Buenavista Palace ( or ''El Palacio de los Condes de Buenavista'', "the palace of the

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

s of Buenavista") is a historical edifice in

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was built in the first half of the 16th centuryPalacio Condes de Buenavista
www.ISOCanda.org, 1998, reproduced on picasso.tamu.edu (the Online Picasso Project), accessed online 2010-01-16, says "1530–1540", as does Remedios García Rodríguez

Homines.com, portal of the Centro del Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, 2008-09-06, accessed online 2010-01-17.
Javier Arroyo
El museo del pintor en Málaga abrirá a finales de 2002 con 186 piezas
''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'' 2000-06-09, accessed online 2010-01-16, says 1530.
Palacio de Buenavista, en Málaga
''Diario Sur'', 2007-08-02, accessed online 2010-01-17, says the first quarter of the 16th century.

, europeforvisitors.com, accessed online 2010-01-17, says "built between 1516 and 1542 by Jewish converts". Those same dates are given by Javier Caballero
La 'nueva casa' del maestro
''El Mundo'', 2003-10-04, reproduced on the site of the Online Picasso Project, accessed online 2010-01-18. for Diego de CazallaPalacio Condes de Buenavista
www.ISOCanda.org, 1998, reproduced on picasso.tamu.edu (the Online Picasso Project). Accessed online 2010-01-16.
, Museo Picasso Málaga. Accessed online 2010-01-16. on the ruins of a Nasrid palace. Declared a "Property of Cultural Interest" in 1939, it was leased to the Spanish government in 1946 for a provincial art museum, which opened in 1961. In 1997 it was acquired to house the present Museo Picasso Málaga, which opened there in 2003.The Collection: History
, Museo Picasso Málaga. Accessed online 2010-01-16. It is located in the historic center of Málaga, in the Calle San AgustínMonumentos de Málaga
, webmalaga.com. Accessed online 2010-01-17 in the former

Jewish quarter Jewish Quarter may refer to: *Jewish quarter (diaspora), areas of many cities and towns traditionally inhabited by Jews *Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem), one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem *Jewish Quarter (), a popular name ...

(''judería''),Javier Martín-Arroyo
La metamorfosis malagueña
''El País'', 2006-03-04. Accessed online 2010-01-17 next to the San Agustín convent and not far from the Cathedral of Málaga.

Architecture

Except for its towers, the Buenavista Palace is a two-story building. Its

Plateresque Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" (''plata'' being silver in Spanish language, Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially Architecture, architectural, developed in Spanish Empire, Spain and its territories, which appeared ...

façade is built of thick stone blocks; the ornament around the doors and windows is elaborate, although the rest of the ashar facades are simple to the point of austerity.Remedios García Rodríguez
Pasear por el centro de Málaga (2ª parte)
Homines.com, portal of the Centro del Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, 2008-09-06. Accessed online 2010-01-17. The doors and windows are very large, and are placed asymmetrically. The design of the main entrance is of a piece with the balcony over the door. The interior is arranged around two ''

patio A patio (, ; ) is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a structure and is typically paved. In Australia, the term is expanded to include roofed structures such as a veranda, which provides protection from sun ...

s''. The first patio is surrounded by a double

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

(a separate colonnade for each story). The other, farther in, is in the Mudéjar style, with octagonal pillars, and two

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

-era mosaics. One of these, from Cártama, represents the birth of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

. The other, from Benalmádena, is in a geometric pattern. The stairway at the right accesses the upper story, which originally had the same floor plan as the ground floor. The floor plans have been somewhat modified for the Museo Picasso Málaga.Isabel Cámara Guezala and Rafael Martín Delgado
El encuentro del pasado y el futuro
''Diario Sur'' Digital. Part of th
Canal Picasso
series. Accessed online 2010-01-18. The palace is the most important example of seigneurial architecture executed after the 1487 conquest of Málaga by the forces of the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

Isabella and

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...

during the

Granada War The Granada War was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It ended with the defeat o ...

, the last war of the ''

Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

''; Diego de Cazalla had participated in that conquest. The architectural style is basically that of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, with a Plateresque façade and

Mudéjar Mudéjar were Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period following the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for Mudéjar art, which was greatly influenced by Islamic art, but produced typically by Christian craftsmen for C ...

aspects. Some of those

aspects may be directly inherited from the previous Nasrid palace on the site: Professor Fernando Marías states that the ''torre morisca'' ("

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

tower") adjacent to the Mudejar patio dates back to the old Nasrid palace. This combination is particularly emblematic of the period following the completion of the ''Reconquista''. The chief Mudéjar element is the tower, which resembles those of certain houses in

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

in its style of

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

and in the low ''

alfiz The alfiz (, from Andalusi Arabic ''alḥíz'', from Standard Arabic ''alḥáyyiz'', meaning 'the container';Al ...

