The Palacio de la Aduana ("Customs Palace") is a building 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 ...
, originally a customs house for the
Port of Málaga.
[Palacio de la Aduana]
/
Customs Palace
malagaturismo.com (official tourism site of the City of Málaga). Accessed online 2010-01-19.
The building was proposed by
Manuel Martín Rodríguez in 1787 and approved by
Charles III of Spain
Charles III (; 20 January 1716 – 14 December 1788) was King of Spain in the years 1759 to 1788. He was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I (1731–1735); King of Naples, as Charles VII; and King of Sicily, as Charles III (or V) (1735 ...
. Work began in 1791 under the direction of administrador general of Customs Pedro Ortega Monroy and architects Miguel del Castillo and Ildefonso Valcárcel, who designed the principal façade and floor plans. Work was still under way in 1810 when the building was sacked during the occupation of Málaga by
French forces during the
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
; after the war, damage was repaired and construction continued. Architect Pedro Nolasco Ventura made various modifications to the plans, and the building was completed in 1829.
[Susana Hermoso-Espinosa García]
Recorrido histórico por el Palacio de la Aduana de Málaga
SUMA (sumagestion.com), 2004-10-10. Accessed online 2010-01-19.
The
Neoclassical building was modeled on
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 ...
Italian palaces.
Four corridors or bays surround a central ''
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 ...
'' that is
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...
ed for the lower two floors; then set back on the third floor, where there is an open gallery with an
openwork
In art history, architecture, and related fields, openwork or open-work is any decorative technique that creates holes, piercings, or gaps through a solid material such as metal, wood, stone, pottery, cloth, leather, or ivory. Such techniques ha ...
balustrade
A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...
functioning as a
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...
; between sections of the parapet are
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 ...
busts atop low walls.
The building has
bossed exterior walls;
[Málaga]
, malagayturismo.eu. Accessed online 2010-01-19. towering palm trees that flank the main façade.
Originally a customs house, it later served in the later 19th century as the Real Fábrica de Tabaco (Royal Tobacco Factory),
as the seat of the city government,
[Las Primeras Sedes]
, official site of the city of Málaga. Accessed online 2010-01-19. and as the Subdelegation of the Spanish Government in the
Province of Málaga
The province of Málaga ( ) is located in Andalusia, Spain. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and by the provinces of Cádiz to the west, Seville to the northwest, Córdoba to the north, and Granada to the east.
The province ...
beginning in the
Franco era,
and was later used also by the
Policía Nacional.
As of 2004, it was being used by the Subdelegation, and the Policía Nacional, and to store the collection of the Fine Arts section of the
Museo de Málaga, which lost its previous site in the
Buenavista Palace when that was taken over by the
Museo Picasso Málaga.
The original roof was destroyed by a fire in the tobacco factory era.
On 25–26 April 1922, while functioning as the seat of the government, the building experienced a terrible fire. The wooden staircases to the top floor caught fire; at the time, there were 70 government functionaries living on that floor. 28 people died, and years of archives were destroyed.
The building is currently (as of February, 2012) being rehabilitated for permanent museum use by the Museo de Málaga. The Ministry of Culture has hired the construction firm
Sacyr to rehabilitate the building, following the designs of architects Fernando Pardo, Bernardo García Tapia, and Ángel Pérez Mora. The project is budgeted at 23.6 million
euro
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
s. The museum is projected to open in 2013.
[Alfonso Vázquez]
El palacio de la Aduana ya tiene su propio perfil ´museístico´
''La Opinión de Málaga'', 2009-07-27. Accessed online 2010-01-19.
Notes
References
*Mª Eugenia Candau, José Ignacio Díaz Pardo, Francisco Rodríguez Marín: ''Málaga Guía de Arquitectura.'' Ed. bilingüe
ª Ed.- Sevilla: Consejería de Obras Públicas y Transportes, Málaga - Colegio de Arquitectos, 2005
External links
* Rafael Puertas Tricas
El Uso Museístico del Palacio de la Aduana Revista Jábega (Centro de Ediciones de la Diputación de Málaga), Number 92, 2002, 5:13. A study of the suitability of the Palacio de la Aduana for a museum; includes floor diagrams and breakdowns of floor space surface area.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palacio de la Aduana (Malaga)
Aduana, Malaga
Neoclassical palaces in Spain
Government buildings completed in 1829
Buildings and structures in Málaga