PhD Program in Historical studies
Zafra
The palace of the dukes of Feria is found in Zafra, in the province of Badajoz. In 1437 Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa II, the Lord and Count of Feria, had the fortress built which is now the palace of the Dukes of Feria and the Parador de Turismo “Dukes of Feria”. The idea of who was then the Lord of the house of Feria, was to have a new home which corresponded to his rank and to complete the defense of the city of Zafra in the part which was its weakest. It was built in record time (six years) and curiously the royal authorisation of John II of Castile for its construction did not arrive until 1441, when the work was already very advanced. The building, more than as a stronghold, was planned as a manorial residence. Its Gothic elements, Mauresque decorations and its external walls make it seem proud and solemn. The entrance to the fortress is inside the city walls. In front was the plaza de armas, the main square, which still exists. The perimetral wall had a barbican or external wall which had the same height as those which surrounded the city, which no longer exist. Among the important walled elements is the bastion, the symbol of the power of the first Count of Feria. The palace has come down to us maintaining its initial structure, while having undergone important changes in the course of the ducal period. In fact, in the central courtyard only the central walls are conserved but not the loggia, nor the vaults which have been substituted by the current delightful courtyard when the Feria obtained the ducal title in the sixteenth-century. The second Count of Feria commissioned a series of modfications during his rule, among them, the construction of the golden room and, perhaps, the renovation of the chapel, to which was added an imposing coffered ceiling which covered the apse, which dates from the same time as the aformentioned room. The great renovation took place when the Ferias became dukes and grandees of Spain and the castle was converted into a palace. The changes undertaken by the second duke (1571-1609) were profound even if there was the specific intention of maintaining the original external structures intact in order to stress their old lineage. In the first phase two wings were added to the new building built on both sides of the main door and two galleries or corridors on both sides of the south-east tower, some inner spaces were restructured and the inner courtyard was built in white marble (and mistakenly attributed to Juan de Herrera). In a second phase, which began in 1605 and which lasted four years, a gallery was created which linked the palace to the nearby church of Santa Marina, which was subsequently reconstructed. When the Suárez de Figueroa line was extinguished the palace underwent a long decline and was used in different ways (a military headquarters, a prison, a hospital, the headquarters of various offices, a school of arts and crafts) until 1965 when work began to transform it into a Parador de Turismo. This marked the rebirth of the palace.