This series of articles aims to define the feudal tower house and its historical context, followed by an exploration of their effects on society during that period through archaeological materiality and considering the symbolic component these buildings represented. To illustrate these entries, some photographs from the graphic repository GureGipuzkoa have been retrieved featuring images from the archive of the great Eibar photographer Indalecio Ojanguren (1887-1972), who documented several of these constructions throughout his long career. Each building referenced in the text and in the photos is linked to a geolocation.
What is a tower house?
Tower houses are buildings that served both for defense and protection of their surroundings. They were situated in strategic locations and created as a defensive mechanism against military attacks, although they became fortifications inhabited by feudal lords, especially during the band wars that took place in Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya, even extending to Navarra and Cantabria. As an architectural phenomenon, it is exclusively medieval, occurring in Ireland, Scotland, northern England, and the Cantabrian coast. In the case of the Basque Country, they had a functional continuity until the 17th century, having greater habitability than other places mentioned.
The creation of tower houses responds to certain factors, each case being a different combination of them: their location in physical space, the material and economic ability of their owners, chronology… Historiography situates the end of original construction of tower houses in the 13th century, although subsequently they continued to be built with very different intentions (Ibañez, Moraza & Uribarrio, 1996A, 300).
Well-known from ancient times was the value of these buildings: one of the earliest examples of their protection occurred in Zumarraga (Gipuzkoa) in 1861, with the tower house of Legazpi: local historian Nicolás de Soraluce requested that the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España, a company responsible for constructing and operating the Madrid-Hendaya line until its nationalization and integration into Renfe in 1941, grant an "indulto" to the tower, birthplace of Miguel López de Legazpi, from destruction as it was expected that construction work on the station plaza would affect the building. The company agreed to conserve it despite having already paid for its demolition (Yrizar, 1946, 308). Miguel López de Legazpi (1502-1571) colonized the Philippines and founded the city of Manila. As a "segundón," or someone who would not inherit the majorat of his lineage, he left the Areria scribe's office to embark for Mexico in 1528 where he held various bureaucratic positions. In 1564 he sailed on the Nao San Pedro with Urdaneta, a journey that linked him to Philippine history by founding the village of San Miguel, now Cebu, and subsequently Manila (Cabrero, 2023).
Historiography has tended to treat these towers as mere settings for lineage stories from an aristocratic perspective of genealogy, although in the middle of the last century their architecture began to be appreciated by authors such as the aforementioned Joaquín de Yrizar, and in recent decades archaeology has come to analyze their materiality and provide new perspectives on the matter thanks to the development of architectural archaeology (Azkarate & García, 2004, 9).
According to Plata, the decisive factors for the construction of these tower houses were the escalation of violence in band wars and the great variety of lineages, as these towers became indispensable for defending the interests of senior relatives. These towers also had hierarchical differences, with some being principal, more important for their lineages than others secondary or auxiliary of lesser importance located elsewhere of interest as garrison towers, as can be inferred from the documentary gaps that affect some of these structures (2004, 349).
Most of these towers are square or rectangular in plan, and depending on their importance, they were built with squared stone or rubble masonry. Stone is the ideal material for these structures: besides being abundant, it is durable and resistant (Ardanaz, 2017, 37); typically constructed in sandstone, though limestone also has some examples. Their walls are thick, exceeding one or two meters wide at the base and narrowing as they gain height, which corrects the poor foundations that most of these towers suffer (Luengas, 2019, 383). The internal structure is wooden, oak is commonly used for this purpose: if the strength of the towers lies in stone, their weakness lies in this flammable timber framework (Aldabatrecu, 1993, 8). The military elements define the appearance of these buildings through the use of arrow slits, battlements, machicolations, barbicans, outer walls and ditches.
The tower house is the symbolic axis of the lineage and family seat, representing the dignity of its owners and becoming a visual reference of nobility in the landscape, showing wealth, prestige, antiquity or origin of the lineage and exercising certain control over the landscape and environment: as we will see, their location in valleys, alongside rivers or roads, demonstrates local power.
Historical context: the late medieval crisis and Band Wars
The band wars or banded wars were a series of conflicts that took place in the Basque Country during the Late Middle Ages. Ibáñez, Moraza and Uribarrio (2015, 301) define them as a general crisis and period of instability, since these wars were a series of internal confrontations among noble lineages in the Basque countryside that ultimately affected and involved all of society around them. In these struggles, three types of conflict occurred: nobility against peasants, nobility against towns, and nobility against each other. The latter is the most significant and well-known, with different rural noble families in Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Álava grouping around two lineages, the Gamboa and Oñaz, forming the banded groups of gamboínos and oñacinos (Orella, 2013, 68).
Skirmishes between bands took place in Basque provinces as well as Navarra and Cantabria. In each province there were disputes among different families. Bands from one region would unite with those of another, so these wars transcended the boundaries of historical territories. Different lineages united into bands through marriages. Sometimes two neighboring lineages would engage in disputes over control of a valley or city and if one joined a band, the other would join the opposing side (Orella, 2013, 69).
The objective of these wars was to maintain and increase property holdings and gain honor and public prestige. The war itself harbored an aura of values and rules regarding this honor. Valiance, dignity, honesty, etc., were valued, and a code was established to promote values such as not going to war without cause, not breaking the high truce, not killing by treachery, keeping one's word given… (Orella, 2013, 70).
The late medieval crisis, according to Azkarate and García, was the trigger for this violent cycle in society, having unleashed various processes: demographic decline, reduction of labor force, abandonment of more distant farmland, economic crisis in artisan sectors, and rural dispersion and relocation; as a principal factor, they mention long-term deflation (2004, 8). According to Luengas, the reason for these wars would be the change in direction of trade flows that occurred in the thirteenth century, which shifted from south-north to west-east due to economic growth in the Kingdom of Castile; noble lineages saw control over roads as a source of income. The late medieval crisis and the rise of towns would subsequently lead to a decline in feudal rents, bringing economic difficulties for many lineages: these translated into attempts to expand their sphere of influence, leading to early conflicts (2019, 11).
In such a situation, in these types of struggles, it is not surprising that some towers were destroyed during skirmishes and they would normally be rebuilt better. This can be explained by the chronological extension of violence, which did not subside until the ascent to the throne of the Catholic Monarchs. To end this violence, monarchies enacted various laws and prohibitions, weakening feudal power through regulations and ordinances: the ostracism of band war leaders and the demolition or dereliction of their tower houses by the Hermandad of Guipúzcoa in 1457, prohibition on rebuilding tower houses and forming bands in 1498… This policy, especially in Gipuzkoa, mutilated and made disappear many of these modest fortifications but had positive effects, reconstituting order between the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth (Plata, 2009, 650; Ibañez, Moraza & Uribarrio, 1996B, 315; Luengas & Sánchez, 2014, 111).
The stabilization of the situation brought with it the integration of these warrior lineages into local powers, thus obtaining more effective power over rural society, reinforcing their heritage through privileges and majorat, by which the eldest son was favored in the distribution of inheritance. All this reinforced political and economic power at a local and provincial level for the lineages, urbanizing and integrating these families into court circles especially in the sixteenth century: this led to the slow decline of old tower houses in favor of urban palaces, however, these ancient family seats would continue linked to the lineages through their slow transformation into agricultural exploitation or farmsteads until the nineteenth century, depending on the case (Ibañez, Moraza & Uribarrio, 1996B, 318-319).
As is logical, these historical events had a clear effect on the stratigraphic sequence of these buildings analyzed by architectural archaeology, creating quite general and evident trends in the changes they underwent (Ibañez, Moraza & Uribarrio, 1996A, 301), as we will see in the following section.
Bibliography:
Aldabatrecu Saiz, R. (1993): “The tower house in Guipúzcoa”. Narria: Studies of Arts and Popular Customs 55-56, 7-10. Retrieved from: https://repositorio.uam.es/bitstream/handle/10486/8322/45129_2.pdf?sequence=1
Ardanaz Ruiz, C. (2017). “Medieval defensive architecture: the tower house in Navarra. Power, lineages and territory”. Proceedings Vol. 1.indb 37. Madrid, Spanish Society for the History of Construction. Retrieved from: http://www.sedhc.es/biblioteca/actas/Ardanaz.pdf
Azkarate Garai Olaun, A. & García Gómez, I. (2004). “Late medieval tower houses: systemic analysis of a spatial/territorial restructuring process”. Archaeology of Architecture 3, 7-37. Retrieved from: https://arqarqt.revistas.csic.es/index.php/arqarqt/article/view/59/56
Cabrero Fernández, L. (2023): «Miguel López de Legazpi». Real Academia de la Historia, consulted on 19-I-2023 through: https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/12306/miguel-lopez-de-legazpi
Ibañez Etxeberria, A., Moraza Barea, A. & Uribarrio Agirrebengoa, E. (1996A). Casa Torre de Galartza (Aretxabaleta) Análisis estratigráfico de las estructuras emergentes y propuestas de evolución arquitectónica. Review of Medieval Art in the Basque Country. Cuad. Secc. Artes Plást. Monum. 15, 299-313. Donostia, Eusko Ikaskuntza. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alex-Ibanez-Etxeberria/publication/29820313_Casa_Torre_de_Galartza_Aretxabaleta_analisis_estratigrafico_de_las_estructuras_emergentes_y_propuestas_de_evolucion_arquitectonica/links/5673e4b708ae04d9b09be7d7/Casa-Torre-de-Galartza-Aretxabaleta-analisis-estratigrafico-de-las-estructuras-emergentes-y-propuestas-de-evolucion-arquitectonica.pdf
Ibañez Etxeberria, A., Moraza Barea, A. & Uribarrio Agirrebengoa, E. (1996B). Casa Torre de Galartza (Aretxabaleta), from tower to farmstead passing through palace: evolution, adaptation and deterioration. Conclusions and bibliography. Review of Medieval Art in the Basque Country. Cuad. Secc. Artes Plást. Monum. 15, 315-324.- Donostia, Eusko Ikaskuntza. Retrieved from: https://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/es/publicaciones/casa-torre-de-galartza-aretxabaleta-de-torre-a-caserio-pasando-por-palacio-evolucion-acomodacion-y-deterioro/art-10772/
Luengas Carreño, D. (2017). The palace of Fagoagoa in Oiartzun (Gipuzkoa): analysis of the original construction system and architectural elements of a Medieval Noble Residence. Proceedings Vol. 2.indb, Madrid, Spanish Society for the History of Construction, 925-934. Retrieved from: http://www.sedhc.es/biblioteca/actas/Luengas-Carre__o_.pdf
Orella Unzue, J. L. (2013). Territory and society in medieval Gipuzkoa: The senior relatives. Lurralde: Research and space, 36, 67-119. Retrieved from: http://www.ingeba.org/lurralde/lurranet/lur36/36orella.pdf
Plata Montero, A. (2004). Archaeology of architecture in Bizkaino territory. The tower house of Lendono de Abajo (Orduña). Kobie, N.º 6 (vol. 2), 639-654. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260200866_Arqueologia_de_la_Arquitectura_en_Territorio_Bizkaino_La_casa-torre_de_Lendono_de_Abajo_Orduna_Building_archaeology_in_Biscayne_land_The_tower-house_of_Lendono_de_Abajo_Orduna
Yrizar Barnoya, J. (1946). The family seat of Legazpi. Boletín de la Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País, II, 3, 299-309. Retrieved from: https://www.rsbap.org/ojs/index.php/boletin/article/view/254/241
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