Revillagigedo Palace, Baroque palace and arts centre in Cimadevilla, Gijón, Spain

Revillagigedo Palace stands in Gijón's Cimadevilla quarter, joined to the Collegiate Church of San Juan Bautista. Its light tan stone front has two square crenellated towers, the right one older, and a central block with five round arches at ground level, three holding iron gates. An iron balcony runs above the arches, with five tall red-framed windows behind it and a carved stone coat of arms between the upper windows.

Carlos Miguel Ramírez de Jove, first Marquis of San Esteban de Natahoyo, commissioned the palace in 1704 on the site of a 15th-century Gothic tower, which was kept and still forms the right-hand tower of the facade. Work finished in 1721 under Francisco Menéndez Camina, architect also of the Palacio de Camposagrado in Avilés. The title of Count of Revillagigedo later passed to the same family, giving the building its name. It was declared a historic-artistic monument in 1974.

The palace takes its name from the Revillagigedo title, which later passed to the family that built it; the founder was Carlos Miguel Ramírez de Jove, made Marquis of San Esteban de Natahoyo by Philip V in 1708. Since 1974 it has been a monument, and today the palace and the adjoining Collegiate Church of San Juan belong to the Caja de Ahorros de Asturias foundation and house the Liberbank Cultural Centre.

The building is located at Plaza del Marqués 2 in an easily accessible area of the old town where you will also find the Barjola Museum and the Campo Valdés Roman Baths nearby. Plan to check ahead as the site opens mainly for special exhibitions and hours can change seasonally.

The coat of arms on the facade is a 2004 reconstruction. Father Patac researched the Academy of Asturian Heraldry and Genealogy catalogues and the National Historical Archive, and an 1860 photograph of the shield allowed a copy to be carved in sandstone.