Pazo de Raxoi, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

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.

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Galicia Tourism

Palaces, manors and town halls in Spain

Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick.

Pazo de Raxoi

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Broch of Gurness