Villabuena de Álava/Eskuernaga

Villabuena de Álava (Basque: Eskuernaga) is a municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country or Basque Autonomous Community, of northern Spain. It is famous for its production of top quality wines. The village has 48 wineries ranging from small family-owned businesses to larger bulk-production wineries.

The centre of the village contains one of the oldest and most decorated churches in the Basque region. Nearby is Hotel Viura, a boutique hotel.

Civic architecture

Villabuena features long, parallel streets, which follow the contours of the river valley, where the parish church stands. One of the most outstanding aspects of the municipality are the numerous renaissance houses, patrician houses, and small palaces adorned with coats of arms, built between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

The House of the Indian

The Palace of Peciña Samaniego is known as "The House of the Indian". It is a work of Andrés de Bença, who built it between 1608 and 1610, by order of Pedro Peciña Samaniego, archdeacon and canon of Santiago de Compostela. There are two parts to the building: a ground floor and an apartment on a rectangular plan, added to a tower, which possesses very rich architectural elements. The tower is accessed through a semicircular arch and the top part features another two semicircular arches, forming a gallery. A relief decorates the key of the arch. In the top floor contains a lodge which became the residence of some important original Carlists of the locality, like Francisco de Paula Rivas.

House of the Marqués de Solana

Near this building it is located the Marqués de la Solana, which was begun in the sixteenth century and extended in the eighteenth century with the addition of two wings. This resulted in two fronts: the main one is older and faces towards Santiago Street, and the second one is located on the biggest street.]]

The houses on the main street

Traveling along Villabuena Street, one can view stately house built with hewn stone. Many of these large houses display carved coats of arms, which denote original family ownership. A short distance away is another big house that contains original architectural elements. The quartered shield displays a bear being attacked by a dog, next to a tree; a castle of three towers and a farm hand holding a horn, with a forest and a wild boar hunting scene in the background.

The house of the square

On the north side of the square, near the Tree of Gernika, is a three-storey building, with a symmetrical frontage, built during the 18th or 19th century. Two carved shields decorate the building: one shows a dog tied to a tree and the other shield has an unknown history.

The square and the town hall

The three-storied Town Hall is located in the square. The top storey, facing the square, features the coat of arms of Castilla León. In the ground floor nowadays is located the Botika .

Opposite the Town Hall is the fine square of the Tree of Gernika. This is the heart of the locality, where a large part of the neighbourhood's social life plays out. It has been transformed in the last years, renewing the image of the town.

The square is bordered by the House of Culture, the Botika, the Town hall, the Church, the House of the Tithes and the Hotel Viura: the hotel is noted for avant-garde architecture.

The dolmen of the "Montecillo"

The Dolmen of the "Montecillo" was discovered at the end of 2009. This is a megalithic tomb situated in a passage between two vineyards. There are seven other similar tombs in the Rioja of Alava. It is broken and half covered by a morcuero of recent formation. The entry to the passage is hidden due a wall that separates the two farms, a situation which has helped to preserve the tomb.

Religious architecture

The parish church is dedicated to the patron saint, San Andreas. It was constructed during three periods between 1539 and 1728 shows features of gothic and the baroque architecture.

This municipality has three chapels: San Roque (now ruined), Los Santos and Santa Maria de Villabuena.

The chapel of San Torcuato, dedicated to the patron saint of Villabuena, is situated on the north side of the town. It is a compact and elegant building. It is of rectangular construction is rectangular. The lower part of the wall is much wider than the upper part.. On its simple cornice the roof settles to four waters, on whose wall headrest places a slender bulrush, with several frames that inscribe the vain one of the bell. Three rosettes crown it and in the center a cross nails [meaning?].

Santa Maria de Villabuena is also built in a rectangular form. It is covered with a fanlight vault in the lower part, whereas the upper part is smooth and of brick construction. It was restored in 1959, although in origin it was romanesque with some gothic features. The original features include a large window, a beam that was placed supporting the container of holy water, a stone frieze under the pedestal of the Virgin and its image, as well as the door of access, has a pointed arch. An "Andra Mari" of the fourteenth century exists: Santa Maria de Villabuena.

Past residents

Francisco de Paula Rivas was a political Carlist born in the town in 1827. He was a senator for Alava in 1871. Also he was named as a member of the Basque Meeting, created by Manterota in 1870. In 1874 he became President of the General Meetings of Alava, which is called "Juntas Maeztu", which had been summoned by the Carlist claimant to the throne. He acted as a mediator between the different sections of the Carlist movement. After the Meetings dissolved, his presidency came to an end and he was named again as a commissioner in court and as a representative of Alava in the Basque-Navarrese meetings.

Pedro Peciña Samaniego was archdeacon and canon of Santiago de Compostela. At the beginning of the seventeenth century he ordered the construction of a palace in his native locality. After some years the building became known as"The House of the Indian".

Diego Sánchez Samaniego was a local clergyman during the 16th Century and became Archdeacon of Santiago de Compostela. He was related to many people in the civil and ecclesiastic government of that era. He amassed a big fortune and wanted to build a chapel dedicated to " Nuestra Señora del Rosario" ("Our Lady of the Rosary") in the parish of Villabuena. He arranged this in his will and, although it is not sure, it seems that he achieved his intention, since his heirs had rights on the chapel of Saint Peter, which caused a suit with the parish

External links

• VILLABUENA DE ÁLAVA/ESKUERNAGA in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia (Euskomedia Fundazioa) (Spanish)
• http://www.villabuenadealava.org/es/b/villabuena/situacion