1510	1641	1809	1913
1514	1726	1810	1946
1548	1740	1813	1973
1553	1760	1850	1977
1560	1783	1889	1987
1567	1785		1991
1586	1786		1994

  1510

  Martín López de la Cueva

Martín López de la Cueva was an important clergyman of the church of Santiago in Carmona, and was also the hospital administrator of the Cardenal of Sevilla. He was an immensely rich man, who owned a large number of farms and buildings in Carmona, and who created one of the most endowed chaplaincies in the entire history of Carmona.

A chaplaincy is an institution formed by a document with testamental function in which a benefactor assigns some rents, buildings or farms, so that a chaplain will offer a series of Masses for his soul; The chaplain is entrusted by the document to use the rents of the assets, or if insufficient, the proceeds from the sale of the asssets, to pay for the various costs of offering these Masses: the wax for the candles, the wine, …. and the chaplain.

Among the assets of this chaplaincy was the Casa-Palacio. The first document that mentions the houses in the chaplaincy of Martín López de la Cueva is from 7-10-1514. But the chaplaincy is earlier, from 1510.

The Casa-Palacio then paid an annual tax of 1000 Maravedies. All houses of more than 500 square meters were then called palaces. The house, with more than 2000 square meters, was then a palace.

1514

  Gutierre Méndez de Sotomayor

It was Gutierre Méndez de Sotomayor who bought the houses from the Chaplaincy and build his mansion and center of power. The Mendez de Sotomayors were one of the families of the nobility of Carmona - by the late fifteenth and throughout the sixteenth century, the Mendez de Sotomayor had accrued the rights to being Perpetual Rulers (Regidores Perpetuos) of Carmona and the family at large owned several main houses in Carmona. . To read more on Gutierre Méndez de Sotomayor, download a pdf ...

1548

  Lázaro de Briones Mallén

The Briones originate in the town of Briones in La Rioja, in the north of Spain, just south of Navarre. Gil Fernández de Briones left a will in Briones, dated 5 September 1326. Gil's descendants would establish themselves in Marchena, just 25 kms east of Carmona. Gil´s great-grandson, Alonso de Briones Herrera, became governor of Marchena.

Alonso´s grandson, Lázaro de Briones (1518-1576) enlisted at a young age (18?) in the imperial army of Castille and crossed the Atlantic to fight in the conquest of Perú, beginning his military career as a gunner. He fought with distinction in the conquest of the city of Cúzco, and also took notable part in the battles of Huarina, and especially in the battle of Jaquijahuana. These two battles of Huarina and Jaquijahuana were not by the spanish contistadors against the Mayas, but by the imperial army of Spain against Gonzalo Pizarro and the Comendadores who had established themselves in Peru.

In brief, reports arrived at the court in Spain that the Comendadores abused and overworked the autoctonous people. To these reports, which were later admitted by their reporters to have been exaggerated, a new set of laws where written up, excessively punitive towards the Comendadores, among other provisions, ordering that at the death of the Comendadores, the property of their farms would pass to the Crown. These laws where passed in Burgos, and became known as the "Leyes Nuevas" - the New Laws, and aroused an inmense conflict in America that lasted from 1942 when they were approved until the death of Pizarro in 1948.

Gonzalo Pizarro thought that the New Laws were not fair, and publicly challenged them, turning himself and those who supported him, into rebels. Charles 1st of Spain sent a priest, Pedro de Lagasca, to solve the conflict - and Lagasca drew up an army, was defeated by Pizarro at Huarina, and a year later, confonted him again at Jaquijahuna, which became known as the no-battle, since at the meet-up, the army of Pizarro deserted him running towards the imperial army, so not a shot was fired. Pizarro was captured ane beheaded on the following day. ON 10 April 1548, Lázaro de Briones was there in Jaquijahuana and thereby forged his legend.

Around 1550 Lázaro de Briones returned from Peru to Spain with the rank of Captain, to settle in Carmona as Captain of the Armed Horses of Carmona, and for these and other services was named "Alferez Mayor and Regidor Perpetuo" (Chief Ensign and Perpetual Ruler) of the Town of Carmona.

In 1553 Lázaro de Briones married before the daughter of the also Regidor "Rodrigo de Quintanilla Marmolejo and his wife Doña Estefanía de la Milla.

