Casa de los Lujanes

Madrid


On the opposite side of the square from the Casa de la Villa, the 15th-century Casa de los Lujanes is Gothic in conception with a clear Mudéjar (a Moorish architectural style) influence. It's currently closed to the public.

The brickwork tower was ‘home’ to the imprisoned French monarch François I and his sons after their capture during the Battle of Pavia (1525). As the star prisoner was paraded down Calle Mayor, locals are said to have been more impressed by the splendidly attired Frenchman than they were by his more drab captor, the Spanish Habsburg emperor Carlos I, much to the chagrin of the latter. The tower's wooden door is a wonderful original.