Tumba

Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Estella: under the sign of Saint John. Mid-14th century

The church of the Holy Sepulchre would have been chosen as place of worship and burial for the Ponce lineage. It is believed that this powerful family of merchants from Estella had a member named Juan Ponce. Although there is no documentation mentioning a person with that name, the language of the facade presents a thread referring to several saints called Saint John (Juan in Spanish).
This thread takes up most of the main place of the apostolate moving Saint Peter and Saint Paul to a secondary position, placing the Baptist at Jesus’ right, a position of honour, thus eliminating one apostle. Besides, the base shows the family coat of arms facing their patron saint.
On one side of the church a magnificent tomb is located. It is presided by the Baptist dressed in travelling clothes, on a journey. The same one that Ponce, the rich merchant, would undertake in the company of the Biblical Magi, great travellers of the sacred history, who appear chiselled in a capital of the aedicule portrayed under the protection of Virgin Mary, in transit to Paradise.
This church, devoted to the Holy Sepulchre, has a tympanum filled with scenes from the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, selected from Saint John’s Gospel. The influence of the style and iconography of the two cloistral doors (Arch-deanery and Refectory) of the Cathedral of Pamplona in the sculpture cannot be ignored.
Certain elements façade suggest the presence of several benefactors, such is the case of the precious statue of Saint Bartholomew, showing an unprecedented scene in Gothic iconography in Navarre: the conversion of King Polimius in India, found in the Golden Legend. This scene is supposed to have been funded by the Brotherhood of St. Bartholomew, guild of tanners, explaining the prominent position of the Apostle in the façade and the fact that the street where the church is located was named after the guild.

Alfonso Fernández de Vargas fue sepultado en la Iglesia de San Juan Bautista de Burguillos del Cerro
(Badajoz). Su sepulcro, epitafio y testamento son un perfecto ejemplo de la importancia, y deseo, de trascender más allá
de la muerte, mediante el uso del poder de la imagen y la palabra. Durante las excavaciones arqueológicas realizadas en la
iglesia pudimos desgranar la evolución del conjunto arquitectónico, como lugar de culto y espacio funerario, en uso desde
época visigoda, hasta época contemporánea. Con motivo de esta intervención pudimos también ahondar en la historia de
Fernández de Vargas y contextualizar nuestro objeto de análisis.
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Alfonso Fernández de Vargas was buried in Saint John the Baptist Church of Burguillos del Cerro
(Badajoz, Spain). His sepulcher, epitaph and last will and testament are perfect examples of the ability of image and
language to transcend beyond death. During the archaeological excavations, we were able to examine the evolution of
the architectural compound, both church and cemetery, from the Visigothic period to the present. This archaeological
research, has allowed us to delve into the history of Fernández de Vargas to further contextualize our analysis.

El presente artículo pretende comunicar la existencia de cuatro estelas discoideas procedentes de la localidad navarra de Ardaitz, situada en el valle de Erro. Para ello se va a realizar un análisis estructural de los materiales y una clasificación de las estelas, posteriormente se va a llevar a cabo una descripción de los ornamentos, su simbología y una búsqueda de paralelos y se va a terminar con las conclusiones. Estas determinan
que, en general, la decoración es similar a la del resto de estelas discoideas en Navarra.

Los objetivos que nos propusimos en esta campaña eran:
Rebajar el nivel de la masa de escombros.
Descubrir el perímetro total del edificio
Localizar con exactitud donde estuvo colocada la puerta que ahora se encuentra en el cementerio de Navarrete
Los trabajos han despejado las incógnitas que existían.