Palacio del Marqués de Huarte: A Baroque Palace in Tudela
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Navarre, Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page5 sections
History
The Palacio del Marqués de Huarte is a Baroque palace in Tudela, Spain, built between 1742 and 1745 by local resident Diego Antonio Huarte y Escudero. Baroque was an elaborate artistic and architectural style that flourished in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Huarte, heir to a family estate whose inheritance was legally restricted to keep it within the family, served as Tudela’s mayor in 1740–1741 and again in 1762. King Carlos IV granted him the title of first Marquis of Huarte on 14 February 1796.
The palace was restored in 1986. Since 1987, it has housed the Yanguas y Miranda Library and the Tudela Municipal Archive, and it is owned by the city council. In 1989, it received Spain’s Asset of Cultural Interest designation, a legal heritage-protection status.
Remains
The three-storey Baroque building stands in Tudela’s old quarter, with façades on Mercadal and Herrerías streets.
Exterior
The Mercadal façade is decorated with Baroque paintings.
Interior
An imposing double imperial staircase forms a principal feature of the interior. An imperial staircase has a main flight that divides into two branches. Above, the roof is formed by twelve small vaults and a central elliptical dome. Four curved supports, called pendentives, help carry the dome and are decorated with cherubs. A lantern at the dome’s top admits light.
Carriage
The palace preserves an eighteenth-century carriage belonging to the Marquises of San Adrián. It is in the French Rococo style, an ornate style of the later eighteenth century.
