Zumarraga Town Hall
Culture [Civil Architecture]
Jauregi Handia
This is popularly known as “Legazpi House” as it is the birthplace of Miguel López de Legazpi, the colonizer of the Philippines.
According to the book “La Casa de Legazpi,” the house was built by the Lord of Balda centuries before the birth of Miguel during the time known as “the wars of the bands”.
In this respect, the building escaped the order issued by King Henry IV of Castile for the houses of the nobility to be reduced to the height of the first floor, although its crenellations were demolished. It should be remembered that this monarch implemented a policy of destroying the principal elements that gave power to feudal lords: their strongholds. This policy reached its final point during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, when they fully asserted their authority over their feudal lords).
According to Irizar, the house stopped being a home for the nobility during the second half of the 16th century, after being inhabited by Amador de Arriaran, who ordered the coat of arms to be placed over the main entrance. From then onwards the house was only a house for peasants and its physical appearance was modified so that it could adapt more easily to the new functions that it was to fulfil.
In the 19th century Nicolas de Soraluce saved it from being demolished by the building of the railway, but by the beginning of the 20th century it was found to be in an appalling state of repair.
During the 1940s, in view of the fact that the company “Esteban Orbegozo, S. A.” was keen to expand in the area, it was declared a National Monument of Historical and Artistic Value. From then onwards it underwent various works of restoration and in 1964, its owner, the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa, housed the Hispano-PhilippineMuseum inside it.
Thanks to thorough restoration work carried out during the present decade the building has today been turned into one which is devoted to serving as a framework for countless cultural programmes offered in the town of Zumarraga, and the “SecundinoEsnaolaMusicSchool” has its permanent headquarters there.
Zumarraga Town Hall
Conceived as a modern building at the service of its citizens, the Town Hall of Zumarraga was designed by the architect who reconstructed it by combining one historical period (maintaining the main façade as it was originally conceived in the 1860s) with the present-day one, in an attempt to make it functional and at the service of the administration that it is meant to serve. At the some time an effort has been made to seek a futuristic image in one its most important rooms (the Chamber, for example, a place designed to be the stage of the political theatre par excellence).
The building itself has a rectangular ground plan with a four-gabled roof. It has a lower porticoed section. At the height of the attic in the centre of the façade there is a reproduction of the town’s coat of arms. Furthermore, it has two identical adjoining sections on either side; it also has a lower section, as high as the middle part made up of a broad three-centred arch and an upper section consisting of three contiguous lintelled openings.
The Porticoed Euskadi Square (Plaza de Euskadi)
Formed by a square resulting from the combination of three rows of buildings, plus a road and a fourth row of buildings that border it (from where one gets a sensation of openness) it is, without doubt, one of the most outstanding places in Zumarraga’s civil architecture.
“Where is the town that belongs to this square?” is one of the most frequently heard phrases that have been made about this square down the ages. It was said by Carlist soldiers from Navarre when they seized the town during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
On the other hand, three of the four rows of buildings surrounding the square date back to the second third of the 19th century and the last of the sides of the square was finally closed off in 1954.
The houses that surround the square form a harmonious group of porticoes and a height of two storeys.
Near to the area next to the road there is a paved zone where the typical oxen contests take place.
In the centre of the square is a statue dedicated to Miguel López de Legazpi.
Municipal cemetery
A novel piece of architecture in the Basque Country owing to the unusual feature of a subterranean crypt which houses a suitable place for locating tomb recesses.
The architect commissioned to do this work has sought to recall the spaces in Egyptian temples, a space regarded as “an infinite journey”, and at the same time has put symbols all around it.
“In a space stretching towards infinity with a perspective expanded by arches and accentuated beams, the floor is marked out with lines that put new energy into a path and especially in two spaces on the edges where something appears to begin just where everything should come to an end.”
There are two statues inside it: “The Angel of Life” and “The Angel of Death,” by the sculptor Vicente Larrea.
Uzcanga House (Euskadi Square nº 2)
A building located next to the Town Hall has a lower, porticoed section. On the main floor there are four openings and a balcony. On the rear façade there is a sun terrace at the height of the third floor with two semicircular arches divided by a mullion.
Itarte House (Euskadi Square nº 9)
A building which is located at the end of the row of buildings with features similar to that of the Uzcanga House: a four-gabled roof, corner ashlar work and rows of balconies.
At one time the Uzcanga and the Itarte houses each had their own private chapels.
Aitzabaso Farmhouse
Also known as the “Areizaga Dorrea” it is located in the Aramburu neighbourhood.
Adorned with a coat of arms, this house is made up of two adjoining sections, one of which is considerably higher than the other. The higher of the two has a four-gabled roof, the lower a saddle roof.
The main façade has two semicircular arches each closed off by doors that lead into the hallway. In the centre of the main façade under the eaves of the roof is the ancient coat of arms of the Areizaga noble family.
Gurrtxaga Goikoa Farmhouse
A house adorned with a coat of arms and located in the Soraitz neighbourhood.
It has a rectangular floor plan and saddle roof.
Its main façade has a portal with two semicircular arches and halfway between the two of them a coat of arms. The openings are framed in stone and timber and arranged symetrically.
On the first floor there are two parapetted balconies and above them a long balcony.
Aizpuru Farmhouse
Located halfway between the Soraitz and Aramburu neighbourhoods, it is a tower house with a rectangular floor plan and a four-gabled roof.
The main façade has a portal with three lowered basket-handle arches, with one of them having been blocked off. The arches lead to a hallway, where a pretty lintelled door forms the access into the inside of the house. It has two balconies with stone bases and iron railings.
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