Palace of Zabaleta: A Fifteenth-Century Tower House in Lesaka, Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Navarre
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page4 sections
History
Foundation and Reconstruction
The Palace of Zabaleta, also called Kaxerna Tower House, is a fifteenth-century tower house in Lesaka, Spain. A tower house combined domestic living quarters with defensive functions. In 1444, John II of Navarre, the fifteenth-century king of Navarre, granted financial assistance to Otxoa López Zabaleta, lord of the tower house, so that it could be rebuilt after forces from Gipuzkoa had burned it. The grant was linked to Otxoa López Zabaleta’s defense of Lesaka against them.
Later Use and Protection
During the Napoleonic Wars, the European conflicts fought from 1803 to 1815 against Napoleonic France, the tower house provided lodging for the forces of the British Duke of Wellington. The privately owned building is now used as a private residence and was renovated in 2009. It has held the Spanish designation Bien de Interés Cultural, a formal status for protected cultural heritage, since 1992, under reference RI-51-0007320.
Remains
The Palace of Zabaleta survives as a tower house in the center of Lesaka, in the Bortziriak region of Navarre in the western Pyrenees. It stands on Arretxea Street, behind Lesaka Town Hall and beside the Onin stream. Its present use as a private residence and the renovation carried out in 2009 form part of the building’s continuing physical history.
Nearby sites