1553

  Estefanía de la Milla

From the presence of the shield of the Milla family, we deduce that the Casa Palacio was owned in the mid 1550s by Estefanía de la Milla, mother of Estefanía Quintanilla de la Milla, the wife of Lázaro de Briones.

The Quintanillas descended from Asturias in the north of Spain and had as most famous member Alfonso Álvarez de Quintanilla (1420-1500) who became the Catholic Kings's Finance Minister, and played a decisive role in providing funding for Christopher Columbus' first voyage to America. In the mid 1400s a few members of the Quintanilla family settled in Carmona and and in nearby Lora del Rio. The marriage in 1553 of Estefanía Quintanilla to Lázaro de Briones was the first of many successive power marriages to join the Briones and Quintanilla.

1560

  Lázaro de Briones

Coat of Arms
granted to Lazaro de Briones
by King Philip II of Spain on 10.5.1560

Castillo con Escalera, Leon Rampante,
Aragon y Flor de Lis

Don Felipe. For what is brought on by you, Lazaro de Briones, from the town of Marchena, which belies in our kingdoms, it has been provided to me a relation of your deeds that there may have been twenty years, more or less, that you, with the wishtoservethe Emperor, my Lord, of glorious memory, went on to the provinces of Perú, where you served in whatever was offered in said time, as our good and loyal vassal, as also that the city of Cuzco was sieged by Mango Inga and other indians, being one ofthe spaniards that was within it, as about the alterations that had ocurred in that land, in particular being with the captain Joan Piçarro, in the conquest of the fortress of said city of Cuzco, against the indians that had it sieged, where you did what you had to; and that at the time in which Gonzalo Piçarro revolted in such provinces, you got together with the captain Lope de Mendoza,and went with him to join with the captain Diego Centeno, who had raised the flag in our service, and you were at the battle of Guarina that was given to said Gonzalo Piçarro, where the said Diego Centeno was thwartedand those who followed him: and continuing in our service, you accompanied him until he joined the graduate of la Gasca, who now is the Bishop of Palencia, President that he were of the Royal Audience of that land, in whose company you went, and stayed until the said Gonzalo Piçarro was thwarted and justice was made of him and those that followed him, you being present at the battle where he was taken prisioner, serving as gentleman of the artillery of our field; and that said designation had been given to you for the confidence and satisfaction that was required; and that in such said as in other things in our service, in which you have spent a great sum of gold peso: as everything you said was reflected in and seemed to be certain upon the presentation that was made to Us in the Council of the Indies; it was begged of Us that in remuneration for your services, and so that of you and them remained perpetual memory, we ordered given to you a shield made of two parts,in the right hand a fortress in gold colour on a blue field, with three towers ontop, and from the one in the centre and tallest of them come out a red flag, and leaning on it a wooden ladder, and in the other part of said shield, a rampant tigre, with folden eyes and nails, in a red field, and on top of it a closed helmet, on top of which the head of tigre with its hands, hung from the helmet with its nails,with its feathers and dependencies in gold and blue foliage, or however our mercy were, etc… Given in Toledo on May 19th, 1560.

Yo el Rey. I the King.

1567

1586

  Juan de Briones Quintanilla

Lazaro de Briones will was taken by Juan de Úbeda on 18 November 1576. Juan de Briones Quintanilla is the second son of Lázaro de Briones Mallén. In 1586 he marries Leonor de Atienza, and provides the Casa Palacio to the Marriage dowry. In this document already mentions a tribute of 1000 Maravedies p.a. which is assigned to be paid by the owner of the Casa-Palacio.

1641

1641

  Bartholomé de Briones Quintanilla

In 1649, Seville suffered a plague that decimated its population from 120,000 to 60,000. At this date, calcium carbonate was mixed with water and used as a disinfectant on buildings by painting them entirely, outside and inside. The plague remitted in 4 months, but the annual practice of encalar, whitewashing, stuck to this day. We can only especulate that the Casa-Palacio was first whitewashed then, even the corner of ashlar-blocks on the right. Marta Medina restored the façade to its original colour in 1990.

