The refurbishment of Zarautz Palace, which was in a ruinous state, constitutes another stage of its history. While preserving the heritage value of its walls, the project turns it into a new cultural facility for Getaria. The design worked out by Vaumm – Garazi Aranguren, Nekane Azpiazu, Francisca Gual Ors— pays close attention to details, exalting the place’s historical legacy while incorporating contemporary language.

The interior reveals an architectural palimpsest, where Roman remains, walls of a 13th-century tower-house, Gothic extensions, and Renaissance elements coexist. The facades are worked on in a way that honors this constructional evolution, making it readable through differentiated treatments, such as the use of lime mortar and the incorporation of documented pointed arches, reinterpreted now with metal rims. Cannon shots in the 1638 naval battle of Geteria had an impact on the building, and the holes were given a brick filling in the 1990s. They are now integrated into the restoration job as a visible part of the building’s history.

A vertical sculpture courtyard, lit from overhead, gives protagonism to the church’s buttress. Around this void are new uses: a tourist office at ground level, a museum on Juan Sebastián Elcano taking up the intermediate levels, and a multipurpose hall at the top. The new internal structure, built with timber and thought out as an autonomous and reversible volume, respects the original walls and uses neutral materials that give a visual sense of warmth without competing with the masonry.