The Town Hall of Lorca has announced that almost 400,000 euros are to be invested in restoring the historic Palacio de Guevara and converting it into a museum, the budget including the restoration of various rooms, completing the flooring, protecting some of the original ceramic 18th-century floor tiles and the installation of fire and burglar alarm systems.
Also included are specific measures to make it possible to exhibit and/or store the valuable items within the magnificent baroque residence in the centre of Lorca, including a grand baroque mirror.
The project will be financed by the Town Hall with the support of the regional authorities and the total budget has been set at 392,585 euros, with the work expected to take 5 months to complete once the contract has been awarded.
The Palacio de Guevara
Sometimes known as the Casa de las Columnas, the Palacio de Guevara is the most representative baroque building in the historic city centre of Lorca, and was officially recognized as an Item of Cultural Interest in 1984. Located on Calle Lope Gisbert alongside many other of the sumptuous residences occupied by the aristocracy of Lorca in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was among the first monuments to be renovated after the earthquakes in May 2011, and partly re-opened to the public in April 2013.
The building as it now stands is restored approximately to its original form, with many of the modifications made by the last resident (the Baroness of Petres y Mayals) having been reversed.
The order to build this impressive palatial residence in Lorca was given in 1689 by Don Juan de Guevara García de Alcaraz, a Knight of the Order of Santiago, and work was completed in 1694.
In 1679, Juan Guevara García de Alcaraz had married Isabel Pérez de Meca, and over time the need arose for the couple to occupy a home which reflected their social status, for which they chose the area near the Calle Corredera (the main thoroughfare of Lorca in the 17th century). The structure which Don Juan inhabited had originally been built at the behest of his father Gómez García de Guevara, and the main doorway from this previous residence is now at another family home in Calle Juan II, but he decided that a more grandiose building was now required.
In October 1689, the year when construction of the current Palacio de Guevara began, Don Juan was named a knight of the military Order of Santiago, and in this role he would later fight in the Wars of Spanish Succession between 1704 and 1714 on the side of the future King Felipe V. While resident in the palace, Juan de Guevara oversaw the decoration of the interior patio, the installation of the grandiose main doorway and the installation of the Guevara coat of arms, borne by two lions, on the façade.
On either side of this main coat of arms are children bearing the insignia of the surnames of Don Juan and Doña Isabel, and at the top of this elaborate piece of stonework is the coat of arms of the Order of Santiago. The four Solomonic columns featured in the tableau are the reason for the palace sometimes being referred to as the Casa de las Columnas.
In 1715 the couple’s daughter, Doña Juana, became head of the household alongside her husband Don Juan de Puxmarín y Fajardo, and thereafter it passed down through the generations until Concepción Sandoval Moreno, the Baroness of Petres y Mayals, bequeathed it to the City of Lorca in her will in 1971 prior to the Guevara line being extinguished on her death in 1988.
Some sources attribute the design of the building to sculptor and architect Nicolás de Bussy, who was responsible for many works of art which still adorn buildings in the Region of Murcia and the province of Alicante, but others believe that it is the work of local craftsmen in Lorca.
The three-storey palace, most of which is built of stone, also has a basement, and on the outside the ornate doorway contrasts starkly with the simple, sober tone of the rest of the building. The two balconies on either side of the main door feature impressive wrought iron work, and there are six other small windows on the top floor.
Behind this façade, the living areas are distributed around a central patio, where the eight columns and arches are decorated with stonework by Pedro Sánchez Fortún which again include the heraldry associated with the Guevara and Pérez de Meca surnames.
The most impressive rooms are on the first floor, including the Sala de Camachos, the Sala de los Harmsen and others named after the colour of their decoration (the Salón Amarillo, the Salón Encarnado and the Salón Verde, for example). There is also a private chapel containing an image of the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción, and it was here that residents were baptized, married and mourned.
Address: Calle Lope Gisbert, 12, 30800 Lorca
For more local news, events and visiting information go to the home page of Lorca Today.
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