Olite, Charles III's palace town: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Charles III's palace-castle and wine
The walk circles the old town through its palaces, convents and churches, then reaches the royal quarter, where kings and wine meet: a museum of the vine in a former palace, the Old Palace of the Theobalds, the church that stands beside both palaces, and the New Palace with its old wine cellar.
The stops
Charles III the Noble enlarged the older castle into the New Palace in the 15th century, with most of the works done between the late 14th and early 15th centuries, and its entrance opens onto this square that bears his name. In the square stands the Torre del Chapitel, which has served as a gate of the Roman and medieval walled enclosure, the town council's chamber, a market house and a clock tower. After the Royal Palace, it is described as the town's most emblematic civic building.
Photo: Artistosteles — CC BY-SA 4.0 This Renaissance palace is one of those that stand out on the Rúa Mayor, Olite's main street, and dates from the third quarter of the 16th century. Its front is of ashlar stone, with brick used only in the small arcaded gallery, and it has a rich wooden eave. Inside, the staircase under a dome is Baroque.
Photo: Vanbasten 23 — CC BY-SA 3.0 The Poor Clares have lived here since 1804, after about ten years of wandering. Their original convent outside the walls of Pamplona, founded in 1228, was pulled down in 1795 for military reasons during the War of the Convention, and in Olite they settled in a house that had been a hospital of the Order of St Anthony Abbot. Kings of Navarre protected the community from the days of Theobald I, and Theobald II, whose natural daughter was a nun there, left a bequest so that the anniversary of his death would be marked every year.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 San Pedro is Olite's oldest surviving church, begun in the Romanesque style, then Cistercian Gothic, and extended later in the Baroque period. Its Gothic needle tower, built on the old town wall and more than 50 metres high, shapes the skyline together with the Royal Palace. The round-arched doorway dates from the late 12th century, and the Gothic tympanum shows Saints Peter, Andrew and James, while the lintel tells scenes from the life of Peter.
Photo: Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 This Franciscan convent stands outside the old walls. The friars' first home was a modest building, and in the 13th century Theobald II helped pay for new works. All that survives of the medieval church is its Gothic doorway, from the 15th century; the rest was pulled down in the mid-18th century in poor condition, and the present convent was built between 1749 and 1763.
Photo: Mattis — CC BY-SA 4.0 The museum fills the former palace of Santo Ángel on the Plaza de los Teobaldos, which later served as a school before it opened as a museum on 27 November 2002. It runs from the history of wine, told with pieces from Egypt, Greece and Rome, through the vineyard and the making of wine, with data sheets on the 11 grape varieties traditionally grown in Navarra. In the basement, a former wine cellar of the palace, a room tests your sight, smell and taste.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 This is the Old Palace, named for the Theobalds because Theobald I and, above all, Theobald II are known to have stayed here. The ashlar blocks at the foot of its towers and walls show a Roman origin in the 1st century AD. Charles III spent ten years refitting it before he began the New Palace, and the two large Gothic windows on its front date from 1414; since 1966 it has been a Parador hotel.
Photo: Turol Jones, un artista de cojones from Villanueva del Cascajal, República Independiente de Mi Casa — CC BY 2.0 Work on Santa María la Real began in the first third of the 13th century, and its façade, finished about 1300, is one of the most important ensembles of Gothic sculpture in Navarra, with clear echoes of Notre-Dame in Paris. The doorway is framed by a frieze of the twelve Apostles and centred on the Virgin and Child, with scenes such as the Annunciation and the Flight into Egypt, under a rose window whose glass was replaced in 1998. The tower reuses the lower part of a Roman tower, and its crown was added in 1918.
Photo: Turol Jones, un artista de cojones from Villanueva del Cascajal, República Independiente de Mi Casa — CC BY 2.0 Charles III the Noble wanted a stable home for his court, and he enlarged the older castle into the New Palace, with most of the works done between the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Some of its hanging gardens rose nearly 20 metres, a royal zoo kept a lion given by the king of Aragon, a camel and parrots, and under the remains of the chapel of Saint George lies an old vaulted wine cellar. In 1813 the guerrilla general Espoz y Mina set the palace on fire to keep French troops out, and its restoration began in 1937.
Photo: Jorab — CC BY 3.0
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