Casa Moxica-Matos

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: Siglo XVI

On what is now called Calle de los Balcones, at number 9, the alférez mayor Miguel de Moxica built a house in the 16th century that passed as a dowry to his granddaughter Luisa Mateo del Castillo when she married Francisco García y Arce.

The doorway consists of two sections within the same plane, separated by a carved shelf. The lower part has a lintelled door, where a small ogee arch can be seen as decoration. The whole rests on carved bases.

The second section has a window with a rope-moulded lintel as decoration and a trilobed arch. Framing the entire opening and arch is a carved band with vegetal elements interspersed with some winged animals. Also, with decoration of figures and animals, there are two squares, one on each side of the lower ends of the opening. The entire upper ensemble is framed by an alfiz with carved decoration on its inner faces. It ends in two corbels which, in turn, have figures holding small shields with fleur-de-lis.

Crowning the entire doorway is, in grey stonework, the coat of arms of the Matos family, but this was placed later than the rest of the doorway, specifically in 1680, the year in which Captain Juan de Matos acquired the house for twenty-four thousand five hundred silver reales.

In the interior courtyard of the Casa Moxica-Matos there are three columns interrupted in their centre by rings that recall the Manueline style. Two of these columns, those with Corinthian capitals, have balls in the style of the Isabeline on their bases as decoration.

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