Palacio de Buenavista

Buenavista Palace is a historical edifice in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain. It was built in the first half of the 16th century for Diego de Cazalla on the ruins of a Nasrid palace. Declared a "Property of Cultural Interest" in 1939, it was leased to the Spanish government in 1946 for a provincial art museum, which opened in 1961. In 1997 it was acquired to house the present Museo Picasso Málaga, which opened there in 2003. It is located in the historic center of Málaga, in the Calle San Agustín in the former Jewish quarter, next to the San Agustín convent and not far from the Cathedral of Málaga.ArchitectureExcept for its towers, the Buenavista Palace is a two-story building. Its Plateresque façade is built of thick stone blocks; the ornament around the doors and windows is elaborate, although the rest of the ashar facades are simple to the point of austerity. The doors and windows are very large, and are placed asymmetrically. The design of the main entrance is of a piece with the balcony over the door. The interior is arranged around two patios. The first patio is surrounded by a double colonnade (a separate colonnade for each story). The other, farther in, is in the Mudéjar style, with octagonal pillars, and two Roman-era mosaics. One of these, from Cártama, represents the birth of Venus. The other, from Benalmádena, is in a geometric pattern. The stairway at the right accesses the upper story, which originally had the same floor plan as the ground floor. The floor plans have been somewhat modified for the Museo Picasso Málaga.