crest it has a cross potent and, above it, another fleur-de-lis cross beneath an ecclesiastical hat with ten tassels on each side, framed by cherub heads. Nos. 42 and 40 are Baroque in type, with narrow façades, a first ashlar section and, above it, brick sections and attic with two rows of balconies. Nos. 7, 9 and 11 correspond to a large 18th-century Baroque palace in ruinous condition. No. 30, the Casa de los Ripa, is an original 18th-century building of three sections and an attic.
Notable is the continuous balcony of old wrought iron that marks the third section as the principal floor. No. 18 displays a 19th-century coat of arms with a border of laurel garlands and a helmet as crest. Beside the church of Santa María stands the Casa de los San Cristóbal, from the beginning of the 17th century, rising over a first ashlar section opened by a semicircular doorway with recessed archivolts decorated with lozenges. It is followed by two brick sections with semicircular openings and old grilles. Inside, it preserves a two-storey staircase with perpendicular flights, with a 17th-century plasterwork rosette, culminating in a dome with lantern. The house has 13th-century medieval cellars, with two rectangular chambers on two levels, where masons’ marks can be seen. No. 16 has a first section and mezzanine in ashlar, with a large lintelled gateway tall openings, and a second section and attic in brick. This house is followed by three others from the 18th century, with a lower ashlar section and upper sections and attic in brick. On nos. 12 and 10 there is a Rococo coat of arms from the second half of the 18th century, with helmet crest and quartered field. The shield of the adjoining house is 19th-century Neoclassical in style, with a border of laurel garlands surrounding a strapwork cartouche and crowned by a helmet. At no. 8 stands the Casa de los Ichaso, from the 18th century, with y grilles on its continuous balconies, featuring large suns, and a quarter-barrel eave with lunettes, beneath which open the attic windows.
The façade preserves a late Rococo shield, with a lower mascaron with palmettes and a helmet as crest cornucopias with flowers, with laurel garlands hanging below them. Inside, there is a large staircase with a dome. In Plaza de los Fueros stands the Town Hall, a Baroque building begun in 1657 and mostly built 1686 and 1692. It is a large ashlar prism of marked horizontality, opened by semicircular porticoes in the lower part and lintelled balconies corresponding to the lower arches above. The elevations are articulated by pilasters, all with Tuscan capitals, differentiated in their shafts. The façade culminates in a monumental stone-carved coat of arms bearing the city arms, with a rich cartouche of lions, foliage and an imperial crown as crest. At the ends of the building rise brick towers with smooth pilasters and, them, semicircular arches — now blind — with a stone balustrade, topped by oculi. Belonging to the Town Hall is the reliquary bust of Saint Mary Magdalene, patron saint of the city; it is made of wood and partly plated in gilded silver, with the flesh parts in natural colouring.
On the corner of Rúa de San Pedro stands a two-façade building with a porticoed first ashlar section, two brick sections opened by balconies of straight design, and an attic with a gallery of small arches and small balconies, ending in a carved wooden eave on brackets. Near the Town Hall is the Casa de los Múzquiz-Aldunate, from the second half of the 18th century, combining ashlar and brick in its elevations. The façade displays a striking Rococo shield, crowned by a helmet and with a quartered field. Inside, it preserves a three-storey staircase, with a hemispherical dome and octagonal lantern raised on a dentil ring and pendentives crowning the stairwell. No. 3 in Rúa de San Pedro s three lines of balconies and displays a Rococo coat of arms from the late 18th century, with a lower mascaron, supporting lions and a helmet crest framed by angels. No. 9 s this shield and has a lower section and mezzanine in ashlar, two further brick sections with pairs of balconies, and an attic with small windows. Similar is no. 11, displaying a 17th-century coat of arms with a strapwork cartouche and a border of foliage ending in large rosettes.
