Visit to the General Archive of the University of Navarra

9/04/2025

Fourth-year secondary school students enjoyed a guided tour of the treasures held in the Archives. 

On April 8th, the 4th-year ESO students from the Evangelical School visited the General Archive of the University of Navarra. For almost an hour—from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.—the students could admire and learn about documents, photographs, diaries, and letters from different moments in history, from Peninsular War to the present day, some of them of great importance.

The 10 students, accompanied by two teachers, headed to the University of Navarra campus at 9:30 a.m. Inés Irurita, deputy director of the Archive, was waiting for them at the entrance to the central library and kindly guided them through the building's basement, where the archives are located. In the central room, she had prepared a series of folders—some of them large—which she showed and explained to the students with great passion and detail.

The oldest documents include proclamations from the Peninsular War, personal letters from 19th-century royalty, and menus served in palaces, which aroused admiration and interest. From the 20th century, there were diaries of soldiers during the Civil War, propaganda from both sides, and photographs from World War II, both from the front and from the various protagonists. Although we were unable to see it, the archive contains a personal letter from Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS during the war. It also includes files relating to the origins of the modern Olympics, and a letter from Salvador Dalí. More contemporary archives were also displayed, such as drafts of the minutes of the sessions of the Congress of Deputies during the vote on the Constitution or the creation of the Statutes of Autonomy, and personal letters received by the parents and relatives of Miguel Ángel Blanco during his kidnapping and death at the hands of ETA.

They bid Inés Irurita a very grateful farewell, feeling they had been able to touch and learn about very important parts of history firsthand.