"The Palacio de Fuensalida, built in the 15th century and commissioned by Pedro López de Ayala, is the finest example of a palace built in the Toledo Mudéjar style. Toledo Mudéjar is a blend of the Gothic, Plateresque and Mudéjar art forms into a type of architecture of which very few specimens remain in the Spanish heritage.
The palace is a building brimming with history. It stands in the Plaza del Conde de Toledo, between the Church of Santo Tomé and the Taller del Moro. Many illustrious historical figures lived within its walls, including Isabella of Portugal, wife to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The palace now houses the central offices of the President of the Castilla-La Mancha Community Council.
The building refurbishment consisted in restoring the palace's cultural features, correcting certain structural problems and making the building fit for its different uses.
The palace is built out of brick, masonry, wood and plaster. It is arranged around a rectangular central Mudéjar square and has two storeys plus a basement. The project included the dismantling and rebuilding of roofs and the reinforcing of the palace's frames, several outer walls and portions of the foundations to improve the building's stability.
Moreover, existing features of great architectural heritage value, such as coffered ceilings, ironwork, doors and plaster decorations, were restored. Spaces were also remodelled for use as offices and conferences rooms and entirely equipped with the necessary systems.
During project performance, important development work proved necessary in the refurbishing of the wainscoting and plaster decorations, whose polychrome decoration and importance were an unknown factor when the project began, due to the building's condition. In addition, for security reasons, the basement of the building, which used to be occupied by a restaurant, was incorporated into the palace proper and underwent major restoration."
-- Source
"The Palace of Fuensalida is located in the Plaza Conde, next to the church of Santo Tomé. It was built in the Mudejar style in the middle of the 15th century. The person who had the palace built was Pedro Lopez de Ayala, the first Count of Fuensalida. The building was constructed using brick, masonry, wood, and plaster. There are two floors built around a rectangular patio with pillars supporting octagonal shafts that are whitewashed and which hold the capitals with heraldic decoration of the counts. The facade is severe but has an entrance with a lintel made of marble. On top are the coat of arms of the noble owners.
Today the building is the headquarters of the Presidency of the Council of Castile-La Mancha. The Empress Isabel of Portugal (married to the Emperor Carlos V) lived here in 1525. She died in the palace in 1539 after giving birth to her sixth child. One of her sons was the future Felipe II. The Emperor Carlos V was deeply affected by the premature death of Isabel and always dressed in black afterward. In 1547 the nobleman Francis Borgia brought her corpse to be buried in Granada. He was also affected by Isabel's death and later renounced ordinary life and became the Superior General of the Jesuits. Later he became a saint, known as San Francisco de Borja."
-- Source
Visit Instructions:Logging requirements: Please upload your own personal photo of the building. You or your GPS can be in the picture, but it’s not a main requirement.
This category is focused only to original Gothic architecture, not to pseudo-Gothic, neo-Gothic or Gothic Revival. You can not find this kind of architecture outside of "Old World", moreover this architecture appeared in ca XIIth century (early Gothic) and the last buildings are from cca XVIth (late Gothic) century...