Built originally by Ignacio Peña around 1850 and finished by Adolfo Vázquez Moreno at the end of the XIXth Century, the house is located at the edge of the Tomebamba ravine, in Cuenca, and shows one of the most spectacular aspects of the older town.
After having bought the walls of the house, it was Adolfo Vázquez who gave the esthetical character to the building, importing, as it was usual at that time, elements of decoration of Germany, furniture of France and Austria, glass of Belgium as well as using the most chosen local specialized workers to make the windows, balconies and wooden trusses that decorate the bays of the common rooms.
In spite of its peculiar situation, the house fits into the common patterns of the lordly houses of the XIXth. The inner court and the court are sourrounded by the rooms. Without doubt, the most important part of the house is the second floor with its common and private spaces: the dining room, the reception, the living room with its beautiful balconies to the street and sleeping rooms.
Even if it was devided in 1952, the house keeps its personality. Its front shows six bays in two levels, richly ornamented and with frames suggesting a place for paintings that were never made according to the actual owners. But if the front leaves room for questioning, the interior reflects a surprising combination of colour, form and decoration. The windows, of Venetian or Arabic inspiration, are complemented by barroque frames for the inner bays. The inner court is surrounded by powerful bas-relief made of brass plates which have been treated with techniques of ‘marmoring’ (marmoleado) in order to enhance their appearance. In the dining room, the reception and the entrance there are authentic wall paintings.
The scrupulous care that Cecilia Toral and her sister, the actual owners and direct descendants of Adolfo Vázquez Moreno, have taken in order to conserve this house, make of it a singular example of a ‘living’ house that keeps its use as residence.
The beautiful living room, covered with wallpaper made of gold leafs figuring floral motives, whose ceiling is covered with brass plates, suggests a world that seems to have been trapped by time, transporting us to the lifely cultural atmosphere of the Cuenca of the XIXth, the one of the exporters of scarfs (‘toquilla‘) and quinone so near to the esthetical and literary European world of those times.
