Ricote Town Hall - Llamas Palace

This simple Baroque building of French influence was built in 1702 by Francisco de Llamas. The facade has solid stone ashlars with pilasters and an access framed between two pillars supporting the balcony and frieze on which the family coat of arms is located.

 

The wrought iron grilles are beautifully carved, enhancing the noble look of the building. There is a Baroque column in the entranceway decorated with the Llamas coat of arms.

 

The inside of the mansion is structured around a magnificent staircase with a wooden imperial handrail supported by bars shaped as Salomonic columns. The lower dome is supported by pendentives decorated with Moorish paintings; the builder was actually as expert in that type of art.

 

Important figures of the Spanish civil society at the time were born in this house: Mr. Sancho de Llamas y Molina, prestigious lawyer, member of the Royal Treasury Council, Governor and Magistrate of the Valencia Central Court, and author of key legal publications. His brother, General Pedro de Llamas, who defended the Kingdom of Murcia during the Independence War, was a member of the Royal War Council and MP in Cadiz. Their sister Isabel, a Clare nun who wrote beautiful spiritual books, was founder and abbess of the Clarisas monastery in the city of Cieza.

 

After 1830 the Álvarez Castellanos family moved to the house of the Llamas as these died without succession. The palace, home to the Town Hall, is four times smaller than it used to be.