Palacio de Subiza: A Baroque Noble Palace in Navarre
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Navarre, Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page7 sections
History
Palacio de Subiza is a medieval Navarrese stately residence in Subiza, Spain, whose present Baroque form was built in 1764 over an earlier palace. It stands in the Cendea de Galar, south of the Pamplona basin and southeast of the Sierra del Perdón, approximately 13 kilometres from Pamplona. The building is a palacio cabo de armería, a Navarrese noble residence whose status was connected with an established armorial lineage and hereditary privileges.
The Subiza Lineage
The lineage of Subiza reaches back to the thirteenth century and was included among Navarre’s twelve ricoshombres, members of the highest level of medieval and early-modern Iberian nobility, in the Armorial of the Kingdom of Navarre. The family’s earlier history was associated with Íñigo Orioles, who served King Alfonso I, also known as Alfonso the Battler, during the twelfth century and took part in the conquests of Zaragoza and Tudela. From 1134, Íñigo’s son Sancho Iñíguez appears as lord of Subiza and as a vassal of García Ramírez, king of Pamplona. He also held the territorial charge of San Esteban de Deyo.
In 1365, Charles II, the fourteenth-century king of Navarre, granted Subiza to Juan Remírez de Arellano. The palace later became the centre of a hereditary family estate. On 17 June 1545, Francés de Mutiloa and Catalina de Góngora, then lords of Palacio de Subiza, made a joint testament and founded their mayorazgo, an entail designed to keep the principal family property together across generations.
The Rada Branch and Eighteenth-Century Rebuilding
The marriage of the heiress Ana Mutiloa y Arbizu to Juan de Rada at Cordovilla in 1613 enlarged the mayorazgo and established the Rada branch at the palace. Palacio de Subiza belonged to Antonio de Rada in 1723 and to Tiburcio de Rada in 1742. It later passed to Joaquín de Rada y Mutiloa, who married María Josefa Borda y Goyeneche.
By the time of Joaquín de Rada y Mutiloa’s marriage, the palace was considered uninhabitable. The decision was therefore taken to demolish and rebuild it with the grandeur and sumptuousness regarded as suitable for the family’s status. An earlier palace had occupied the site, and the new building was raised over the ruins of the former Rada residence.
In 1764, Pedro Fermín Goyeneche Baracearte, a Pamplona resident with roots in Baztan, commissioned the construction of the present palace. Baztan, a historic valley and cultural region of Navarre, influenced the architectural character of the building. The reconstruction was among the final palace projects of the eighteenth century, and the Subiza mayorazgo was established on the site.
Preservation
Palacio de Subiza is included in the Catalogue of Buildings and Elements of Interest in the Galar Municipal Plan. It had remained uninhabited since 1981, and its condition deteriorated over time. In 2010, the municipality repaired the roofs to help preserve the property after inaction by the new owner, Santiago Bilbao. The palace is regarded as the most important heritage property in the Cendea de Galar and as one of the elegant towered Baroque palaces of its period.
Remains
The Principal Facade
The surviving building is a large Baroque palace constructed in dressed ashlar masonry. Its principal facade is arranged around a central block that projects beyond the line of two corner towers. The central section rises through four levels, while each tower is divided into five sections and capped with a hipped roof. Together, these elements give the palace its strongly ordered, towered composition.
A broad entrance occupies the centre of the ground floor. It is framed by the Tuscan order, a simplified classical style with plain columns and restrained decoration. Two smooth-shafted columns support an entablature ornamented with triglyphs, vertically channelled blocks, and metopes, the panels placed between them.
The two upper floors carry continuous balconies across the facade. A coat of arms surmounts the central opening of the first upper floor, while the opening on the highest level is crowned by a simple triangular pediment. A projecting wooden eave protects the central facade and forms its upper finish. The original lineage arms were gold with a black chief, a horizontal band across the upper part of the shield.
The Earlier Palace Site
The eighteenth-century palace incorporates the site of the former Rada family residence, which stood there before the rebuilding. The present structure was therefore formed directly over the ruins of its predecessor, preserving the earlier palace’s place within the estate while giving the property a substantially renewed Baroque architectural form.
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