Description

 

Manor house of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, belonging to the Cardenas-Valdivia lineage. It is located on Maestra Street, in the vicinity of the arch of the Virgin Mary, which disappeared in 1778. (1)

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The house was part of the primogeniture created in 1571 by Mrs. Maria Baltodano, wife of Don Gome de Cardenas. It will be Mrs. Elvira Cardenas Baltodano and her husband, Don Luis Valdivia Figueroa, Knight of Santiago, who will start the construction of the aforementioned house. (2)

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The facade, set back from Maestra Street, is preceded by a spacious square, which was public until 1848, when it was annexed to the house and closed with a crenellated wall with a door and half-point spans.

Two elements of very different use make up the palace of the children of Don Gome: the manor house of the inhabitants and the stable. On the facade of the house, built on a plane more advanced than that of the stables, its tower-portal stands out, built unlike the other elements of the set in sandstone. Cover-tower that was built in the second third of the seventeenth century by Don Gome de Valdivia, Cardenas y Guzman and Mrs. Mayor Nicuesa and which is framed from the formal point of view in the Baroque style.

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It is organized in two bodies of unequal size. The first is arranged around its lintelled door, framed by columns on plinth with fluted shaft of Corinthian order and a ledge cornice. The lintel with radial padding shows a cartouche, which acts as a key, in which it says: DOMINUS EDIFICAT ET CUSTODIAT.

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In the second body, the balcony, framed between fluted pilasters, with capitals in the form of corbels that support a piece of entablature. The pediment, curved and divided, houses the Cardenas coat of arms and on it a griffin or eagle. On both sides of the balcony, two warriors of round shape, with helmets of feathers (myth of the indigenous of protective purpose). On the right flank, the lineage of the Valdivia on cut-out leathers, the cross of Calatrava and an eagle on a mask. On the left flank the Figueroa lineage. Five corbels support a cornice, which individualizes the attic, which correspond to seated lionesses bearing a shield. From right to left the lineages of Guzmán, Valdivia, Cardenas, Nicuesa and Figueroa.

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Cover interpreted as an emblem tower, with distance acquires a full visual empowerment, demanding the spectator's full attention. The relief obtained by the facade with this directed vision, would never have been achieved in the street line, due to the narrowness of the street and the limited space that is counted.

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Behind the tower doorway, heeled to the right with respect to its axis, a patio porticoed on three of its fronts, around which the space is distributed. Patio of great simplicity and of reduced proportions, with arcs of half point that ride on columns of Tuscan order and shields of the lineages dwellers in the spandrels.

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Annex to the tower facade, on its eastern side, the stables yard. It was accessed through a half-point arch, since it was privatized by a crenellated Wall, that would be destroyed in 1995, when the remodeling of the building began, after its purchase by the City Council (agreement of the plenary session of February 8, 1989).

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The Valdivia and Cardenas were one of the most influential lineages of Andujar, well related to the oligarchy of the city through a successful marriage policy and that have remained in the collective memory of the citizens of Andujar through the house of the Children of Don Gome. House that has been the subject of more than one historical speculation, because around it would emerge a certain urban legend that still remains alive. The door of the portal of the tower has remained blinded until the end of the 20th century, considering that the cause of this was the punishment received by Don Gome de Valdivia y Cardenas for having sympathized with the cause of Archduke Charles in the War of Succession. Attitude that would force him to enter his house from then on through the door of the service, that is, through the door that gave access to the courtyard of the stables. Nothing is true about it, although as a fictional story it is attractive. The reality is that Don Gome was a perpetual alderman of the city, who in 1701 occupied the post of corregidor temporarily until his owner took possession and who developed his normal life in Andújar during the difficult years of the war. It is true that his relationship with some members of the local nobility were not at times very cordial, example would be the accusation that the Marquis del Cerro would do in September 1711 before the council: "that a key file should not be in the hands of Don Gome for not being a legitimate person for it". Accusation that has nothing to do with disloyalty of war. The presence of the Valdivia in Andujar would not end in Don Gome, because his son Gabriel de Valdivia Corral de los Rios, would live much of his life in the city. More prosaic reasons would blind the door, the when, we do not know and why, is precisely what we all think.

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Currently the building has a cultural use, it is the Archaeological Museum Professor Sotomayor, is home to the courses of the University of Autumn of the University of Jaen and the corporation makes the plenary sessions in the Hall of the Stables.

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Association of Friends of the Patrimony of Andújar