El Corral de las Cigueñas, Caceres

The palace of the Storks or house of the Cáceres-Ovando is a 15th-century historic building located in the Spanish city of Cáceres. It is located in the highest part of the monumental enclosure of the city, in the Plaza de San Pablo, one of the small squares on which extends the Plaza de San Mateo.

It is known by this name because of the large number of storks that nested in it. It was built at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century by Diego Fernández de Cáceres y Ovando, probably in the surroundings of the old Almohad fortress, building it mainly with masonry. The façade consists of a simple semicircular arch with voussoirs over which there is a window and two coats of arms of the Ovando-Mogollón family. On the sides, on the first floor, we find two biforas with pointed horseshoe arches. Inside, the Gothic courtyard stands out.

But what really stands out is its high tower with merlons supported by small corbels. It is the only tower that has not been demolished in the historical enclosure. The house of the Ovando family was spared from the royal order of Isabella the Catholic, issued against the towers of all the houses because of their loyalty to Juana la Beltraneja in the dispute for the throne of Castile. After the coronation of Isabel, Diego Fernández de Cáceres y Ovando was granted the right to build the tower in 1480. The palace continued to be inhabited for several centuries by the descendants of the Cáceres-Ovando family, passing to the branch of the Marquises of Camarena.

It was renovated in the 1940s to house the headquarters of the Military Government and is currently still in the possession of the Ministry of Defence. In addition to housing military administrative offices, it is open to the public as a cultural centre in which a military museum and exhibition halls have been set up. In 2018 its tower was also opened to the public, of great scenic value for the views it offers of the old part of the city.