Palace of Villabona: A Seventeenth-Century Palace-House in Asturias
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page12 sections
History
Palace of Villabona is a seventeenth-century palace-house in Spain, standing near Villabona in the parish of Villardeveyo, within the municipality of Llanera, Asturias. It is regarded as one of Llanera’s best-preserved monuments and the most prominent monument in Villardeveyo. The main palace was built in the middle of the seventeenth century and altered during both the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Origins and seventeenth-century expansion
The palace probably belonged to the noble Quintana family, whose coat of arms appears on the surviving tower. The chapel of the Three Kings predates the principal palace building. Toribio Alonso de Villabona commissioned it from the Cantabrian architect Juan de Naveda in 1623. On 25 September that year, the master stonemason Juan Gómez de Somomayor signed the construction contract, which required completion by 1 October 1624. In November 1624, Naveda mediated between the patron and Gómez in an assessment that valued the completed work at 2,300 reales.
The chapel had originally stood as a separate building. During the second half of the seventeenth century, it was absorbed into the enlarging palace and became an oratory. An inscription planned before construction names the house’s lords, Toribio Alonso de Villabona and his wife, Quiteria González Oviedo y Portal. Toribio had served as procurator of the council of Llanera from 1599 to 1621 and as a judge of the city of Oviedo.
Façade, fire, and rebuilding
Between 1661 and 1669, the present principal façade was constructed. The palace originally had two corner towers, but the northwestern tower was destroyed by a fire at the end of the seventeenth century. The building was subsequently rebuilt, and an inscription on the surviving tower records work associated with the transfer of the house and chapel between 1661 and 1669. After this rebuilding, the eastern façade served as the principal façade from the late seventeenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The Romanesque portal of the Convent of Santa Clara in Oviedo was dismantled in 1886 and transferred to the palace. It first formed part of the estate boundary and entrance before being placed at the chapel entrance in the tower. A truck later struck the portal, causing partial demolition. The southern gallery was replaced by a glazed gallery after the Spanish Civil War.
Modern conservation and heritage status
A restoration in 1986 altered the appearance of the tower by replacing its upper battlements with the present roof and arranging the transferred Romanesque portal at the tower entrance. The Palace of Villabona was declared a national historic-artistic monument by Royal Decree 3250/1982 of 12 November 1982. It now has the status of an Asset of Cultural Interest in the Monument category, Spain’s formal heritage designation for an individual historically, architecturally, or culturally important building.
Remains
The Palace of Villabona is a rectangular complex organized around a rectangular central courtyard, with four wings and a square tower at the southwestern corner. The western side is now the principal façade. The surviving fabric combines the original tower, later palace construction, the integrated chapel, and architectural elements transferred from the Convent of Santa Clara in Oviedo.
Palace layout and elevations
Western façade
The western principal façade has two storeys and white-plastered walls. Its lower level contains the main doorway, flanked by two shell-shaped loopholes. Above the entrance, a projecting balcony carries the coats of arms of the Alonso de Villabona and Portal de Oviedo families. The Portal shield has an unusual arrangement, placing the Cross of the Angels beneath the wolf rather than in the upper part of the shield.
Surviving tower
The square tower rises through four storeys and is covered by a hipped roof. Its lower level contains the entrance to the chapel, while the second and third storeys each have a semicircular-headed opening. A coat of arms beside the opening on the third storey is attributed to the Quintana family. The former northwestern tower is represented by the remains of some supports on the northern façade.
Courtyard and wings
The four wings enclose a courtyard now covered by a modern roof. Carved wooden galleries are supported by four columns within this space. The staircase leading to the upper floor is in the northern wing, where it was moved from its original position. The eastern façade, once the principal elevation, had a corridor and a small, simple portico on the ground floor. The southern side formerly had a vernacular-style gallery, later replaced by the glazed gallery.
Chapel and transferred portal
Chapel of the Three Kings
The chapel occupies the lower storey of the tower and is entered through a room that functions as a portico. Designed by Juan de Naveda, it has two naves, one rectangular space containing the altar and one square space. Four semicircular arches in the square nave support a hemispherical vaida vault, a dome-like vault formed within a square or rectangular bay. Curved triangular supports called pendentives carry the vault over the square space, resting on chamfered pilasters.
Most of the chapel’s original wooden altarpiece has disappeared, but two panels survive. One depicts the infant Jesus with Mary and Joseph, while the other represents Saint Eulalia.
Romanesque portal
The transferred Romanesque portal originally had three undecorated semicircular archivolts, moulded bands following the curve of the arch, together with a hood moulding and an outer band decorated with diamond-point ornament. The archivolts and hood moulding rested on the capitals of three pairs of columns. Above them were abaci decorated with balls that continued into the imposts. A projecting eave, supported by carved corbels, completed the entrance.
Two of the portal’s six original capitals remain at the palace, while two others are held in the Archaeological Museum of Asturias. One surviving capital has spiral-leaf ornament, and another shows birds among acanthus leaves. Two original corbels also survive, one bearing a beaked head and the other having a cylindrical form with a triangular projecting tongue.
In the arrangement made after 1986, only the outermost of the three original archivolts remains. It rests on masonry blocks from the convent beneath the hood moulding. The moulding is supported by the preserved capitals and by two columns that do not belong to the original portal. The imposts and two corbels are positioned above this arrangement.
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