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Portal Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Écija
Ecija’s Town Council
Tourist Departament
 Front Page
  Tourism
  Heritage
  Palaces

monuments - PALACES


PEÑAFLOR PALACE

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION
PALACIO DE PEÑAFLOR

Location:
26 Emilio Castelar St.
Tel.: (+34) 95 483 02 73

 

It is being restored.



 

The palace was built between 1700 and 1775.
It has been declared  “Historic-Artistic Monument” in 1962 and is protected as a Site of Cultural Interest.
The palace was the family Peñaflor residence until 1958, when the widow Marquise died without descent.
Since then the property has been administered by the Foundation of Their Excellencies the Marquesses of Peñaflor and of Cortes de Graena.

The building is situated in the former Knights Street (calle de los Caballeros) and stands out because of its round shapes and the depth created by the facade.
Its horizontal tendency is broken by the main door verticality, greatly monumental:
Its dintel exhibits columns on bases supporting a pediment of mixed lines that houses its founders coat of arms. 
At the second body a balcony is oponed; it was used by the Marquises public appearances. 
The balcony is flanked by solomonic columns on lionheads, which accentuates the Baroque style. 
The belvedere also contribuyes to break the building horizontality.
The palace is organized around a central yard or patio, surrounded by all the living rooms distributed in two floors.
A hallway precedes the patio and stables.
The yard dates back to middle XVIIIth century and is structured by two rows of columns.
The decoration of the stairs that lead to the upper floor has great artistic interest:
Three semi-circular archs leaning on double columns on pedestals preceed the halph-spheric dome that covers the stairs box. 
The dome is divided by eight ribs that meet in the middle at a ceiling rose and has plaster decoration.
The elements tha appear are cherubs, shells, acanthus leaves and even two estipites (supporting columns of inverted pyramid shape) at both sides of the image of Our Lady of the Rosary (Nuestra Señora del Rosario).
This decorative program was carried out by Cristóbal Portillo by the end of the XVIIIth century.
Regarding the facade’s pictorial program, it was made by Antonio Fernández (from Madrid) and is dated around  mid-XVIIIth century.
There are architectonic decorative elements, flowers and allegorical figures.

 



BENAMEJÍ PALACE

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION
PALACIO DE BENAMEJÍ

Location:
Constitución Sq.
Tel.: (+34) 95 483 04 31
(+34)  95 590 29 19
http://museo.ecija.org
museo@ecija.org



Opening Hours:
From October to May:
From Tuesday to Friday: 09.30 to 13.30 and 16.30 to 18.30 h.
Saturdays and sundays: 09.00 to 14.00 h.
From June to September:
From Tuesday to Friday: 09.00 to 14.00 h.

Free Entrance.

(If you wish to go upstairs to one of the belvederes, it costs one euro per person, the money is aimed for an Association pro-Disabled People).

Note: the Museum puts at its visitors disposal a free guide; the only requisite is the previous reservation at one of the telephone numbers above mentioned. 



It is a National Monument with the category of Good of Cultural Interest.

The building construction started in the early XVIIIth century.
As well as the Peñaflor Palace it is a model of civilian architecture of Spanish Baroque style and one of the jewels of the Great Ecija’s Century.

It was originally owned by the Benamejí’s Marquises and then by the Counts of Valverde.
Later it housed the Military Remount and since 1997 it became the Municipal History Museum.

The large facade is made of brick and has stone baseboard and a row of balconies on the first floor.
The verticality note of this monument is given by two side towers. The building main features are monotone and sobriety, broken only by the great main entrance.

Once you go through the door, a large arch gives way to a mounting area, with the principal stairs at its end; the stairs are made up by three archs on Doric columns and has a half-sphere dome on it; on the right extreme there are the stables, housing an exhibition of the archaeological remains found at the Square of España “El Salón”.

Walking under the stairs you can reach the main yard or patio formed by two floors  with semicircular arches leaning on pillars and a stone fountain in the middle of the patio.
The halls of the Municipal History Museum are located around this patio, being this museum designed essentially on explanations about the social meaning of the archaeological items.

The museum items and material are pieces recovered from town excavations, assets from the Town Archaeological Collection and from donations or are pieces from Ecija citizenry or institutions kept in temporary storage.
We highlight among them several mosaics of great dimensions and high quality and the Roman sculpture “Wounded Amazon”, the only one in the world kept almost complete, with remains of its original polychromy.

As an anecdotical tip, we have to mention that some scenes from the movie “Carmen” by Vicente Aranda  were filmed at this palace in 2002.

According the legend, along the XVIIIth century the Spanish absolute monarchs had the right of granting or not the building of towers at the palaces and castles.
Towers were symbols of power and dominion.
King Carlos III went by Ecija and stayed at the noble Count of Valverde Palace.
The grateful monarch granted him the rising of one tower at the Palace.
After some time, the king came back to stay at the same Palace and found two towers; surprised, he asked the nobleman about this, and was answered that “one of the towers is the one His Majesty granted me, and the other one befits my rank”.