1726

  Fernando de Briones Escobedo

Circa 1740

  Juan Ponce de León y Briones Escobedo

Juan Ponce de León y Briones Escobedo(Badajoz 1696, Sevilla 1754) is IV Marqués de Castilleja del Campo

Circa 1760

  María Josefa Ponce de León y Urtusaustegui

María Josefa Ponce de León (1721-1775) is the daughter of Juan Ponce de León and Marquesa de Castilleja del Campo(V). Maria Josefa marries García Francisco de Porres de Silva y Sánchez-Arjona (1755-1833), II Conde de las Atalayas .

1783

  Bartholomé Quintanilla y Arce

In 1783, the Casa-Palacio appears inhabited in by Bartolomé Quintanilla y Arce in the census of the Parish of San Blas, which mentions: Plazuela de Quintanilla..., left:

Bartholomé Quintanilla lives in the palace as a tennant. He is a distant cousin of the owner of the house, María Josefa Ponce de León, Urtusautegui, Briones Escobedo. Bartholoméé's wife, María de Gracia Briones Quintanilla, is also a cousin of the owner.

1785

García Porres de Silva, V Marqués de Castilleja del Campo

In 1785, Garcia Porres, V Marques de Castilleja del Campo, owner of the Casa Palacio through his marriage to María Josefa Ponce de León y Urtusaustegui, owning several other properties, lived in Seville and was not able to live in the Casa-Palacio, and seeing that the taxes that the house had to pay were greater than the amount of rent that he received from it, thought to sell the Casa-Palacio so that he could pay off the principal of the tax and eliminate it. In order to do this he had to get permission from the lord of the town, and since Carmona was a town of “realengo”, this meant that the lord was the King of Spain, and he had to get the Corregidor Loarte to make a formal petition at the court in Madrid, which granted the permission for the sale in a public auction and the cancellation of the tax with the proceeds of the sale.

With the arrival of the permision, the mayor of the town sent two stonesmiths and two carpenters to value the house so as to set the starting bid in the auction. The house was valued at 95.000 Maravedíes and the auction set for the 22.1.1786.

The main person interested in bidding was the house’s then occupant, Don Bartolomé Quintanilla and Arce, who had rented lived there with his wife, Maria del Carmen Briones. Bartholomé Quintanilla y Arce shares his first name and surname with Bartholomé de Briones Quintanilla, who had owned the Casa Palacio more than 200 years earlier in 1641.

1786

  Sale of the Casa Palacio and the Plazuela

Thus the auction received only one bid, from Bartolomé Quintanilla, and the price remained at 95.000 Maravedíes. Later documents reflect the act of taking a trunk full of silver coins totalling the 95.000 Maravedies the 120 meters from the house to the Town Hall, which was then located in the Casa-Palacio de los Aguilar, just facing the churh of Santa María.

1809

  María del Carmen Briones Quintanilla

In 1809, the Casa Palacio appears in the census as inhabited by María del Carmen Briones Quintanilla, the widow of Bartolomé Quintanilla y Arce:

1810

  Manuel Quintanilla Briones

The Casa Palacio was inherited by Bartolomé’s and María del Carmen’s son, Manuel Quintanilla Briones (Carmona, 1774) Manuel’s daughter, Doña Maria del Carmen de Quintanilla y Melgarejo (Carmona 1798 + Carmona 20.08.1866), married Miguel Lasso de la Vega, who later on October 27, 1821, Miguel Lasso de la Vega redeems this amount, and the consumes finally this tax.

1813

  María del Carmen Quintanilla y Melgarejo

María del Carmen Quintanilla y Melgarejo (1798 -1866) marries Miguel Lasso de la Vega y Madariaga (Sevilla, 26.04.1783-13.09.1863) in 1813.

Miguel Lasso de la Vega, had many titles of nobility: Marqués de las Torres de la Pressa, Grande de España, VII conde de Casa Galindo, XXI señor de Castilleja de Talhara. Son of Antonio Lasso de la Vega and Fernández de Santillán and of Constanza de Madariaga and Fernández Galindo –daughter of Andrés Francisco de Madariaga and Bucarelli and of Josefa Galindo Alfonso de Sousa.
On 13.11.1813 Miguel Lasso de la Vega Married the prospective owner of the palace, María del Carmen Quintanilla y Melgarejo, daughter of Manuel Quintanilla Melgarejo and María Josefa Melgarejo y Galindo.

