Kids news: Lead visit to Pamplona's Great Hall

Hello again! Last Friday I went to a lead visit to Pamplona's Great Hall with my father and my brother. The visits have been created because of that it's the anniversary of the Union Privilege, the one was created by Carlos III the Noble in 1423, uniting the three "burgos" (the different sections in the ones the city was divided): San Cernín, Navarrería and San Nicolás creating a single Great Hall and the same government form.

They explained us the history of this building and the one of Pamplona before it was built.

The first Great Hall was built in the XV century and it lasted 'till 1752. It was destroyed in 1760 and after this the second Great Hall, from the one we still have the facade. The interior of the Great Hall that we've got now a day's was finished in 1953.

During the visit they show us the windows that represent the different "burgos", the Plenary Room and the Reception one.

In the Reception Room there were the city keys, paintings that were gift to the kings as the ones Francisco de Asís gift to Isabel the II, table watches, pottery and candelabras. Also there was a chapel with a figure of Saint Fermín that they use when the Aralar Angel comes to the city.

With the union of the three "burgos" the shield changed, replacing the three different shields with one single one, with a lion and a crown above it, surrounded by chains.

In the Plenary Room we sat in the place were the audience sits and they explained us were the representative people for each different political party sits normally.

For finishing they explained us different matters on the facade.

Above the entrance door there's a sentence in Latin:

"The door is open for everyone, but especially the hearth".

In each side of the door there are statues that represent Prudence and Justice. In the top of the building there are also three statues representing Hercules and fame.

We can appreciate the three different types of columns in the facade: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The last one was created because of the Cultural Fusion between the Greek culture and the Asiatic one, in the Hellenistic times made by Alexander the Great.

Also the watch that every sixth of July at twelve o'clock in the midday announces the beggining of San Fermín.

There are loads of more things apart from this ones but I've told you about the ones they told me in the visit.

The visits are free, you can register yourselves for one in the Internet page for the Great Hall of Pamplona. I leave it for you:

http://www.pamplona.net/

(It's in Spanish, you can translate it to English but I don't know if in that way it will let you register yourselves for the visit).

In the photographs I've made (the third one is my father's) you can see the facade of the Great Hall, the shield of the Borbon's family at the entrance to the building and the Plenary Room.

I wish you enjoyed it!

Miriam