Casa de les Bruixes, Valencian Art Nouveau building in central Alicante, Spain.
Casa de les Bruixes is a three-story building in the Valencian Art Nouveau style on Doctor Gadea Street in central Alicante. Its front wall is covered with floral carvings, elephant heads, cherubs, and lion figures arranged across the surface.
Lawyer Manuel Martínez de Azcoytia y Galíndez commissioned the palace, and Enrique Sánchez Sedeño presented the first project in 1898. In 1911 Sánchez Sedeño drafted an extension toward the interior of the block with Art Nouveau elements, but in 1912 Francisco Fajardo Guardiola took over the works and designed the steep-roofed towers with Nordic Gothic influences.
The name Casa de les Bruixes, Witches' House in Valencian, is a popular nickname; the building is also called Casa Martínez after Manuel Martínez de Azcoytia, the lawyer who commissioned it. Since 1990 it has housed the Valencian government's office in Alicante, so visitors see the facade from the street.
The building is on Doctor Gadea Street and easy to reach on foot from the city center. Since it operates as a government office, visitors generally stay outside to look at the facade from the street.
The building's two four-story towers, one on Doctor Gadea Avenue and one on San Fernando Street, were designed in 1912 by Francisco Fajardo Guardiola after Sánchez Sedeño resigned from the works. Their steep roofs and details draw on Nordic Gothic, an unusual choice for a Valencian Art Nouveau building.
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