Palacio de las Cigüeñas (Tower of the Storks) - Cáceres, Extremadura, España
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Ariberna
N 39° 28.384 W 006° 22.247
29S E 726160 N 4372575
The Palace of the Storks or House of the Cáceres-Ovando is a historic building from the 15th century located in the Spanish city of Cáceres .
Waymark Code: WM162V8
Location: Extremadura, Spain
Date Posted: 04/23/2022
Views: 1
It is located in the highest part of the monumental area of ??the city, in the Plaza de San Pablo, one of the squares over which the Plaza de San Mateo extends .
It is known by that name due to the large number of storks that nested there. It was built at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century by Diego Fernández de Cáceres y Ovando , probably in the area occupied by the old Almohad fortress , building it mainly with masonry . The façade is made up of a simple semicircular arch with voussoirs above which there is a window and two coats of arms of the Ovando-Mogollón family. On the sides, on the first floor, we find two biforas with pointed horseshoe arches . Inside, its Gothic courtyard stands out .
But what really stands out from the complex is its tall tower with merlons supported by small corbels . It is the only tower that has not been lopped off in the historic area. The Ovando house escaped the royal order of Isabella the Catholic , issued against the towers of all the houses due to their loyalty to Juana la Beltraneja in the dispute over the throne of Castile . After the coronation of Isabel , it was granted in 1480 to Diego Fernández de Cáceres y Ovandothe right to erect said tower. The palace continued to be inhabited for several centuries by the descendants of the Cáceres-Ovando family, passing specifically to the branch of the Marquises of Camarena.
It was reformed in the 1940s to house the headquarters of the Military Government and is currently in the possession of the Ministry of Defense . In addition to housing military administrative offices, it is open to the public as a cultural center in which a military museum and exhibition halls have been set up. 46 In 2018 its tower was also opened to the public, of great landscape value due to the views it offers of the old town.
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