Palacio de la Marquesa de Villalba, Havana

Palacio de la Marquesa de Villalba
Palacio de la Marquesa de Villalba
Former names	Conde de Casa Moré
General information
Type	Residential
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Address	No. 2 calle Ejido
Town or city	Havana
Country	Cuba
Coordinates	23°08′01″N 82°21′24″W / 23.133645°N 82.356726°WCoordinates: 23°08′01″N 82°21′24″W / 23.133645°N 82.356726°W
Completed	1875
Technical details
Structural system	Load bearing
Material	Masonry
Floor count	2
Design and construction
Architect	Eugenio Rayneri y Sorrentino

Built in 1875, in the Reparto de las Las Murallas, (wide strip of land that remained after the city walls were demolished in 1863), it was the work of the architect Eugenio Rayneri y Sorrentino.^[a] Around 1880 the mansion was owned by the Count of Casa Moré. The “La Flor de José Murias” tobacco factory was installed in the building. Later, through the exploitation of rents, it became a tenement house. In 1951 some of its spaces were dedicated to housing. On its upper floor, the Spanish Center and the Israeli Center of Cuba had their headquarters.

History[]

The palace of the Marquesa de Villalba and the Mercado de Tacón were designed by the Eugenio Rayneri y Sorrentino at almost the same time, 1875 and 1876, respectively, each in a style that accommodated the particular typology (residential and commercial) thus conceiving each work with the formal element accommodating the particular thetic requirements of each building.^[1]

Architecture[]

Palacio de la Marquesa de Villalba, floor plan

1853 Map of Havana shows urban condition of the wall before demolition

The property is, after the Aldama Palace, the strongest example of Cuban Neoclassicism. The palace of the Marquesa de Villalba is in the neoclassical style, perhaps only comparable in Havana - according to Alina Castellanos - to the Aldama Palace. But while the latter limits the decoration to the natural slenderness of the colonnade, in the most classical way of the Greek Parthenon, the former uses Roman and Renaissance elaborations, hence, the arcade has been projected on pillars, the building was crowned with a considerable cornice. The neoclassical decoration can also be seen in the window covers, which take alternate forms of a triangular or semicircular pediment, and glass over the door, similar to the Plaza del Vapor.^[2]

Some interior spaces and the openings to the street on the ground floor have been heavily modified, it is still possible to appreciate the monumentality of the building in its three street facades, well proportioned, with a portal composed of a semicircular arcade that culminates in pointed arches at the ends. There are openings on the upper floor, which are alternately topped by triangular or semicircular pediments, a detail that shows a strong influence of the Italian Renaissance, which makes the Palacio one of the most openly academic of the period. There is an unusual Corinthian pilaster order attached to the upper floor, and the main portal by Calle Egido, resolved in a semicircular arch with and a cast iron door. The rest of the composition remains within the scheme of the large intramural mansions, with the ground floor, mezzanine, and main floor, located, in this case, around three interior courtyards.^[3]