Ducal Palace and Plaza Mayor

Ducal Palace Characteristic of the Hapsburg period, the Duke of Lerma took advantage of the site of the old medieval castle and built according to the designs of Francisco de Mora, was built in successive phases, designed as a dwelling for the Dukes, as well as a royal residence for the court of Philip III, on the occasion of hunting retreats in the town. The layout is characteristic of Castilian palaces: a central courtyard surrounded by colonnaded galleries, alternating two bodies: the first, of 20 columns of Tuscan order with semicircular arches and the second of 20 columns of Ionic order; being the columns of a single piece. It also starts from this courtyard a sumptuous and wide cloister staircase. The main facade is made with strong ashlars, its cover is accompanied by pedestal, column and capital on each side, which is based on a semicircular frontispiece, with architrave work. The entire facade is topped by a strong stone cornice and above it rise the slate roofs, with their dormers. On those cornices and in the four corners start the four towers topped by spires also covered with slate, with large ball, weather vane and cross. The entire palace was composed of 210 iron balconies and 135 windows between dormers and railings. The Palace was used as headquarters during the Napoleonic invasion, losing its four spires. It has been restored as a Parador de Turismo, recovering the charm lost in past centuries. Plaza Mayor In front of the main facade of the Palace extends a space of rectangular plant, limited in its other sides by three "bodies of buildings". It has 75 columns of pieces of stonework with their pedestals. Over the columns, built in brick, runs the second body with 72 balconies. The square was the ideal setting for private parties (corral of comedies, bullfighting on horseback, game of reeds, luminaries, mogigangas ...), Lope de Vega or Góngora came to Lerma to represent their plays in the Plaza. But the Duke devised a barbaric variant of the Fiesta Nacional, which greatly amused the courtiers, which consisted of a cliff for the bull; once the bull was fought, he was incited to the balcony and he died naked, precipitated down the slope to the river. Of 6,862 square meters it is one of the largest squares in Spain, being the pride of the Duke at the time. About the Plaza Mayor of Lerma, Lope de Vega wrote in his work "La burgalesa de Lerma": I wish you had seen, Leonarda, the beautiful square of Lerma, a picture as in painting: strong stone pillars, balconies all the same, windows and stained glass, in one of them the king ...