Palacio de los Vargas

The Palacio de los Vargas stands on the Plaza de la Paja in Madrid's La Latina neighborhood and is a historic building with a Renaissance character. It was built in the late 15th century on the orders of Francisco de Vargas y Medina, an adviser to the Catholic Monarchs and to Emperor Charles I. The palace takes its name from the influential Vargas family, who owned several important properties in Madrid. The building stood on a plot that had previously been partly used by another nobleman, and it was surrounded by other mansions. In 1520, the family added a chapel to house the remains of Saint Isidore, later known as the Capilla del Obispo. During the War of the Comuneros, the house was plundered, and in 1541 a fire broke out in which the resident at the time, Cardinal García Loaysa y Girón, is said to have jumped out of a window. In the 19th century, the building ceased to function as a residence.

In the 19th century, the Palacio de los Vargas served a variety of purposes. From the 1870s, the lower floors housed the Teatro y Café España, a stage for low-cost performances, which was closed before the end of the century after another fire. The upper floors were home to the offices of the Caja de Imposiciones, where the first known pyramid scheme fraud in history took place in the 1870s. A print shop was later based in the building as well. In 1921, the palace was converted for the Círculo Católico Obrero de San José, which was headquartered there until 1976. The architect Emilio Antón designed the facade in a historicist style to match the adjoining chapel.

Today the building houses the Santa Bárbara secondary school. Its current appearance is the result of the renovations of the early 20th century. The facade facing the Plaza de la Paja is in the Neo-Renaissance style and uses granite, much like the neighboring chapel. A striking feature is the gallery of eleven arched windows on the upper level, decorated with floral reliefs. Despite the historicist redesign, the facade retains some features of the earlier structure, such as the many window openings and the entrance door set off to one side, which remains in its original position. The house originally had a large, two-story inner courtyard with arcades, but it was lost in later renovations, as old plans and drawings show.