The Palace of the Deputation of Pontevedra (
Spanish
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* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
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Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
: ,
Galician: ), in
Pontevedra
Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the '' Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality wh ...
, Spain, is the seat of the
Provincial Deputation of Pontevedra, the
provincial government
A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, ...
of the
province of Pontevedra
Pontevedra is a province of Spain along the country's Atlantic coast in southwestern Europe. The province forms the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, and Ourense, ...
. It is located between the
Alameda de Pontevedra
The ''Alameda del arquitecto Sesmero'' (translated as ''Alameda of architect Sesmero''), popularly known as ''la Alameda'' by the Pontevedrians, is an urban park located in the city centre of Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. Created in 1879, it is t ...
and the
Palm Trees Park.
History
The Provincial Council of Pontevedra was constituted in 1836, the last of the four Galician provinces. For decades, it had its seat in the disused
convent of San Francisco, before moving to the current Palace in the Gran Vía de Montero Ríos in 1890. In the 1870s, the project for a new headquarters was undertaken, due to the high cost of maintaining the convent's headquarters.
In 1882, Domingo Rodríguez Sesmero and his son Alejandro Sesmero presented a proposal for the new palace in the classical style. However, the final project would be different: it would show the influence of Alejandro Rodríguez-Sesmero's
eclectic style
Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact t ...
and decorative sense by adopting certain elements from the
Pontevedra City Hall. In 1883, the project was approved and the work was awarded, under the direction of Daniel Rodríguez Vaamonde, who was later replaced by Antonio Crespo and Siro Borrajo. In 1884 the Provincial Council of Pontevedra bought the land where the present Palace is located from the City Hall of Pontevedra. Work began on 1 March 1884 and continued until 8 November 1890.
The building was specially adapted to the needs of distinction, symbolism and