Pazo de los Oca-Valladares - Ourense, Galicia, España
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Ariberna
N 42° 20.168 W 007° 51.861
29T E 593555 N 4687722
It is common for the Lyceum to schedule concerts, exhibitions and other cultural activities. Its cafeteria, in the central colonnaded courtyard, is a traditional place for social gatherings in the city.
Waymark Code: WM130P5
Location: Galicia, Spain
Date Posted: 08/22/2020
Views: 2
The Pazo of the Oca-Valladares family is one of the most important Gothic-Renaissance pazos (palaces) in Galicia. Álvarez de Oca e Deza ordered its construction in 1552, which would finish in 1583 with the facade. It is a two-story building with an austere façade on whose balcony five coats of arms of different Galician lineages shine, which will later be repeated inside. Since the 19th century, the pazo has been the headquarters of one of the oldest cultural societies in the city, the Liceo de Ourense.
The stone and the stonemasons that worked it, both in the construction of this pazo and in many other monuments and buildings of Ourense, came from the vicinity, specifically from the place of Reza, very close to the current thermal areas next to the Miño river.
Jewel of Renaissance civil architecture, it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2002.
The building occupies number 5 on Calle de Lamas Carvajal (old Rúa Nova), which was once the Jewish quarter and after its forced conversion (until then they were scattered around the old area, in good relationship with the Christians). In fact, there has been speculation about the Church of Santa Eufemia as a possible location for the old synagogue.
The pazo was abandoned in the 19th century and became a mule inn, that is, a meeting place for muleteers, where they stayed and looked after their mules and merchandise. The city recovered it when in 1870 the Liceo Recreo de Artesanos de Ourense moved here, a cultural group that existed since 1850 and that until then had its headquarters in Rúa da Obra (now Lepanto Street). With the transfer, the company reaches its greatest splendor, being a meeting place for intellectuals and illustrated people of the time: among its partners it is worth mentioning the journalist and poet Lamas Carvajal or also the poet Curros Enríquez, and among its visitors, personalities such as Isaac Albéniz, that he played in his party room.
Faced with its austere exterior, with a two-story doorway with a balcony framed in columns and molded lintel, the interiors stand out for their elegance. They are articulated around a quadrangular patio full of elements that take us to the gatherings of another era, starting with its central fountain, built in Carrara marble by the sculptor Piñeiro. Eight octagonal shafts support the open gallery which is ascended by a spacious staircase on the left. From the upper floor, between its Tuscan columns, you can see the patio in its entirety, while you can enjoy its art collection, with frescoes with Galician traditional scenes by the painter Ramón Buch Buet.
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