At the beginning of 1760, Archbishop Rajoy comissioned Lucas Ferro Caaveiro to design the plans to erect a building in Plaza del Obradoiro, to house the Local Council, the prison and the Confessors Seminary. Claims brought by the Hospital Real delayed the work and caused a change in architect and a modification to the extension and height of the building. Finally, the French engineer Charles Lemaur began the work in 1767.
Pazo de Raxoi stands on a rectangular ground plan that closes off the Plaza del Obradoiro, built in granite ashlar and its Neoclassical style is clearly influenced by French Classicism. It consists of three floors and an attic. Its symmetrical main facade, with a portico with architraves on the lower floor, highlights the central and side structures with adjoining Colossal columns finished in pediments, the central one triangular and the side one semi-circular. On the tympanum of the central one there is an image of the battle of Clavijo, and is topped by a sculpture of St. James the Apostle on horseback, both by José Ferreiro.It is presently the Local Council building and Presidency of the Autonomous Governmen.
References:The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains: the extraordinary system contains fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Tivoli had been a popular summer residence since ancient Roman times due to its altitude, cooler temperatures and its proximity to the Villa Hadriana, the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian I.
The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509-1572), second son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara and grandson of Pope Alexander VI, along with Lucrezia Borgia.