''-style arches of its upper story, but is on a much grander scale than any found in that city. The basement is effectively an

archeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology ...

museum in its own right, visible from above through transparent panels in the floor.Museo Picasso - Málaga
''Diario Sur'' Digital. Part of th
Canal Picasso
series. Accessed online 2010-01-18. During the construction of the museum, there were a series of interesting discoveries. There are remnants of a city wall and towers dating back to the

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

, of a

factory to produce the fish-based sauce ''

garum Garum is a fermentation (food), fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment in the cuisines of Phoenicia, Ancient Greek cuisine, ancient Greece, Ancient Roman cuisine, Rome, Carthage and later Byzantine cuisine, Byzantium. Liquamen is a si ...

'', and also of an earlierSimon Baskett, John Fisher, ''The rough guide to Spain'', Rough Guides, 2004. . p. 464-465. Nasrid palace on the same site.

History

The palace was built in the first half of the 16th century. sometime after the death of Diego de Cazalla, it passed to the Counts of Mollina and in the 19th century to the Counts of Buenavista.Palacio de Buenavista, en Málaga
''Diario Sur'', 2007-08-02. Accessed online 2010-01-17. Eventually, the palace passed to the Countess de Luna. It was used as a family home for centuries, but less so from some time in the 19th century. After that, the palace had various uses including as an educational center, a furniture factory, and in 1938 (during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

) a

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

hospital.Presentación del libro Arquitectura del Museo Picasso Málaga. Desde el siglo VI a.C. hasta el siglo XXI, patrocinado por Ferrovial
, Museo Picasso Málaga, press release 2005-28-01. Accessed online 2010-01-17. A royal decree in 1913 established the Museo de Bellas Artes (later Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, "Provincial Museum of Fine Arts"), which opened in 1916 and was located beginning in 1920 in a space that had formed part of the former

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

College of Saint Sebastian. The museum built up a strong collection, including works by Luis de Morales ("El Divino"), Luca Giordano,

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ( , ; late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contempor ...

Enrique Simonet Enrique Simonet Lombardo (February 2, 1866 – April 20, 1927) was a Spanish Painting, painter. Early life Simonet was born in Valencia, Spain, Valencia. His first vocation of childhood was religious studies, but he abandoned it to devote hi ...

, Francisco Zurbarán, and other comparably distinguished artists. The Countess de Luna leased the palace to the Spanish State in 1946 as a new home for the museum; in 1961 the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes moved into the palace. The Museum of Fine Arts was closed in 1997 to make way for the Picasso museum which, after extensive modifications including the addition of some new adjacent buildings, opened in 2003. As of 2010, the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes collection remains intact. Various temporary exhibitions have taken place at the Palacio de la Aduana, but it does not yet have a new permanent home. The palace was selected for the Picasso museum in accord with the wishes of the museum's principal donor, Christine Ruiz-Picasso, who wished the museum to be housed in a notable and typically Andalusian building. Besides the palace itself, the museum incorporates 18 houses from the old ''judería'' (Jewish quarter). The museum was purchased in 1996 by the Andalusian Autonomous Government for the sum of 650 million pesetas. (roughly

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

6.5 million). The conversion of the building for the Museo Picasso was a major undertaking. Led by the American architect Richard Gluckman, along with Isabel Cámara and Rafael Martín Delgado,Gonzalo Zanza/Pedro Corral
Málaga: principio y fin del siglo de Picasso
''ABC'' (Madrid) 1999-11-06. Article begins on p. 31, link is to p. 33, which has the relevant passage. it was budgeted at over 2,000 million pesetas, about

20 million. In December 2009 the Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga ("Malaga Picasso Museum Foundation")—which operated the museum—and the Fundación Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso ("Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Foundation")—which owned the collection—merged to become the "Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga. Legado Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso" ("Museo Picasso Málaga Foundation. The Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz Picasso Legacy"). As a result, the Andalusian government agreed to give the new merged foundation ownership of the palace.

La Opinión de Málaga ''La Opinión de Málaga'' is a newspaper published in Málaga, Spain. It is edited by Prensa Ibérica. Prensa Ibérica's project to create a newspaper for Málaga and its surroundings was announced in 1998, whilst the first issue was published ...

.es,
La Junta aprueba el martes ceder la sede del Museo Picasso a su Fundación
', 2009-01-30. Accessed online 2010-01-16.

Notes

External links

* Remedios García Rodríguez

Homines.com, portal of the Centro del Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, gives a good architectural description of the building, with pictures. *
Canal Picasso
a very comprehensive series of articles about Picasso and the museum from ''Diario Sur'' Digital. These include a lot of images of the building, and articles about the building discuss what elements come from what period. * Isabel Cámara Guezala and Rafael Martín Delgado
El Patriominio Histórico en la Escena Urbana: El Museo Picasso Málaga
part of
Viva la Calle
', Ayuntamiento de Málaga, Comisión Europea y Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda. Undated (2005 or 2006). Includes numerous photos of the palace and surroundings, as well as some architectural drawings and sketches. {{DEFAULTSORT:Buenavista Palace, Malaga Buildings and structures completed in 1530 Palaces in Andalusia Buildings and structures in Málaga Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Málaga