Circa 1850

  Marqués de Arco Hermoso

The above picture represents a a famous and large painting of the great uncle of Don Ignacio de Romero Osborne y Ruiz del Arco (1903-1985), who married the owner of the Casa de Carmona palace, Miquelina de Solís y Lasso de la Vega, V Marqués de Marchelina- a painting which has been in the Romero de Solis family by descent.

El Marqués de Arco Hermoso (Don Jose Ruiz del Arco y Ponce de Leon (b.1793 d.1857), y su Familia, de caza en su Hacienda de San Jose de Buenavista en 1838, with his three children, maid and dog. Oil on Canvas, 220 cm x 260 cm. The above was the grandfather of Don Ignacio de Romero y Ruiz del Arco, V Marqués de Arco Hermoso y III Marqués de Marchelina, Mayor of Seville in 1935-36, who married the owner of the Casa Palacio de Carmona, Gracia Lasso de la Vega.

Palmagallarda is the most famous of the 57 properties mentioned in the wills of the Briones Quintanilla, now Lasso de la Vega family The Casa de Carmona ocuppies a XVIth century palace that has been in the same family – as far as we know – since it was built – and that has passed through inheritance successively, 7 times since the property registry of Carmona begun operations in the early 1800s.

The propiertors listed in the registry of property were called Don Manuel de Quintanilla y Briones, his daughter Doña Maria del Carmen de Quintanilla y Melgarejo (Carmona 1798 + Carmona 20.08.1866), her daughter Doña María de Gracia Lasso de la Vega y Quintanilla (Carmona 1889 - Sevilla 1973), who married : Pedro de SOLIS-BEAUMONT Y DESMAISSIERES (born in Cadiz 1883), who became Teniente Hermano Mayor de la Real Maestranza de Sevilla, the highest aristocratic position in Seville, her daughter Miquelina de Solis-Beaumont y Demassieres y Lasso de la Vega (1913-1969), who bequeathed the palace to her grandchildren Ignacio Romero de Solis-Beaumont (b. 20.10.1937) VI Marqués de Marchelina and his 12 brothers and sisters, Teresa, Pedro, Jose, Matilde, Micaela, Diego, Angela, Reyes, Cecilia, Luis, Enrique y Gracia Romero de Solís-Beaumont.

1889

  María Gracia Lasso de la Vega y Quintanilla

1913

  Miquelina de Solis-Beaumont y Demassieres y Lasso de la Vega (1913-1969)

1946

Pedro Solís-Beaumont y Lasso de la Vega

The Duchess of Osuna on her wedding day with Pedro de Solís y Lasso de la Vega, only sibling of Gracia Solís Lasso de la Vega, who would marry Ignacio Romero Osborne and inherit the palace. The Marquesado de Marchelina has the rank of “Grandeza de España”, a title given by Queen Isabel II on 25.09.1858 to Ignacio Romero y Cepeda, Ortiz de Abreu, Osorno y Fernández Landa, who lived in Osuna, in the province of Seville, a member of the military recognised for his defense and conquest of Cartagena de Indias. The marquesado makes reference to the “Cortijo de Marchelina”, in the municipality of Osuna, which was the farm property of the family.

In the early XIXth century, following the Napoleonic wars, the Mayorazgo legal institution, the primogeniture which entailed the inheritance of a patrimony by the eldest child, was abolished. This single rule effectuated that inheritances would be divided equally among children. Vast wealth would be divvied up by 3, then 4 children, such that in two to three generations, the economic power of the aristocracy whas effectively abolished. Maria del Carmen Briones Quintanilla was at the outset of the XIXth century, the largest landowner in the province of Seville, holding more then 50 properties and more than 5000 hectares. In just 4 generations, her fertile lineage divvied up such vast wealth equally among their 3, 4, 5 children each generation, such the VIth Marqués, inherited the Casa-Palacio directly from her grandmother, and sharing it with his 12 brothers and sisters, and with no income-producing farms to maintain the Casa-Palacio.

1973

  Ignacio Romero de Solís and 12 siblings

The VIth Marqués de Marchelina, Ignacio Romero de Solís, Osborne y Lasso de la Vega(b.20.10.1937 – ), the eldest of 13 children, inherited the palace while in his twenties, in 1973, from his maternal grandmother, Gracia Lasso de la Vega, in pro-indiviso together with his 12 brothers and sisters. The 13 Romero de Solís were the following:

• 1 Da. Teresa ROMERO DE SOLÍS married Joaquin ALARCON DE LA LASTRA DOMINGUEZ, Conde de Galvez
• 2 D. Ignacio ROMERO DE SOLÍS, Marqués de Marchelina, an author of grand society novels and journalist, married Gerarda de Orleans-Borbon
• 3 D. Pedro ROMERO DE SOLÍS, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Seville anda prolific historian (See Dialnet).
  Pedro married his first cousin Ángela María de Solís-Beaumont y Téllez-Girón, who would become and is now the XVII Duquesa de Osuna
      Angela Maria SOLIS Y TELLEZ-GIRON. Duquesa de Arcos, daughter of his mother’s Micaela’s only brother, Pedro SOLIS Y LASSO DE LA VEGA. Maestrante de Sevilla. y Angela Maria TELLEZ-GIRON Y DUQUE DE ESTRADA. Duquesa de Osuna. XVI Dq.de Arcos.)
• 4 D. Jose ROMERO DE SOLIS, married Maria Elena ABAROA
• 5 Da. Matilde ROMERO DE SOLIS. married Mr. RAMOS.
• 6 Da. Micaela ROMERO DE SOLIS. married D. Pedro TORRES.
• 7 D. Diego ROMERO DE SOLIS, a Professor of Philosophy, Aesthetics, at the University of Seville, and prolific author, married Da. ROS RAMIS.
• 8 Da. Angela ROMERO DE SOLIS married Carlos FRANCO ROJAS-MARCOS8,
• 9 Reyes ROMERO DE SOLIS married Gonzalo ROBLEDO COVISA
• 10 Da. Cecilia ROMERO DE SOLIS married Jacobo CORTINES Y TORRES
• 11 D. Luis ROMERO DE SOLIS married Maria Luisa GUIJARRO
• 12 D. Enrique ROMERO DE SOLIS married Josefa CONTRERAS GOMEZ DE LAS CORTINAS
• 13 Da. Gracia ROMERO DE SOLIS married Ramon BUISAN FERNANDEZ

Having grown up in the 50s and 60s in Seville, with no farm or business that would keep the family in Carmona, many of the Romero de Solís, further to being aristocrats, evolved as Authors (Ignacio, Pedro and Diego), University Professors (Pedro in Sociology, Diego in Aesthetics) all three with long lists of publications(Pedro – List of Publications, Diego – List of Publications ) businessmen (Enrique) … and some would marry and leave Seville and live in Madrid. The Casa Palacio was inhabited occasionally by some of the brothers and sisters, more notably Matilde, and Pedro, who lived with Meye Maier (b.1945,d. 2010) a few years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

1977

  Mercedes Maier de Allende

Mercedes Maier de Allende

Meye was an amazing lady – she grew up in a world of Balenciaga and Dior, became a model for Elio Benhayer, a journalist for the New York Times, and a somewhat elusive and free spirit, came from her native Bilbao down south to Seville, to marry the Duke of Segorbe, Ignacio Medina y Fernández de Córdoba and live at the Casa de Pilatos. Six months into her marriage, she met Pedro Romero de Solis and left Ignacio to follow the love of her life, which took her to the Casa Palacio de Carmona, a task of humility in comparison to the Casa de Pilatos, and of herculean effort to maintain by herself and her work. Meye was a hard-working self made woman, designer of night dresses, embroideries and lingeries, of perfumes and gardens, and a strong character with wit and laughter, a decisive lady who left her husband of six months, the Duque of Segorbe and the Casa de Pilatos in Seville, to follow the love of her life, Pedro Romero de Solis and move into the Casa Palacio de Carmona – a task of humility to move into a crumbling palace – and a herculean task to maintain it while being the caring mother of Camila and Pedro as well sophisticated basque gazelle in the south, who carried in her the elegance of her mother’s Balenciaga dresses, and a beauty second to none.

Meye lived with Pedro Romero de Solís at the Casa Palacio in the late 70s and 80s, while in her thirties, and in what is now the Restaurant Gracia she had her workshop of seamstresses. With what she made selling the most beautiful white gowns and embroidered blouses, she raised Camila and Pedro and maintained the palace. When the Romero de Solís sold the Casa-Palacio, Meye bought her own house in Carmona, where she continued her workshop.

