THE PALACE OF ALMANZORA

​Almanzora has a significant monument, as important, within the province of Almeria. It is the majestic and elegant Palace of Los Marqueses de La Romana, dating from the eighteenth century. It is of Neoclassical style, made by the Spanish architect Ventura Rodríguez, who has been declared an Architectural Heritage of Historical Artistic Interest (known as Palacio de Almanzora). It is the most representative neoclassical building in the province of Almería.

            It may have originated in the 18th century when the Marquesado de los Vélez decided to divide its geographical area into three administrative zones. At the head of one of them, in the plains of Almanzora, they built a building with granaries for collecting cereals, oil mills, housing areas and administrative areas, later taking advantage of the main building, as an ancestral home for the families of the Marquises of Villafranca and the Marquis of La Romana.

            In the middle of the 19th century, both the main building and 10 that constituted the main estate of the Marquis of La Romana, with 47 farmhouses, 3 flour mills, 3 oil mills, etc. they were acquired by Don Antonio Abellán Peñuela, mining industrialist of Cuevas del Almanzora. He was appointed Marquis of Almanzora by Amadeo I of Savoy by Royal Decree of July 8, 1872 and married in 1848 with Catalina Casanova Navarro, a native of Cuevas de Almanzora, 1st Countess of Algaida since 1887.

            In 1872 he ordered the main building to be considerably enlarged, adding new dependencies and turning it into a palace, giving it the neoclassical air that was fashionable in the constructions of the time. Don Antonio Abellán was the first Marquis of Almanzora.

            The decline of mining affected the heirs of the Marquis and an important part of their properties in Almanzora, including the Palace, passed to D. Juan March Ordinas, who immediately appointed an administrator to sell them. In this way, the properties of the Marquis of Almanzora were distributed in small minifundios and the palace was acquired by two families whose heirs still maintain the property. The Palace consists of a main pavilion with two wings in square, which leave in the center a courtyard of honor. Both the main pavilion and the left wing house the different rooms used for housing, while the wing on the right is occupied by the chapel, as well as the stables, the oil mill and other facilities for services. This chapel has an entrance through the courtyard of honor, its rectangular floor being arranged perpendicular to the axis of the patio. Today it serves as the church of the population.

            The external facade of the courtyard of honor, is made of exposed brick, with white marble decoration and in the center, a semicircular arch on pilasters framed by similar elements. A broken cornice lines its entire profile. In the center: the coat of arms of Abellán.

            Until May of 2008, when a door was put in its main entrance, a large part of the Palace was subject to looting and decadent damage to which people who uncontrolledly acceded to it were subjected to it.

See photo garelly