Restoration of the old stables of the Goyeneche Palace
Founded by Don Juan de Goyeneche y Gastón and built by José Benito Churriguera
Restoration of the old stables of the Goyeneche Palace
It is the nucleus of an industrial population of the early eighteenth century. It is configured by means of an original rotational system of concatenated squares, blocked by the corners, around which the palace and the church are arranged and the urban nucleus is organized. From 2012, interventions have been carried out at different points in the group.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the industrialist Juan de Goyeneche y Gastón acquired some land in the Acevedo Forest of the then Olmeda de las Cebollas (now Olmeda de las Fuentes) in the southeast of Alcalá de Henares, in order to found a complex manufacturing industry The design of the complex was commissioned to 1709 by the architect José Benito Churriguera who devised a simple quadrangular set, similar to others that were being developed at that time in America.
The foundations of its design were based on the concepts of industrial development through manufacturing and agrarian repopulation. It consisted of a palace, destined to residence of Goyeneche, and a church like main elements. These main spaces were associated with housing for settlers, furnaces and offices, as well as farms. The new settlement was named "Nuevo Baztán" in memory of the Navarre origins of its promoter.
It had great economic and social success until the competition of the European pre-industrial productions and the death of Goyeneche, in 1735, plunged the whole into decadence and, later, abandonment. Despite its short duration, this project was one of the most important industrial initiatives in Spain, being considered the germ of the future Royal Factories that were developed with the Bourbons.
Churriguera managed to give unity to the whole taking as a backbone the union of the palace and the church, superimposing the civil element and the religious, being the south tower of the palace, which externally absorbs the church, the element of union between both buildings. From them he drew an orthogonal scheme consisting of six blocks and a rotational system of four places: the Church, the Secret, located on the left side of the church, the Fiesta, which opens behind the palace and it serves as the center of the productive unit, and that of the Forge, to the south of the Secret.
Specifically, the palace has a square floor plan that is organized around a porticoed courtyard in the center of double height, with an exterior façade framed by two towers, sharing one of them with the composition of the facade of the church, which is the one that communicates both buildings. On the main access of the palace a balcony opens on which is the shield of the Goyeneche family.
The church, under the invocation of San Francisco Javier, has a Greek cross plan, with a main façade that reflects the tradition of Madrid architecture of the seventeenth century, highlighting the spiers that crown the towers and the dome. In the interior they conserve retablos, work also of Jose Benito Churriguera, to whom the Fountain of Los Tritones, located in the square in front of the church and the palace.
Under a good part of the whole of New Baztán a series of underground galleries are conserved whose development leaves from the winery of the palace of Goyeneche. The galleries, of approximately 2,50 meters in height and of variable width, are still today large ceramic jars, whose purpose was to store the wine produced in the adjacent winery. In the underground galleries they are covered punctually by brick cannon vaults that rest directly on the walls excavated in the subsoil.
Image gallery
Restaurants
Since 2012, various actions have been carried out in the group. Within the framework of these interventions, the north arch has been restored, the spaces on the ground floor of the Palace have been conditioned and the east arch of the Plaza de Fiestas and the south arch have been restored and the lighting of the Plaza de Fiestas has been improved . In recent years, the structural consolidation and partial restoration of the Trade Houses in said square has also been carried out.
The last intervention carried out so far has focused on the old stables, completing with it the recovery of the Plaza de Fiestas. One of the main objectives of the action was the stabilization and consolidation of the structural elements of the Fiesta Square, to avoid the collapse due to the ruin of the building.
The works developed consisted in the realization of archaeological excavations, the demolition of the irrecoverable elements and in risk of collapse, the development of actions of previous consolidation and the creation of a system of sanitation and drainage. In addition the walls have been intervened, the slabs and the vaults, the roofs, the pavements and the floors have been restored.
Archives
complete_cable_story.pdf (19.63 MB)