Palacio de Buenavista facts for kids
The Buenavista Palace (also known as El Palacio de Buenavista or El Palacio de los Condes de Buenavista) is a very old and important building in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain. It was built a long time ago, in the early 1500s, for a person named Diego de Cazalla. It was even built on top of an older palace from the Nasrid period.
This palace was recognized as a "Property of Cultural Interest" in 1939. Later, in 1946, it was rented to the Spanish government to become a museum. This museum, which showed provincial art, opened its doors in 1961. In 1997, the palace was bought to become the home of the Museo Picasso Málaga, a famous art museum dedicated to Pablo Picasso. This new museum opened in 2003.
You can find the Buenavista Palace in the old part of Málaga city. It is on Calle San Agustín, in what used to be the Jewish quarter (called judería). It's also close to the San Agustín convent and not far from the Cathedral of Málaga.
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Palace Design and Features
The Buenavista Palace has two main floors, except for its towers. Its front, or Plateresque façade, is made from large, thick stone blocks. The decorations around the doors and windows are very detailed and fancy. However, the rest of the stone walls, called ashlar facades, are quite plain.
The doors and windows are very big and are not placed perfectly evenly. The main entrance and the balcony above it are designed to look like one complete piece.
Inside the Palace
The inside of the palace is built around two open courtyards, known as patios. The first patio has a double row of columns, called a colonnade, on each floor. The second patio, located further inside, is built in the Mudéjar style. This style mixes Christian and Islamic art. This patio has eight-sided pillars and two ancient Roman mosaics.
One of these mosaics, found in Cártama, shows the birth of Venus, a goddess from Roman myths. The other mosaic, from Benalmádena, has a cool geometric pattern. A staircase on the right leads to the upper floor. This floor originally had the same layout as the ground floor. However, the layout has been changed a bit to fit the Museo Picasso Málaga.
Architectural Style
The Buenavista Palace is a great example of a grand house built after the city of Málaga was taken over in 1487. This happened during the Granada War, which was the last war of the Reconquista (the Christian reconquest of Spain). Diego de Cazalla, who built the palace, was part of this conquest.
The palace's main style is Renaissance, which was popular in Europe at the time. It also has a fancy Plateresque front and some Mudéjar features. Some of these Mudéjar parts might even be from the older Nasrid palace that was on this spot before. For example, a "Moorish tower" (torre morisca) next to the Mudéjar patio is thought to be from the old Nasrid palace. This mix of styles shows the period right after the Reconquista. The most important Mudéjar part is the tower. It looks like towers in Granada with its special cornice (a decorative molding) and low arches in the alfiz style on its upper floor. But this tower is much bigger than any found in Granada.
Hidden Discoveries
The basement of the palace is like an archaeological museum itself! You can see it from above through clear panels in the floor. During the building's renovation for the museum, many interesting things were found. There are parts of an old city wall and towers from the Phoenicians, who lived there a very long time ago. There are also remains of a Roman factory that made garum, a fish sauce. And, of course, parts of the earlier Nasrid palace were found right on the same spot.
History of the Palace
The Buenavista Palace was built in the early 1500s. After Diego de Cazalla passed away, the palace was owned by the Counts of Mollina. In the 1800s, it passed to the Counts of Buenavista. Eventually, the Countess de Luna became the owner.
For many centuries, the palace was used as a family home. However, it was used less often from the 1800s onwards. After that, the palace had different uses. It was an educational center, a furniture factory, and even a Red Cross hospital in 1938, during the Spanish Civil War.
From Fine Arts to Picasso
In 1913, a royal rule created the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts). This museum, later called the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, opened in 1916. From 1920, it was located in a building that used to be part of the Jesuit College of Saint Sebastian. The museum collected many important artworks by famous artists like Luis de Morales, Luca Giordano, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Enrique Simonet, and Francisco Zurbarán.
In 1946, the Countess de Luna rented the palace to the Spanish State to be the new home for the museum. So, in 1961, the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes moved into the Buenavista Palace.
However, in 1997, the Museum of Fine Arts was closed. This was to make way for the new Picasso museum. After a lot of work, including adding some new buildings next to the palace, the Museo Picasso Málaga opened in 2003. The collection of the old Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes is still kept safe. Some of its temporary exhibitions have been shown at the Palacio de la Aduana, but it doesn't have a new permanent home yet.
The Picasso Museum's Home
The palace was chosen for the Picasso museum because of the wishes of Christine Ruiz-Picasso, who was a main donor to the museum. She wanted the museum to be in a special and typical Andalusian building. Besides the palace itself, the museum also includes 18 houses from the old judería (Jewish quarter).
The Andalusian Autonomous Government bought the museum in 1996 for about 650 million pesetas, which was around US$6.5 million at the time. Changing the building for the Museo Picasso was a huge project. It was led by the American architect Richard Gluckman, along with Isabel Cámara and Rafael Martín Delgado. This big project cost over 2,000 million pesetas, which was about US$20 million.
In December 2009, two foundations joined together. One was the Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga, which ran the museum. The other was the Fundación Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, which owned the art collection. They became one foundation called the "Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga. Legado Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso." Because of this, the Andalusian government agreed to give the new combined foundation ownership of the palace.
See also
In Spanish: Palacio de los Condes de Buenavista para niños