No. 10, the Casa de los Estanga, has a Baroque façade, with two storeys featuring continuous balconies and a double attic level with small balconies. In the centre is a nineteenth-century Neoclassical coat of arms, with laurel garlands and a helmet as crest, divided into four quarters. Nos. 14 and 16 date from the seventeenth century. No. 20, the former Casa de los Acedo, has a lower ashlar masonry section, opened by an off-centre round-arched doorway, above which there is a small coat of arms, and two upper storeys of rendered brick. No. 22 is a Baroque work, marked by a single line of balconies, with an attic containing three doubled lintels, forming a gallery whose openings preserve old ironwork. Next is No. 24, known as the Palace of the Dicastillo family. It is a seventeenth-century Baroque building, with a very high first section of ashlar masonry containing an off-centre round-arched main doorway with recessed voussoirs; a second brick section, pierced by four lintelled openings; and an attic with a gallery of small doubled round arches with ironwork. The façade is presided over by a seventeenth-century coat of arms with a cartouche of twisted leatherwork and a helmet as crest. Building No. 17, from the late seventeenth century, has a first section of ashlar masonry with a straight main doorway of powerful alternating rustication, as does No. 30.
At the side stands the Baroque palace commissioned by José Pérez de Lanciego in 1729, with a first section of ashlar masonry containing lintelled doorways with flat eared frames, and two further storeys plus an attic in brick. In the centre there is a coat of arms with a castle in the lower part, flanked by a sword and a palm, a rich border of foliage, child supporters, and, as crest, a cross angels beneath a galero, from which cords descend on each side with five tassels. Also noteworthy is the Palace of the Pujadas family, from the seventeenth century, built of ashlar masonry and brick and composed of two storeys and an attic. The ensemble is crowned by a projecting wooden eave with double scroll brackets. Inside, a spacious entrance hall, several reception rooms and a large old kitchen are preserved. The façade bears a coat of arms on cartouches of twisted leatherwork, crested with a helmet.
No. 33 on Calle San Pedro preserves an eighteenth-century rusticated doorway. No. 25 consists of four storeys of ashlar masonry and brick with pilasters, the lower ones recessed, and a lintelled entrance door with eared mouldings. Nos. 21 and 23 display sixteenth-century moulded round-arched main doorways, the keystone of the latter bearing a plain shield on a cartouche. Also from the sixteenth century are houses Nos. 13 and 11, with a first section of ashlar masonry and round-arched main doorways, as well as the round-arched doorway of No. 3.
Building No. 26 on Calle Santa María has a lower ashlar section with the typical round-arched entrance and two brick storeys, finished with an attic of small arches. No. 42 on Calle de Abajo de Santa María has a first section of ashlar masonry, above which rises another in brick with a seventeenth-century oval coat of arms, with a cartouche of twisted leatherwork and a helmet. The coat of arms displayed on house No. 25 is from the same period, with a cartouche of twisted leatherwork and a helmet crest. Nos. 23 and 18 have a typical sixteenth-century doorway with moulded voussoirs and a coat of arms on the keystone. Building No. 20 has a first section of ashlar masonry, opened by a straight eared doorway, and an upper brick section with two balconies on gadrooned corbels, while the third has only one balcony in the centre. It dates from the eighteenth century, and the façade preserves a Rococo coat of arms with a rich foliage border and a helmet crest.
No. 8 is a Baroque house with a lintelled eared main doorway and a single line of balconies on its upper floors. Especially outstanding is building No. 4, with a first section of ashlar masonry and an off-centre round-arched main doorway with recessed voussoirs and jambs, opened slender fluted pilasters supporting a continuous frieze; the spandrels are used for oculi. This section serves as a pedestal for another in brick, while the façade culminates in a gallery of small round arches with a double cornice of brickwork decoration.
