Construction of Reina Victoria Eugenia—the ship's original name—began in 1915 by Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval in Ferrol.

[2] At the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, she was being refitted in Cadiz and was seized by the Nationalist side.

The refit included replacing the old coal-fired boilers with oil-fired units.

Four German 88 mm AA guns were also fitted, and the torpedo tubes removed.

[1] When in service during the last months of the Spanish Civil War, Navarra was nicknamed Sigamos a la flota ("Follow the fleet"), after the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, because it was much slower than the two other surviving Nationalist cruisers (Canarias and Almirante Cervera).