The Modernist Casa del Piñón in La Unión

In the city of La Unión, in the Region of Murcia, stands the Casa del Piñón. Built by the architect Pedro Cerdán in 1899, this modernist structure was commissioned by the businessman Joaquín Peñalver Nieto, who was known as El Piñón because of his short stature. Initially intended as luxury rental apartments, the building serves currently as the headquarters of the Ayuntamiento de La Unión following a restoration and rehabilitation process that culminated in the year 2006.

The plant of this building has an L shape due to the shape of the lot on which it is built. It features a ground floor of carved stone divided into different entrances with large half-round arches, marked with large brackets with carved lion heads. The first floor has a continuous stone balustrade and is divided into six, which was the number of apartments the building had until its modification and restoration. One of the apartments on the lower floor was built under the direction of Joaquín Peñalver Nieto for his own residence, featuring distinct interiors with angelic reliefs and paintings on the ceilings.

On the upper terrace, there is a cupola designed by the architect Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, surrounded by a stone balustrade on large classical-inspired brackets. The facade's ornamentation reflects the hierarchical division of the floors, with four apartments for wealthy families in the central area and two apartments for service staff at each end of the building. These houses were joined by a light well to the owners' homes.

Starting in the 1980s, the building underwent a gradual process of abandonment by its tenants. Only the headquarters of the PSOE and the CDS, one resident until 2004, and a pharmacy that remains after the restoration were left in the building. In these 25 years, it was in grave danger of disappearing until a long restoration and rehabilitation process, commissioned to the architect Martín Lejárraga, was completed in 2006.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons