Palacio de Las Dueñas
Built between the 15th and 16th centuries, the Casa Palacio de Las Dueñas was named after the currently disappeared monastery of Santa María de las Dueñas. The monastery was located in the adjoining plot and was demolished in 1868. The Palacio was the family house of the Pineda, lords of Casabermeja, one of the patrician dynasties of Sevilla.
In the following decades, the Palace was inherited by Fernando Enríquez de Ribera, II marquis of Villanueva del Río. His daughter, Antonia Enríquez de Ribera, got married in 1612 to Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, future Duke of Alba. Since then, Las Dueñas belongs to Casa de Alba. In the XIX Century, Dueñas became a guesthouse, dividing its rooms and halls with walls and covering the coffered ceiling.
One of the guests, and property administrators of Las Dueñas, was Antonio Machado Álvarez father of the famous poet Antonio Machado, who was born in Las Dueñas in 1875. Machado remembers in the following verses the eight years of his childhood when he lived in The Dueñas: “My childhood are memories of a patio in Seville and a clear orchard where the lemon tree matures … ” (Campos De Castilla, 1912) “It is this light of Seville … It is the palace where I was born, with its source rumor ” (New Songs, 1924)
In the 20th Century, Las Dueñas has been a meeting point for members of the European royal families and international personalities of culture, politics, and art. Distinguished people such as the Empress Eugenia de Montijo, Lord Holland, Eduardo VIII and his bother Jorge VI, Alfonso XIII, Jacqueline Kennedy, Wallis Simpson, Grace Kelly and her husband Rainiero de Mónaco, among others.
Today the visitor has the chance to take a glimpse of the life of a noble Sevillian family but only on the ground floor of the building since the rest of the building is still the private residence of the Duke and Duchess of Alba. This dream Palace with its beautiful refreshing gardens, patios, and magnificent reception rooms, its stunning art collection is worth seeing. More