The Portal de la Solana presents on the exterior a robust wall with an imperial coat of arms on a cartouche of twisted leatherwork, with a double-headed eagle, the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece in the border, and an open crown as crest. To the rear, it opens in a round arch, and inside there is a straight niche paired Tuscan pilasters with pedestals and a triangular pediment, containing a seventeenth-century carving of the Immaculate Conception. Nearby is a Rococo coat of arms from the second half of the eighteenth century, with a lower cartouche ing a tree and a rampant bear tied to it, a rocaille border over four flags with diagonal crescents, and a helmet as crest. No. 34 on Calle del Portillo has two ashlar masonry sections with a broad late Gothic main doorway. No. 32 preserves a seventeenth-century coat of arms and another circular one that is difficult to date.
No. 3 on Calle San Felices offers a broad Baroque façade with a lintelled doorway in its lower section and three rows of balconies on the upper floors, with original iron fittings. The Portal de San Felices preserves only the remains of a sixteenth-century arch and some pillars. Beside it is a niche with an image of the Virgin from the late sixteenth century. The seventeenth-century Portal de San Miguel has a depressed ashlar arch and a small attic of rubble-stone masonry, culminating in a triangular pediment topped with pyramids. Beneath a broad round arch, it houses a Baroque niche with an eighteenth-century carving of Saint Michael.
No. 28 on Calle San Miguel is an eighteenth-century building with a first section and mezzanine of ashlar masonry and an upper brick section, the whole crowned by a gallery of small doubled arches, topped by a wooden eave. Nos. 26 and 22 date from the seventeenth century; in the latter there is a coat of arms framed by a cartouche of twisted leatherwork and crested by a helmet. Next comes No. 20, with a single sixteenth-century ashlar section and a round-arched main doorway with a splayed rectangular opening. No. 16, typical in its attic of small arches, bears a coat of arms from the second half of the seventeenth century, framed by a lower mascaron garlands, a cartouche of twisted leatherwork, a rich foliage border and a helmet.
The Palace of Urra is a monumental Baroque building from the late seventeenth century. Its ashlar façade comprises a ground floor and mezzanine articulated by outer Tuscan pilasters with rusticated shafts, as in the pair of doorways and windows. The two upper storeys have fluted pilasters and balconies with moulded eared frames. It has wrought ironwork on the windows and balconies, and a projecting wooden eave with large carved brackets. On the mezzanine is displayed an elaborate Baroque coat of arms within a dense border of spiky foliage wrapped in scrolls, with a helmet as crest.
No. 6 belongs to a Baroque building with two storeys and an attic of basket-handle arches. House No. 26 on Calle de Tidón, from the sixteenth century, has a first section of ashlar masonry, two further sections in brick and an attic, also in brick, with a gallery of small arches. No. 24, from the eighteenth century, preserves a lintelled main doorway with moulded beadings and eared mouldings. No. 18 displays on the keystone of its doorway a sixteenth-century coat of arms with a quartered field. No. 16, known as “El Palacio”, dates from the seventeenth century and has one ashlar section and two further brick sections, crowned by a wooden eave on brackets carved with various figures. It preserves a coat of arms from the same century with a cartouche of twisted leatherwork and a helmet. No. 14 dates from the sixteenth century and has a beautiful Renaissance doorway with a round-arched door, recessed pilasters and voussoirs, set slender fluted columns except in the lower third. No. 10 displays a coat of arms with the vase of lilies of the parish of Santa María, and No. 8 incorporates another similar seventeenth-century coat of arms.
The Portal de Santa María presents on the exterior an ashlar wall with a depressed arch and an upper attic, and preserves a Renaissance-style niche with a moulded round arch Tuscan columns and beneath a straight pediment. The structure of the portal rests on the building known as the Casa del Diezmo de Santa María, composed of three storeys of ashlar masonry and brick, opened by various lintelled openings. On Calle Serapio Urra stands the Las Carnicerías building, with two ashlar masonry sections, displaying in the centre and at the ends the city’s coats of arms with rich foliage borders and open crowns as crests.
It may be stated that the town of Viana is one of the most important medieval urban ensembles in Navarre, its old quarter having been preserved almost unaltered.
(Ref. Catálogo Monumental de Navarra, Municipality of Estella.)