MARTÍNEZ FAMILY MANSION

This construction was designed by the Santander architect D. Juan Miguel de la Guardia. It was built at the end of the 19th century using an eclectic style and great decorative austerity for the “Indiano” D. Manuel Martínez García, an emigrant in Cuba.
The building is a small urban palace with a square floor plan and an elevation in the shape of an H. It has two lateral bodies of three levels that flank the central one of two levels and is where you find the entrance arch to the building. The construction is surrounded by a walled and railed garden.
The main façade is structured with three well defined lines, the central one hosting a semi-circular door over which three corbels with foliage motifs support a balcony with grilles. The identical but taller lateral lanes have emblazoned windows closed with grilles. On the third floor there are mullioned windows with semi circular arches.
At the East Façade, a large mullioned arch blooms with a net tracery. At the back façade, there stands a wooden and glass gallery occupying two floors. At the interior, a stone stairway gives access to the foyer.
At the beginning of the 20th century, and at the cost of part of the vegetable garden, D. Manuel ordered the construction of a complex of small houses located in La Resqueta, a clear indicator of the working class type of housing at the time.