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In the heart of Estella’s old town is the Palace of the Kings of Navarra of Estella, home to the Museum Gustavo de Maeztu. You will find it just opposite the big stairs that go up to the San Pedro church.
Also known as the Palace of the Dukes of Granada of river Ega, it is the best piece of Navarran civil romanesque architecture (along with the Hórreo de Iracheta). Located at the Plaza de San Martín and opposite the church of San Pedro de la Rúa, at the very Camino in its path through Estella.
In one of its columns you can see a representation of the fight between Roldán and the giant Ferragut:
The museum is mostly devoted to the art work of Gustavo de Maeztu, a painter born in the neighbouring region of Alava who spent his last years – and died – in Estella. The visit is totally free and we strongly recommend it. You can check opening hours in their website, as well as information about the different temporary exhibitions and other events they hold.
When we visited it some months ago we especially liked this sketch of the work of Gustavo de Maeztu known as “Cacería en tiempos del Rey Sancho el Fuerte” (“Hunting in times of king Sancho el Fuerte”), where you can see at the top right corner the Ermita de Eunate, which is a must for any pilgrim of the Camino Francés, although it requires a little extra time and effort for those coming from Roncesvalles and Pamplona, while it’s on their way for those coming from Jaca. You can see the finished picture in this link of one of the museum’s social network profiles.
From the upper floor of the museum there is a good perspective of the passing pilgrims as they enter the Plaza de San Martín.
Estella is a really interesting town for pilgrims and deserves a good visit: you can stay in one of its many albergues, hostals and hotels and spend the evening visiting the city or, if you are just going through, you can all the same spend one to two hours to walk its old town, have a coffee, breakfast, lunch… and of course visit some of its monuments such as the church of San Pedro de la Rua and its cloister, to which we will give another blog entry soon.
© ALBERGUE Cirauqui – Casa Maralotx (registro Turismo Navarra UAB00031)
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