The 18th-century palace housing a private collection of Picasso and Miró

The Palacio de Elsedo is a rural palace from the 18th century located in the village of Pámanes in Cantabria. Built between 1710 and 1715 by Francisco Agüero, it was commissioned by Francisco de Hermoza y Revilla, a knight of Calatrava and a high official. He ordered the elevation of a chapel and the rebuilding of an old ancestral house, which already featured a tower that was supplemented with a second one, as well as various rooms for living purposes.

Despite its scale, the palace was a bit of a phantom home. Although it belonged to the family of the Counts of Torrehermosa for generations, the family never actually lived in the building. It passed through several hands, including the Herrero and the Austrian Krassnning families, before reaching the brothers José Luis Santos Díez and Jesús.

The brothers were patrons of the arts who turned the building's most noble rooms into a museum of 20th-century painting and sculpture. They established one of the best private collections of modern art in the country.

Today, the manor serves as a gallery for works by masters like Picasso, Miró, and Sorolla, alongside sculptures by Oteiza and Subirachs. Visitors can explore these avant-garde pieces within a structure declared a Monument of Cultural Interest in 1983.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons