Aibar

Aibar (Oibar in Basque and co-officially) is a Spanish town and municipality in the Autonomous Community of Navarra, located in the merindad of Sangüesa, in the Sangüesa region and 44.2 km from the capital of the community, Pamplona. Its population in 2017 was 800 inhabitants (INE).

Toponymy

The first reference to the town appears in the year 882 and refers to: "fractus est castro Aybaria a Mohamed Ben Lup". Other medieval references to the place name appear under similar forms: Agibare, Albar, Aibare, Aibari, Aivar, Aivare, Aiubare, Aiuuar, Aiuruuare, Aivar, Aybare, Aybar, Ayuar or Ayvar. The etymological meaning of the place name seems to be composed of the word in the Basque language ibar, which means valley or valley; but the term preceding this word is unknown.

The Basque name for the valley is Oibar. In documents from 1074 and 1076 the similar form of "Oiuarr" is already collected. The existence in the area of numerous place names in Basque shows that this language was spoken in Aibar for many centuries. A document from 1763 mentions Oibarbidea (which means the road to Oibar), being considered the first exact mention of this place name. The name was lost in the municipality itself when its inhabitants stopped speaking Basque, but it has been preserved until today in the Salazar Valley. In 2001 the council, despite being legally in the non-Basque-speaking area of Navarra, adopted the official bilingual name of Aibar/Oibar.

Initially attached to the non-Basque-speaking zone by Foral Law 18/1986, in June 2017 the Navarre Parliament approved the passage of Aibar to the Mixed Zone of Navarra by means of Foral Law 9/2017.

The names most commonly used in the town are aibareses/a and oibartarrak.

Physical geography

Situation

Cáseda, Leache, Lumbier, Sangüesa, Sada, Rocaforte. Aibar is located in the eastern-central part of the Comunidad Foral de Navarra. Its municipal area has an area of 47.79 km² and is bordered to the north by Ibargoiti, Urraul Bajo and Lumbier, to the east by Sangüesa, to the south by Cáseda and to the west by Sada and Leache.

Relief and hydrology

The town of Aibar is located to the north of the Val to which it gives its name (Val de Aibar), on a slope between Sada and Sangüesa at 531 m a.s.l. no. m. In the northern part of its municipal term is the Sierra de Izco where the maximum altitude of the term reaches 960 m s. no. m. There is also the Olaz peak with 884 m s. no. m., and we would detach other mountains such as Biescas, La Vizcaya, Menditxuri, San Millán and Pinillas with elevations that range between 700 and 1000 m s. no. m.

Neighborhoods

Within its urban nucleus, the following neighborhoods can be distinguished: Santa María, Toki eder, La Milagrosa, Amalur, El Cerco, Jaminduriz, Blanca Navarra, Camino del Monte, San Juan, La Ontina, Opaque neighborhood, Calle San Pedro, Calle Mayor, Calle del Aguardintero, Calle Centro Iriarte, Barrio San Francisco Javier, Aritza, Calle Santiago Pla and Carretil.

Demographics

Symbols

Shield

The coat of arms of the town of Aibar has the following coat of arms:

Bring gules and a castle of three gold towers, the center higher than the sides and almonds of three hives. Under the castle two keys of the same metal crossed in sotuer

Otazu Ripa, Jesus Lorenzo

Perhaps this coat of arms comes from the wax seal that the town used since the XIII century and that it represented, under a flanked arcade with two towers and added a third taller, the image of the patron saint San Pedro wielding a key. In later centuries and following the heraldic laws, the arcade with the towers was symbolized in the castle and the figure of the saint in the keys.

Town Hall of Aibar

Administration

Municipal administration

Political administration is carried out through a democratically managed town council, whose members are elected every four years by universal suffrage since the first municipal elections after the reinstatement of democracy in Spain in 1979. The electoral census is made up of the residents over 18 years of age registered in the municipality, whether they are Spanish nationals or from any member country of the European Union. According to the provisions of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime, which establishes the number of eligible councilors based on the population of the municipality, the municipal corporation is made up of 7 councilors. The headquarters of the Aibar City Council is in Plaza Consistorial, 1.

Municipal elections 2007

In the 2007 municipal elections, the Electoral Association of the Independent Left of Aibar (AGEIZIA) obtained the 7 councilors, and Manuel Martínez Aldunate was elected mayor.

From 2011, until his death in 2017, the mayor of the town was Pedro José Lanas Arbeloa (10/7/1958-6/27/2017), a well-known sports journalist in Navarra who worked for Diario de Noticias, among others. media.

Panoramic of the Consistorial Square of Aibar.

Heritage

Religious monuments

• Basilica of Santa Maria: It is a Romanesque building, the second half of the centuryXII and is made up of a single four-stage ship and semicircular header. For support it has a pilasters with half-column columns that rely on prismatic pedestals with smooth plinths and is based on bull and scot with balls at the angles. The sculptures of the capitals are simple motives without human figuration. The vault is half pointed cannon and is marked by four pointed arches and bent that rest on the pilasters. From its interior stands the main altarpiece of baroque style that presides over the temple which dates from 1710.
• Basilica of San Joaquín: It is a century buildingXVIII formed by a single nave of four sections and straight headboard. It is covered by a vault of luxuries pulled by very flat arches that rest on very simple sections, at whose height a smooth imposta runs. Its exterior is a chandelier and the door of the temple has a half-point arch with chairs. It also has a swordsman with bell on the front. From its interior stands the altarpiece of San Joaquín in Baroque style of the first half of the centuryXVII.
• Church of Saint Peter: It is a Romanesque building of the centuryXII, consisting of three naves of three stages, the center wider than the lateral ones. In addition, these have some irregularity in their layout and are narrower in the section near the header than in the feet. In the centuryXVI was added a wide cruise plus the chapel and the sacristy

Santa Maria Street.

Aibar Crafts and Memory House-Museum

In the House-Museum, the restored machinery of the Aibar cooperative oil press is exhibited, an old bread oven and you can see different objects, parts and machinery that remind us of those old trades, those practices, knowledge and ways of life of yesteryear linked to the field and the fruits of the earth. Models, panels, photographs and audiovisuals complete the permanent exhibition of the Casa de los Oficios y la Memoria de Aibar.

Renewable Energy Classroom

The Aibar-Oibar Renewable Energy Classroom is a space for a didactic approach to renewable energies. Located in the middle of the medieval quarter of Aibar/Oibar, next to the Romanesque church of San Pedro and the Municipal Tourist Hostel. It occupies the building that was formerly the Town Hall, which was restored in 2006 to house the facilities of the Renewable Energy Classroom following bioclimatic criteria. Visits to the center and its exhibition "Renew your energy" as well as renewable energy production centers in the area.

Parties

From August 15 to 20. The patron saint festivities are shared in honor of San Roque, patron saint of the town.

Sports

Club Deportivo Aibarés is the local soccer team.