 

 

VALHERMOSO PALACE

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION
PALACIO DE VALHERMOSO

Location:
37 Emilio Castelar St.


Opening Hours:
Visits are not allowed. Private property.




It has an important Plateresque facade related to Cordoba Renaissance of the XVIIIth century; it takes part of the angle of the ample barrier that starts at the strong belvederes based on Roman granite shafts.
We are at this moment at the centre’s most privileged “urban point” from where the palaces of Valdehermoso and Peñaflor can be seen and on the ends of this crossroads you can enjoy the sight of the most beautiful towers of Ecijan Baroque, St. Giles’ and St. John’s, considered as unsurpassable models to be taken into consideration among Spanish towers of the XVIIIth century. 



PALMA PALACE

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION
PALACIO DE PALMA

Location:
10 Espíritu Santo St.
Tel. (+34)95 590 18 22



Opening Hours:

From Monday to Sunday: 10.00 to 14.00 h.
Groups can ask for afternoon visits.  

Entry Prices: 3 euros per person.


 

This palace is situated on a former Dominican Order convent .
The palace entrance gives access to the mounting area, that leads through the left to the stables and to the right to the central courtyard or patio, with its two floors, semicircular archs and marble columns.
From this patio the oranges patio can be reached; this has a stone fountain and the old convent hell; an old legend says that it is connected to a passage that leads to the river Genil.
At the upper floor, you can visit the rooms with their old furniture:
the writing room, the music room, several covered balconies with antiques , dining lounge with a pavement from the XVIIIth century and another lounge wirh a stars tracery coffered ceiling.



SANTAELLA PALACE

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION
PALACIO DE SANTAELLA

Location:
Ignacio de Soto St.
Tel.: (+34) 95 590 19 58



Opening Hours:
From 10.00 to 20.00 h.

Private property.
You can only visit the entrance, stairs and dome.


 

The main door is carved on stone, with caryatid pilasters that confer the palace a great character.
The stairs are covered by a monumental dome on cylinder (drum) with polychromed plasterwok, complemented by flowers and landscapes ornamentation; this work is often related to the Peñaflor Palace facade, perhaps both have been developed by the same workshop.
This palace woodwork is very interesting, with splendid carved doors.



ALMENARA ALTA PALACE

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION
PALACIO ALMENARA ALTA

Location:
Mármoles St.


Opening Hours:
Visits are not allowed.
Private property.


 

It is located at the typical Mármoles (Marble) street.
The brick facade has an original entrance in the middle part, carved on stone, with very simple Baroque works; it is crowned by a niche containing a picture of the Virgin of Loneliness (Virgen de la Soledad).
On the upper part of the facade we highlight an open gallery with semicircular archs.



PALACIO DE JUSTICIA (LAWCOURTS)

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION
PALACIO DE JUSTICIA

Location:
15 La Marquesa St.
Tel.: (+34) 95 483 03 61

Opening Hours:
From Monday to Friday: 10.00 to
14.00 h. .

Free Entrance.

 

This building is popularly known as Las Tomasas Palace (Palacio de las Tomasas, Tomasa is the Spanish femenine form of Thomas) because it belonged to two Ecijan sisters with such nickname. 
It shows an exuberant “historicist” decoration based on Alhambra’s decoration –a place that moved the sisters- and it is one of the most admired places by visitors and foreigners. 
At the hallway we see a Triana-tiled baseboard.
The coffered ceilings, the main patio and the stairs are also remarkable.



PEÑAFLOR BELVEDERE – BENAMEJÍ BELVEDERE

DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION

MIRADOR DE PEÑAFLOR   MIRADOR DE BENAMEJÍ


Location:
España Square.


Opening Hours:
Visits are not allowed
Private property.


The España (Spain) Square functions until mid-XIXth century were: main market place, public scene for feasts (bullfight, also with canes and lances) and prominent site for religious commemorations and processions. 
The building model erected around it is very much related to these circumstances: these buildings were constructed first and foremost to watch, so they had to be on high, on arcades, with windowed and balconied facades;
Moreover, they became a very wealthy source of income, as their owners hired the balconies and windows views when public acts were celebrated -though saving for themselves the best ones.
The less privileged public attended the feast from the stands placed at the arcades.
The Benamejí and Peñaflor families raised their own Belvederes at the Square, making thus patent their grandeeship of lineages at the most prestigious place of the town:
They are buildings from the XVIIIth century of Baroque aesthetics, with the same structure, adding their escutcheons; in certain places the pictorial decoration of their surfaces cant still be seen.

 

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