The history of the Gorraiz Castle is completely connected to the Battle of Noain (in 1521). This was the final great open field battle that occurred during the conquest of Navarre by Castile and Aragon. Years before, in 1515, Navarre had been included in the Crown of Castile as a Kingdom of its own after having its regional code of laws formally acknowledged. Even still, several attempts were made by the Kings of Navarre to fully recover their kingdom.

The great battle began in 1521 between the Imperial army made up of Castilian, Basque and Navarrese soldiers under the command of the constable Francés de Beaumont and the Navarrese elite who were loyal to the dethroned dynasty and led by the French general Asparros.

As night fell, the retreat of the battered French/Navarrese army signalled victory for the Castilians and Beamont’s followers. One of the victorious soldiers standing out was a gallant Navarrese knight, Don Lanzarot de Gorraix.

Out of gratitude for his bravery and fighting, Carlos I of Castile, IV of Navarre and V of Germany awarded Don Lanzarot with nine thousand farthings. He used them to build this magnificent Palace where he married one of the constable’s nieces.

The Díez de Ulzurrun Goñi family which had been in the Navarrese restaurant business for a hundred years ever since they opened the charming old Venta de Ulzama, now a fourth-generation business, decided in 1998 to restore and renovate this old Palace. The process included designing meticulously-planned infrastructures as concerns space and technology and, of course, just the right team to personally handle either an intimate dinner or a wedding or congress with no difficulties all while engaging visitors with an art collection comprised of works by various painters from Navarre as well as other parts of Spain, serving them with gastronomy, hospitality and friendship.

Today, in honour and in memory of the gallant knight Don Lanzarot de Gorraiz, rising high above the palace are the colours of his standard.