Meye would return to the Casa Palacio de Carmona organize the wedding of her daughter Camila in 2007.

Article on Meye Maier in "El Pais", 11.08.1988

Article on Meye Maier in "El Pais", 13.05.2012

The economic reality of the Romero de Solís brothers and sisters with the house is that there was no-one of them that wished to buy it from the rest and make it their project, and in the meantime, the house would require maintenance or deteriorate. The Casa Palacio took an income to maintain that it did not produce, and as had happened 200 years prior, the house was prime for a new story.

The Marqués de Marchelina and his brothers and sisters decided to sell. The Marques then contacted a childhood friend, Marta Medina Muro (Seville 1944-), who had studied Art History, spent her life in the rehabilitation of buildings and the organization of international art exhibitions (El Greco de Toledo, Goya en las Colecciones Privadas de España …) and was as well acquainted with many notable people who he thought may have an interest. So he called her and told her that they were putting the Casa-Palacio for sale, to ask her if she thought she could know anyone interested. So Marta Medina responded that first she needed to see the house, that she had never been, so she travelled the 500 km from Madrid to see it. When she saw it, she said – I have found a buyer – I’ll buy it myself, and she did.

1987

  Sale of the Casa Palacio

The sale: Ignacio Romero de Solís, and his 12 brothers and sisters, on July 10, 1987, sold the house on Plazuela de Quintanilla nº1, and the square on which it sits – now called the Plazuela de Lasso, to Marta Medina Muro Benjumea (b.1944).

1991

  Marta Medina Muro

After 5 years of rehabilitation and many anecdotes, on 23rd March 1991, the Casa Palacio de Carmona opened as a Luxury hotel, with 33 bedrooms, the same it has today. The rehabilitation was a tremendous success, earning many prizes and appearing in more than 200 magazines, bringing aristocrats, artists of all kinds, celebrities to see it.

Its decoration, colours and concept were immediately copied throughout the south of Spain – a plethora of whitewashed houses, haciendas, small hotels, were all of a sudden painted terracotta and built anew. We are still to find a copy that would rather than paint all in terracota, as they are, take into account that at the Casa Palacio de Carmona there are 5 different shades of terracotta, and the original architectural forms to match them.

1994

  Felipe Guardiola Medina

The resonance as a destination, however a financial success did not make, and in 1994, Marta Medina in 1994 sold Casas de España, S.A. to her son Felipe Guardiola Medina (b.1969), who, with much luck and much work, was able to turn operations profitable by 1996, refinance and make the Casa Palacio de Carmona also a financial success.

Ignacio Romero de Solís now lives in Cadiz with María Medina Muro (b.1945), sister and only other sibling of Marta and also a renowned landscape architect. At the Casa Palacio de Carmona she designed the Plazuela de Lasso and the Andalusian Garden by the pool.

The current Marqués de Marchelina is a celebrated author, notably of his recent novel, Palmagallarda. Ignacio Romero de Solis and Palmagallarda. Late in his life, Ignacio becomes a novelist. In his first novel, Palmagallarda, he evokes the life he witnessed, living at the Casa Palacio de Carmona as a private residence of his parents.

Palmagallarda I
Rosas, calas y magnolias

A Shipwreck. The shipwreck of an entire social class is what these pages evoke and recreate.
From the back cover: the gates of a horrible war, the Spanish civil war, an aristocratic family living in the ancient city of Recuerda attends without noticing the decline of their lineage. The splendors and feasts of the past are extinguished for the Palmagallardas, while History, a revolutionary protagonist, upsets the ranks and illuminates new elites and new servants. In the way a novel should do it, with fine observation, a desire for style and a desire to transcend the anecdote to get to the bottom of the human condition, the characters and actions that appear reconstruct an era and provide reasons to reflect on love and happiness, loyalty, hatred and arrogance, sex and its many masks ... Historical testimony and literary portrait. Ignacio Romero de Solís (Seville, 1937). Journalist, writer, translator and food critic.

2021 ...

  Casa Palacio de Carmona

Felipe Guardiola Medina has run the Casa Palacio de Carmona from 1994 till today, and in the meantime has lived at the Casa Palacio in Carmona (1994-1997, 2003-2004, 2009-2016) and at other periods in Seville, Massachusetts and Yorkshire.