Palacio de Villardompardo

Baths and Historic Building in Jaén

CC BY-SA 2.0 / Ángel M. Felicísimo

The Palacio de Villardompardo or Palace of the Counts of Villardompardo, is a 16th century Palace in the city of Jaén, Andalucia in Spain. The palace was the location of 11th-century Baños Árabes or Moorish baths. The palace was built in the by Fernando Torres in a Renaissance style for First Count of Villardompardo and Viceroy of Peru, Don Fernando de Torres y Portugal.

At the end of the 18th century, the building was acquired by the Board of the Royal Hospice, passing it to the Provincial Charity and settling in it, the Women’s Hospice.

In the early twentieth century the palace became part of the real estate heritage of the Provincial Council of Jaén, and in the 1910s the baths were rediscovered in the.

The Palacio de Villardompardo is currently part of the Villardompardo Palace Cultural Center.

The Moorish baths are one of the largest surviving Islamic-era bathhouses in Spain. Built in 1002 they were converted to a tannery after the Reconquista, then completely built over by the Conde de Villardompardo new palace in the 16th century, rediscovered in 1913 they were then restored between 1970 and 1984 and are now open to visitors along with the palace. They consist of four rooms (two cold, one warm, one hot), the warm room is particularly distinctive with its multiple horseshoe arches. A 10-minute film which has English subtitles, that details the history of the baths.

The building also contains part of an excavated Roman street.

Museum of Popular Arts and Customs of Jaén

The Museum of Popular Arts and Customs of Jaén is a museum dedicated to the culture and customs of the province of Jaén. It is spread over several floors, covers everything from horse carts to olive oil production to pig-slaughtering (matanza).

Jaén International Museum of Naïve Art

The Jaén International Museum of Naïve Art, known as the Manuel Moral International Museum of Naïve Art, is a naïve art gallery located on the left wing of the Villardompardo Palace.

The Palacio de Villardompardo appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Jaén!

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