Royal Palace of Olite

The oldest part of the complex, the Old Palace, was raised on an ancient Roman fortification in the reign of Sancho VII "the Strong" and extended by his successors Theobald I and Theobald II. Theobald II was installed here in 1269 and signed in the palace the letter of consent for the marriage of Blanche of Artois to his brother Henry I of Navarre, who used it as a temporary residence after becoming king in 1271. From the 13th century the castle of Olite was called the palace of the king of Navarre, but the court still travelled and the kings occupied the place intermittently: Charles II was here in 1380, 1381 and 1384, and in 1387 he staged a bullfight in which three Muslims fought as toreros.

Charles III "the Noble", of the House of Évreux, set out at the end of the 14th century to enlarge the Old Palace and give the court a settled residence. His wife Eleanor of Castile, whom he had married in 1375, had no liking for the old building and thought it uncomfortable, which prompted the raising of a new palace-castle; houses alongside were bought up between 1395 and 1400, and at her urging the works were pushed out behind the church of Santa María la Real. The one concession of a military character in the whole palace is the 40-metre Tower of Homage, known as the Torre de la Vit for the spiral stair inside it. The great campaign was the king's own: begun in 1406 and commissioned from Saúl de Arnedo, it was all but finished by 1424 but for a few minor rooms.

The interior was of plasterwork, azulejos, stained glass and gilded coffered ceilings, with tapestries over floors and walls; almost nothing of it, or of the gardens outside, survives. There were hanging gardens, some almost 20 metres up, orchards, and a menagerie holding a lion given by Peter IV "the Ceremonious" of Aragon, with a camel, parrots, hunting dogs, hawks, four African buffalo, and a giraffe. Lead pipes for watering the gardens were laid by Juan D'Espernou in 1409 and again in 1414 by John Nelbort of Bristol.

A pelota corridor and a set of rackets are recorded, and a document of 1408 notes repairs to the roof of the fronton in Charles III's time. Jousts ran through the days of the 1439 celebrations for the marriage of the Prince of Viana to Agnes of Cleves, and the wedding of John I, Count of Foix, to Joan, heiress of Navarre, was held here too. From the three balconies of the Tower of the Four Winds the kings watched the spectacles staged at the foot of the castle.

With the annexation of Navarre to the Crown of Castile in 1512 the palace began its decline; the viceroys held it as an official residence but used it only occasionally, and the abandonment left it deteriorating. In 1584 the Marquis of Almazán restored the main façade of the Old Palace and set the arms of Philip II upon it. In 1813, during the Peninsular War, the guerrilla leader Espoz y Mina ordered the palace burned for fear that Napoleon's troops would fortify themselves in it; everything but the church of Santa María la Real was badly damaged, and the building was left close to a ruin.

Passing through late in the 19th century, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer wrote from the sight of the bare rooms "The Royal Castle of Olite (Notes of a Journey to Navarre)", a romantic and nostalgic view of the ruin. The monuments commission reconstituted in 1869 took the place up, and in 1870 Juan Iturralde y Suit presented his memoir on the ruins. In 1871, learning that Olite's council meant to raise housing over the ruins, the commission pressed the Real Academia de San Fernando for a national-monument declaration; the Academia backed the council, which wanted its town hall and municipal schools inside the complex, then admitted its error but went on favouring the cession.

Palace and church were declared a national monument together on 17 January 1925. The Diputación Foral de Navarra had called a restoration competition in 1923, won by the architects José and Javier Yárnoz, and their work began in 1937, put at thirty years to a completion in 1967 by some accounts, while others hold the task still unfinished.

The palace belongs to the Foral Government of Navarre and is protected as a bien de interés cultural; the Old Palace serves as the Parador "Príncipe de Viana". The Cámara de los Yesos, the one room keeping its original Morisco plasterwork, is opened by arrangement only, its ten panels being in poor condition. Olite's classical theatre festival has its main stage here each summer, and 260,519 people visited in 2024.