palace of the First Marquis of Cerralbo · Ciudad Rodrigo (EN)

This palace was built in the 16th century, a period from which the structure and the two access doors with three-lobed arches and the frieze of grotesques that decorates the main floor are preserved. On it three coats of arms can be observed: in the center the arms of Pacheco and Osorio, the first surnames of the Marquis of Cerralbo; and in the corners, inclined according to the Walloon fashion, the arms of the Álvarez de Toledo and Enríquez. On this level there are two small torsas columns embedded in the corners that served as mullions, the remains of two corner windows. From the 19th century is the cresting that tops the building and from the 30's of the 20th century some architectural details devised by the new owners. The "inclined shields" or "terciados a la valona", very common in the civil architecture of Mirobrigense, are striking. According to legend, they would mark the houses of illegitimate children, although in reality they would respond to a fashion from the Netherlands and Germania introduced in the Peninsula with the arrival of the Hapsburgs (Charles V and Philip II).