From the Lonja de la Seda to the Sobrellano Palace, six Spanish civil and monumental buildings that are essential to visit

From Gothic markets to modernist train stations through private residences that seem to be taken from a fairy tale.

Beyond the religious or the military, civil architecture has also bequeathed to the catalog of Spanish monuments a lot of noteworthy places.

These are six good examples of essential visits.

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An exciting route through Spanish heritage in danger of disappearing

Silk Market (Valencia)

It may seem like a most splendid Gothic religious site, but this is one of the best civil buildings of the old kingdom of Valencia, dedicated to God, although to another: money.

Construction began in 1483 according to the project of the master Pere Compte, and today the Lonja de la Seda in Valencia is the exaltation of the power that the Valencian commercial bourgeoisie came to have in the fifteenth century.

A true masterpiece of civil Gothic, related to the one in Palma (Mallorca) and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

Columns of the Trade Hall of the Lonja de la Seda in Valencia, one of the best examples of civil Gothic architecture in Spain.

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As soon as you enter, you will be amazed by the 24 columns of the Trading Hall, where the old merchants placed their stalls waiting for customers.

From the living room, a glass door leads to the Patio de los Naranjos, a relaxed space with a fountain surrounded by orange trees and cypresses.

The Valencian market was built in just 15 years, according to a legend carved by the architect on the walls of the column.

Murcian Casino

Arabesques in the interior patio of the Casino de Murcia, 11th century building built in neonazarite style.Alamy Stock Photo

Until the middle of the 20th century, Murcian social life revolved, as in any good provincial city, around the casino, built in 1847 in neoclassical style.

After a long restoration, it continues to be the most prominent public building in the city.

A neon-Nazarite patio built at the beginning of the 20th century by the sculptor Manuel Castaños, inspired by the

of the Granada Alhambra serves as a transition between the lobby and the central halls.

The library keeps the same silent and ceremonial atmosphere as when it was inaugurated in 1916. The ladies' room is another superb nineteenth-century piece, decorated with allegorical frescoes of the night and the goddess Selene.

But the noblest part of the building is the Ballroom, with its chandelier with 110 bulbs and 620 different pieces of cut glass that has been a privileged witness to the best social events in Murcia.

Butrón Castle (Bizkaia)

View of the castle of Butrón (Bizkaia), built in the 19th century by the Marquis of Cubas.

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It looks like a Bavarian fortress lifted from the Alps and transferred as such to the gentle Basque hills.

Butrón castle is one of the most famous and incongruous in Bizkaia.

Because its origin is medieval, but what we see today is a historicist pastiche.

In 1879 its owner, Francisco de Cubas y González-Montes, Marquis of Cubas, ordered the construction of a fairytale castle on the medieval ruins that had nothing to do with the construction typology of Basque fortresses, and much to do with an imagination of operetta.

Its high keep, presiding over the entire complex, and its impassable walls were in the long run impractical to be inhabited.

The interior is so meager that many rooms have to be entered through exterior walkways.

In addition, it is surrounded by a garden with botanical species.

It was used for filming and wedding celebrations and events until last year when the real estate agency that owned the property sold it to an unknown tycoon.

The castle is in Gatika, about 20 kilometers north of Bilbao.

The interior is not visitable.

Yes they are, and free, the exteriors and gardens.

Canfranc International Station (Huesca)

Inside Canfranc International Station, now converted into a hotel. EDUARDO MCONDE

New life for one of the emblematic buildings of the Aragonese Pyrenees.

The Canfranc International Station, a superb railway facility inaugurated in 1928 by King Alfonso XIII as part of the railway linking Spain and France through the central Pyrenees, had been abandoned and neglected for decades.

A gigantic and atypical building that almost completely fills the narrowness of the Alto Aragón valley with its marked classicist character, a reminder of the French palaces of the 19th century, and that since the closure of the Somport line in 1970 only received on the Spanish side to the Canfranero, a medium-distance regional train that departs daily from Zaragoza.

And for just over a year, not even that, since in April 2021 a new terminus station was inaugurated for him.

The colossal building of the International Station has finally been renovated and converted into a recently inaugurated 5-star hotel of the Barceló group.

A new accommodation that, without a doubt, will contribute to revitalize one of the most beautiful and charismatic valleys of Aragon.

Access to the new Canfranc lobby is free, even if you are not staying.

You can also enjoy the bar and cafeteria, outside the hotel's breakfast and lunch hours.

Torre de los Varona House (Álava)

The Varona tower house, in Villanañe, was built in the 16th century on a hill that dominates the countryside.

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Villanañe is a small, peaceful and almost unknown town in the south of Álava.

There is the tower-palace of the Varona family, one of the largest fortified complexes in the Basque Country.

It is a palace-castle built in the 16th century on a hill that dominates the countryside.

It has always been in use by the descendants of the Varona family, which is why it has reached our days in a certain good state of preservation.

The name comes from one of the women of the feudal family that owns the castle, a character of arms who managed to take King Alfonso I prisoner in a battle, which earned her the nickname "La Varona".

Inside it preserves part of the original furniture and on the outside, the crenellated barbican and the striking moat, which two bridges help to wade through.

Sobrellano Palace (Comillas)

The exterior of the palace of Sobrellano, in the Cantabrian town of Comillas.Alamy Stock Photo

Comillas was an important fishing village, but also home to many noble Cantabrian families and the birthplace of important churchmen.

One of its most illustrious neighbors was Antonio López y López, a young man from a humble family who emigrated to Cuba in 1831.

There he began as a grocery waiter and ended up becoming the richest man in Spain in his time.

A close friend and financier of King Alfonso XII —the monarch spent two summers in Comillas invited by López—, he ordered the construction of the Sobrellano Palace, also known as the Palace of the Marquis of Comillas, as a summer residence for his family and his distinguished guests. .

Catalan architect Joan Martorell designed a stately mansion overflowing with luxury and size where styles overlap in an eclectic neo-Gothic, neo-Nazarite, modernist and neo-baroque pastiche.

The palace lacked nothing (Antoni Gaudí himself designed some of the furniture), but the sudden death of the marquis in 1883 prevented him from enjoying it.

The attached reddish church is the family vault, where the Indian Antonio López and his family are buried.

Today it is one of the unavoidable visits when traveling along the Cantabrian coast.

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