Laredo Palace, Alcalá de Henares, Spain

Laredo Palace is a mixture of architectural, sculptural and decorative archetypes and elements, inspired by different styles but dominated by the neo-Mudejar style. The building is a set of rooms, towers and viewpoints, porches, terraces and gardens.Visitors will find rooms inspired by the Alhambra (plasterwork, tiles, coffering), by Pompeian frescos (paintings and painted fabrics) and by the Plateresque tradition, and with Modernist, Gothic, Renaissance, Nasrid and Moorish decorative motifs in general.

Laredo includes pieces from other monuments in other places, including coffering and small vaults from the Palace of the Condes de Tendilla; vaults and columns from the Castle of Santorcaz; Spanish-Moorish tiles form the Palace of Peter I in Jaén; and columns from the Monte Loranca Jesuit Penitentiary, amongst others.

It is currently a museum dedicated to Cardinal Cisneros, and contains a documentation centre and a specialised library which includes documentary and bibliographic sources relating to the history of the University of Alcalá.

References:

Wikipedia

Palaces, manors and town halls in Spain

User Reviews

Natanel Iluz (2 years ago)
1 euro entrace fee. Very small but extreamly beautiful. Recomended !!!

Meow Pannarai Suwancharoensin (2 years ago)
I love this weird house Neomudéjar soooo much

Miguel Arnaz (2 years ago)
Worth the 1 euro ticket, it has a nice usable bathroom too.

José Sandín (2 years ago)
Located quite close to the Railway station, this architectural gem, is one of the main features of this town you may see upon your arrival. Laredo’s Palace is a wonderful Neo-Mudéjar building with a romantic nineteenth-century backyard, built in a time where its own architectural style was already out of fashion. You can’t miss this beautiful oddity if you’re visiting Alcalá.

Arnette Round The World Girl (2 years ago)
Walked by here from the train station. Looks fantastic from the outside but you cannot purchase tickets here. You have to buy them at the university. So myself and 3 other ladies just left because we weren’t going to be going to the university. Stars stars for the beautiful facade but loss of stars for inconvenience.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Giåm

Historic Site of the week

Glimmingehus

Glimmingehus is the best preserved medieval stronghold in Scandinavia. It was built 1499-1506, during an era when Scania formed a vital part of Denmark, and contains many defensive arrangements of the era, such as parapets, false doors and dead-end corridors, 'murder-holes' for pouring boiling pitch over the attackers, moats, drawbridges and various other forms of death traps to surprise trespassers and protect the nobles against peasant uprisings. The lower part of the castle's stone walls are 2.4 meters (94 inches) thick and the upper part 1.8 meters (71 inches).

Construction was started in 1499 by the Danish knight Jens Holgersen Ulfstand and stone-cutter-mason and architect Adam van Düren, a North German master who also worked on Lund Cathedral. Construction was completed in 1506.

Ulfstand was a councillor, nobleman and admiral serving under John I of Denmark and many objects have been uncovered during archeological excavations that demonstrate the extravagant lifestyle of the knight's family at Glimmingehus up until Ulfstand's death in 1523. Some of the most expensive objects for sale in Europe during this period, such as Venetian glass, painted glass from the Rhine district and Spanish ceramics have been found here. Evidence of the family's wealth can also be seen inside the stone fortress, where everyday comforts for the knight's family included hot air channels in the walls and bench seats in the window recesses. Although considered comfortable for its period, it has also been argued that Glimmingehus was an expression of "Knighthood nostalgia" and not considered opulent or progressive enough even to the knight's contemporaries and especially not to later generations of the Scanian nobility. Glimmingehus is thought to have served as a residential castle for only a few generations before being transformed into a storage facility for grain.

An order from Charles XI to the administrators of the Swedish dominion of Scania in 1676 to demolish the castle, in order to ensure that it would not fall into the hands of the Danish king during the Scanian War, could not be executed. A first attempt, in which 20 Scanian farmers were ordered to assist, proved unsuccessful. An additional force of 130 men were sent to Glimmingehus to execute the order in a second attempt. However, before they could carry out the order, a Danish-Dutch naval division arrived in Ystad, and the Swedes had to abandon the demolition attempts. Throughout the 18th century the castle was used as deposit for agricultural produce and in 1924 it was donated to the Swedish state. Today it is administered by the Swedish National Heritage Board.

On site there is a museum, medieval kitchen, shop and restaurant and coffee house. During summer time there are several guided tours daily. In local folklore, the castle is described as haunted by multiple ghosts and the tradition of storytelling inspired by the castle is continued in the summer events at the castle called "Strange stories and terrifying tales".

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