La Blanquera (''Palace of the Blanco family'') is a Spanish Colonial building in the city of San Carlos in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. This house was built by a wealthy family of cattle ranchers from the lands of Andalucia, Spain by the name of Blanco y Salazar during the second half of the 18th century. This house is white and has

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

decorative features including columns with aborigines wearing feathered headgear. According to the traditional story, Don Joseph Blanco y Salazar built and used this house as a place of retirement for him and his family after the pacification of the

Apure Apure State ( es, Estado Apure, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. Its territory formed part of the provinces of Mérida, Maracaibo, and Barinas, in accordance with successive territorial ordinations pronounced by the colonial author ...

aborigines.

The Blancos, discoverers of Apure

The

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

Don Joséph (José) Blanco y Salazar was born in October 1690 in the Spanish village of

Galaroza Galaroza is a town and municipality located in the Parque Natural de la Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche, which is in the province of Huelva, Spain. According to the 2005 census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording ...

in the archbishopric of

Seville, Spain Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, the son of the

Alférez In medieval Iberia, an ''alférez'' (, ) or ''alferes'' (, ) was a high-ranking official in the household of a king or magnate. The term is derived from the Arabic ('' al-fāris''), meaning "horseman" or "cavalier", and it was commonly Latinised ...

Juan Martin Blanco and María Salazar y Sánchez. He traveled to

when was just a boy around 1702 at the side of his uncle and father of his future wife, Don Francisco Salazar y Sánchez. There he joined the

Third Order of Saint Francis The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi. The preaching of Francis and his disciples caused many ma ...

to comply with the royal decree of colonization of the Indies of 1676. Don José, along with his ancestors, participated in the conquest of what is today the estate of

looking to also expand his congested cattle lands in San Carlos. On 28 August 1726 he married his maternal cousin, Clara Teresa Salazar y Sánchez, daughter of Don Francisco. The couple had seven children: María Rosalía, José Santiago, Sebastián Fabián, Alejandro, Juan Martín, Juana Josefa, y Francisco Antonio. For his legendary exploits, these conquered lands were granted to him by the

King of Spain , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

through a royal decree...

"''As a gift, in thankfulness for having been the Discoverers of Apure and its Founders''"

La Blanquera today

The illustrious home was expropriated as abandoned on 20 October 1942 by the local government. In 1977, at a ceremony where legitimate descendants of the Blanquera succession participated (today the Guillén family), it was declared a historical monument. Italian architect

Graziano Gasparini Graziano Gasparini (31 July 1924 – 30 November 2019) was a Venezuelan architect, photographer, painter and historian, sometimes referred to as Graciano Gasparini (ie using a Spanish version of his first name). Gasparini was born in Gorizia, on ...

spearheaded the reconstruction of the house that now serves as culture house to the people of San Carlos. Inside there are colonial objects, including an old church bell from 1801 and historical paintings and photographs.

References

{{coord missing, Venezuela Buildings and structures in Cojedes (state) Houses in Venezuela Spanish Colonial architecture in Venezuela