Owners of Viana Palace: From Sir Gomez de Figueroa to Sir Fausto Saavedra y Collado
The Owners
The first owners were the Villaseca, and as it is kept into the protocol filer, the first of them was Don Gómez de Figueroa, who was married with Doña Lucrecia Mesía.
The couple had different children, inheriting the palace the first of them Don Luis Gómez bernardo Fernández de Córdoba y Figueroa, who bought different houses, growing the residence.
The property is passing through generations, increasing its size along the times. In the XIX century, when Juan Bautista Cabrera, Villaseca Marquis, left widower doña María del Carmen. The marquis married Don Teobaldo Saavedra y Cueto, I Marquis of Viana and don Ángel de Saavedra y
Ramirez de Baquedano’s son, the Rivas duke, whose works are still conserved in the palace.
Don Teobaldo is succeded by Don Jose Saavedra and Salamanca Ramírez de Baquedano, the II Viana Marquis that was not the former one‘s son, but the nephew, because the marriage with Doña Carmen did not give any descendant. Don lose de Saavedra is succeded by Don Fausto Saavedra y Collado, the III Viana Marquis, who married Sofia de Lancaster. The Marquis was the last tenant of the palace, before selling it to Cajasur, former Caja Provincial de Ahorros de Córdoba. Nowadays it is the owner and manager of the palace.
Doña Juana marquez de Hidalgo, writer of "The inventory of the palace of Viana", and whose information was used in order to write this section.
The purchase of the building by Cajasur was very important for three reasons: to conserve the rich artistic patrimony and documental, avoiding the dispersion of it. The second reason was the singularity of the complex, not only for keeping the masterpieces inside it but for conserving them as they were in the past without changing its order along the times. Besides the surrounding gardens, that are composed by different patios and the central garden configure the complex as unique in Córdoba. Finally, the fact of being transformed into a museum, allows the proximity of the palace to the Cordovans and tourists that come to our city.
Text: J.A.S.C.
Traslated by Sara Moretti
Art, Culture and Tourism in Cordoba