Palacio de Soñanes

Villacarreido: 27^th March 2011.

When I first heard of Villacarreido, the first thing I did, naturally, was a web search. All I turned up as an entry in Wikipedia … in Spanish. I was able to get the gist of what was being said, although Babelfish was no help; I got more from the original than from the Babelfish ‘translation’. And, later, my friend Juan-Carlos was able to help out with a proper translation.

Anyway, the main attraction of the place seemed to be the hotel we were staying in …. the Palacio de Soñanes. It’s a superb bit of baroque architecture, in which the art nouveau and sometimes art deco interior decoration seem to blend seamlessly. It was built around a tower dating from the 15^th Century, and the whole thing is supported by a massive stone staircase.

That staircase just beggars verbal description … I compared it with the Madrid Metro, where you have to select your exit carefully, or you can find yourself horribly disoriented for a few minutes.

The palacio was built for a diplomat in the service of King Felipe V, one Don Antonio Diaz de Arco y Perez del Camino (Spanish nobility of that time didn’t have names; they had pedigrees!) and takes its name from its last inhabitant Fernando Fernandez de Velasco y Perez de Soñanes.

It was recently acquired by the consortium which now owns the hotel, and extensively restored; the project co-ordinator was Rafael Calleja and the decoration was by Paco Entrena and painter Roberto Orella.