Palacio de Soñanes: A Baroque Palace in Cantabria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page7 sections
History
Palacio de Soñanes, also known as the Díaz de Arce Palace, is an early eighteenth-century civil Baroque palace in Villacarriedo, Spain. Juan Antonio Díaz de Arce y Pérez del Camino, a diplomat serving Philip V, commissioned it in his birthplace, choosing to build around a medieval tower that had belonged to the Díaz de Arce family. Construction began at the start of the eighteenth century and the palace is dated to 1722.
Commission and construction
Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, reigned from 1700 to 1746, apart from a brief abdication in 1724. Díaz de Arce’s decision in 1719 to establish the palace at Villacarriedo connected the new residence with his family’s earlier presence there. The documented master stonemason was Simón de Arce, who directed work with his team.
The architect has not been securely identified. Suggestions have included the Italian architect Cosimo Fontanelli, perhaps specifically for the monumental staircase, and Francesco Borromini, an influential seventeenth-century Italian Baroque architect. Francisco de la Riva Ladrón de Guevara has also been proposed because of similarities with Camposagrado Palace in Oviedo. Another attribution names the regional master Juan de Miera, based partly on a house archive, although his early death prevented confirmation.
Style and later history
The palace combines several architectural influences. Its decoration draws clearly on the Plateresque, a highly ornamental Spanish style associated especially with the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and on the Churrigueresque, an especially elaborate Spanish Baroque mode named after the Churriguera family. Regional Montañés forms also appear. The result is a richly decorated civil Baroque building characterized by abundant ornament.
Fernando Fernández de Velasco y Pérez de Soñanes was among the palace’s last residents and owned an important library. The building was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in Spain on 18 September 1981. This legal designation protects cultural heritage recognized for historical, artistic, or archaeological value. In 2001, the palace was restored and converted into a hotel.
Remains
Palacio de Soñanes has a quadrangular plan enclosing the earlier medieval Díaz de Arce tower. The three-storey building presents an eclectic interpretation of the classical Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, architectural systems defined by characteristic column forms and entablatures. Its lower façades use free-standing columns, while the upper level employs pilasters, which are flat, wall-attached supports.
Façades and roof
The two lower storeys have free-standing Corinthian columns, including twisting Solomonic columns and baluster forms with fluted shafts. Pilasters occupy the upper storey. Most rectangular openings are framed by decorated small columns and crowned with broken pediments, which are pediments interrupted at their apex or sides. Iron balconies mark the centre of the intermediate storey. Foliated and fluted friezes enrich the façades, while the roof carries pinnacles, modillions, acroteria, and gargoyles. Modillions are projecting ornamental blocks supporting a cornice, acroteria are ornaments placed at roof or pediment corners and peaks, and gargoyles channel rainwater away from the building.
Interior staircase
The interior is occupied throughout by a monumental two-flight staircase. Each flight corresponds to one of the palace’s two principal façades, making the staircase a central element of the building’s design. Its possible association with Cosimo Fontanelli forms part of the continuing debate over the palace’s architect.
Heraldic decoration
Heraldic elements appear throughout the palace. A large coat of arms on the east façade represents the founder’s family. It shows rampant lions, meaning lions standing upright with raised forelegs, together with putti, childlike decorative figures, and sea monsters touching the horns of plenty. The imagery expresses the prestige and wealth associated with the person who commissioned the building.
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