The Casas Consistoriales (Local Govt. Building)

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1842 · Authors: Manuel González y González

The present-day building occupies the plot where the former Cabildo Government building once stood (in 16th century). It was a Gothic-Rennaissance building which caught fire in 1842, the drawing of which shows a young Benito Pérez Galdós. The plans of the current building were done by Manuel González y González -a master cabinet-maker- and were adapted by Juan Daura, a municipal architect from the city of Cádiz. Work started on it that very year. [...]

It stands opposite the Cathedral, on the western side of the "Main Square". It occupies a square area, has 5 floors, including a mezzanine floor and a recently added attic. The imperial staircase (designed by Manuel Ponce de León, although signed off by provincial architect Manuel de Oraá in 1853), starts off under an arch, and faces the façade, set in tightly against the first centre line. With some highly decorative adornments, the staircase goes to the Salón Dorado on the third floor and the former rooms of the mayor's residence. [...]

The main façade has a front arcaded section with nine hollows and padding. The upper floors feature a central section with giant pilasters, as well as a vertical proportion and more light from its hollows. It is finished off with a large cornice, a ballustrade and the city's coat of arms. The allegorical figures representing Agriculture, Industry, Arts and Commerce crown the building, and are part of its iconographic programme. 

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