Vázquez de Molina, not having descendants of his two wives, decided to found a convent in this palace, falling for this purpose in the female branch of the Order of Santo Domingo (Dominican). After the convent was suppressed in the 19th century, the whole of the building was acquired to install the current headquarters of the City Council. Few data are known about its construction process, which until not many years ago was given as the starting date of the year 1562. The most recent historiography places its beginnings around the 1530s. More precise documentation on the matter has been published by VM Ruiz Fuentes, according to which by 1546 the main façade must have been completed since in November the rejero Francisco López promised to forge the bars for the palace windows; in 1557 the main façade and its bars were completed, and the lateral bodies were started by the stonemasons Antón Sánchez and Alonso Fernández.

In this same year, the conditions were also given for the execution of the entire north wing by stonemasons Martín de Perona and Juan de Madrid. In all these interventions, as well as in the mining, flooring and other minor works, it is documented that Andrés de Vandelvira was in charge of the factory supervising, assessing and giving conditions in the contracts. However, the contract for the architectural commission has not yet been found. The property, whose material execution took so long and was never inhabited by its owner, underwent important changes to adapt it to a monastery and later to a Town Hall.

Despite this, both its main façade and the side façades, the patio and the upper body (covered with beautiful armor from the Mudejar tradition), in which the Historical Archive is preserved, largely maintain their original configuration. This magnificent palace, carved in quarry stone, is part of the monumental complex of Plaza Vázquez de Molina and Santa María, presenting its main facade towards that of this collegiate church. It is the largest piece within the city's palatial architecture, but also its conformation is exceptional in the Spanish panorama, “(...) both for its exempt condition and for the arrangement of its façade, with which it only competes the Palace of Carlos V in La Alhambra (...) ”, in the opinion of Professor Galera Andreu. Andrés de Vandelvira, to propose such superb architecture, resorts to Vitrubio, edition by Fra Giovanni Giocondo from 1511, in which, among other illustrations, there is a plan and elevation of the “Roman house” with whose design the Palace bears a great resemblance .

Apart from other pieces, the best original architectural elements of the complex are the patio and the main facade. The first, of quadrangular proportions, is articulated on the ground floor by four semicircular arches on Corinthian marble columns of fine shaft of the Nasrid tradition, the surrounding galleries are covered in Florentine style with groin vaults and grooved at the angles; on the upper floor the arches are lowered and the Corinthian order is maintained. In both pandas the spandrels of the arches are embellished with the family heraldry of Vázquez de Molina. This elegant patio is accessed from the Plaza de Santa María after passing a wide hall, converted into a chapel for the monastery.

The façade, the most forceful element of the architectural complex, stands out for its perfect arrangement; It is divided horizontally into three floors and a semi-basement or canteen, vertically into seven streets separated by boxed pilasters with Corinthian capitals on the ground floor (in it there are latticed windows) and Ionic on the first or noble floor (with balconies finished off based on triangular pediments ). The top floor - with portholes - is decorated with caryatids and telamons bearing the family heraldry, linked to the production of the French sculptor Esteban Jamete, responsible for the iconographic program of the El Salvador chapel. A beautiful and flown cornice with graceful lanterns in the corners on the roofs finish this singular and surprising great Renaissance facade. Andrés de Vandelvira introduces certainly conservative elements, but also innovative ones. Once again, the maestro from Alcaraz surprises with his versatility and stereotomic good work.

The palace, in the opinion of the architect Don Fernando Chueca, oozes “bramanteca sap”, which could reach Andrés de Vandelvira through Machuca and the Royal Palace of Carlos V of Granada.

OTHER NON-ARCHITECTURAL ARTISTIC MANIFESTATIONS

Various pictorial programs in tempera on plaster are preserved in this Palace-Town Hall, distributed throughout some of its rooms. In the current Intervention Office, the heraldic coat of arms of Juan Vázquez de Molina, from the mid-16th century, stands out among other reasons. In the Offices of the Workshop School (old Chapter House) the struggle of the Dominicans against heresy (1595), attributed to Pedro de Medina, is represented; The old conventual Main Chapel (current hall) was decorated with floral motifs and imitation of marble around 1760. On the top floor, facing the Plaza Vázquez de Molina, the valuable Historical Archive of this city is guarded, with collections referring to it and other nearby towns such as Sabiote, Torreperogil, Jódar, etc. Of great artistic value is the painting of the Virgen de los Remedios (16th century), a painting that was originally placed in the Puerta de Toledo, before whose effigy Carlos V and his son Felipe II (the located on said door is a copy of the original). Also interesting are a portrait of Queen Isabel II, by Esquivel, and other pictorial or furniture goods from the 16th and 17th centuries.