Casa del Conde | Lumbrales

The House of the Counts

The County of Lumbrales is a Spanish noble title created in 1888 by the Queen Regent María Cristina, during the minority of King Alfonso XIII, in favor of Ricardo Jaime Pinto da Costa y Fernández, Portuguese businessman and consul in La Fregeneda, for his decisive impulse in the construction of the railway that would link the nuclei of La Fuente de San Esteban and Barca d'Alba until 1985.

.

Ricardo Pinto da Costa was married to Francisca Bartol, from Lumbra, daughter of the owners of the site that today is known as the "grandparents' house." There he built his home and, next to it, he built the mansion where he waited to receive the queen on the occasion of the inauguration of the Boadilla-Barca d'Alva railway. In the end, María Cristina de Borbón, then regent for the minority of Alfonso XIII, did not attend the appointment, but she did, although months later, the Infanta Isabel, known as la chata, whom the Count entertained with a splendid banquet in the aforementioned palace, today the Tourist Information Center of the Vetón Territory. Emilio García Guitián recreated , they are his ingenuity and fantasy, that historical visit.

.

María Gabriela Morgado Muller, widow of Ricardo Pinto da Costa Leite, third Count of Lumbrales, sold the property to the Lumbrales City Council on February 24, 1968.

.

The building, where today the Visitor Reception Center of the Vetón Territory is located, is a modernist construction with Portuguese influence that began in the last quarter of the 19th century, ending in 1887. It has two floors and a garden. On the lower floor is the reception and information office, where you can learn about the possibilities that the visit to the Vetón Territory (castros de Yecla la Vieja and Las Merchanas) offers, and the room designed to recreate the environment in which Ricardo Pinto da Costa, with audiovisuals about its history and its relationship with the House itself in which it is located in Centro, the emergence of the La Fuente de San Esteban-Barca d'Alba railway line and El Castro de Las Merchanas . On the upper floor, the room of the Archaeological Museum and a textile loom from the 20th century.

Image of the Counts in the courtyard of the House

Agustín Villoria, craftsman

A carpenter by profession, and a craftsman by hobby since forever, Agustín Villoria has taken advantage of the years of his retirement to make wooden reproductions of the most representative monuments of the town of Lumbrales - the Parish Church, the Clock Tower and the Hermitage of Humilladero- , in addition to a complete collection of the Trades of Yesteryear.

The assignment will be for an indefinite time according to the wishes of the author, who "for a long time had the illusion of showing them all together" -

In one of the two rooms on the ground floor of the building attached to the courtyard of the Casa de los Condes, large models of the Parish Church, the Clock Tower and the Hermitage of Humilladero have been installed. These are scale reproductions made with great detail of both the exterior and the interior, authentic works of art derived from ingenuity, skill and the work of many hours.

The second of the exhibition rooms houses the models of seven trades of yesteryear: carpentry, masonry, the forge, a vegetable garden, a flour mill, a wine press and a loom, representative of the wool industry that was so important in Lumbrales until the middle of the 20th century. All these reproductions are made with very small pieces and with all the details, including the tools and in many of them with movement.

This interesting collection of woodwork, which is accessed from the courtyard of the Casa de los Condes, can be visited during the opening hours of the Tourist Office.

Agustin Villoria

The Casa de los Condes offers, since May 2019, an interesting Exhibition of models provided by Agustín Villoria

The sample includes reproductions of the church, the hermitage and the clock tower of the town, as well as a faithful sample of different ancient trades

A carpenter by profession, and a craftsman by hobby since forever, Agustín Villoria has taken advantage of the years of his retirement to make wooden reproductions of the most representative monuments of the town of Lumbrales - the Parish Church, the Clock Tower and the Hermitage of Humilladero- , in addition to a complete collection of the Trades of Yesteryear.

The assignment will be for an indefinite time according to the wishes of the author, who "for a long time had the illusion of showing them all together" -

In one of the two rooms on the ground floor of the building attached to the courtyard of the Casa de los Condes, large models of the Parish Church, the Clock Tower and the Hermitage of Humilladero have been installed. These are scale reproductions made with great detail of both the exterior and the interior, authentic works of art derived from ingenuity, skill and the work of many hours.

The second of the exhibition rooms houses the models of seven trades of yesteryear: carpentry, masonry, the forge, a vegetable garden, a flour mill, a wine press and a loom, representative of the wool industry that was so important in Lumbrales until the middle of the 20th century. All these reproductions are made with very small pieces and with all the details, including the tools and in many of them with movement.

This interesting collection of woodwork, which is accessed from the courtyard of the Casa de los Condes, can be visited during the opening hours of the Tourist Office.