MONUMENTS

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Former Council Building

Among the many interesting buildings in Plentzia's old quarter, this seigniorial construction is noteworthy for its splendid ashlar stonework, with a voussoired door, in a semicircular arch over which there is a balcony. It is certainly one of the town's most attractive architectural and historical features.

Architecturally, it is an example of the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance style, built in the sixteenth century (1562) on commission from Martín Pérez de Placencia.

It was the town hall until 1922 and still sports the coats of arms of Plentzia (the oldest in the town, dating from the sixteenth century), and of Ferdinand and Isabella, the "Catholic Monarchs".

It stands at number 25, Goienkale. It was restored in 1986, and is well preserved inside and out. The building dates from the late sixteenth century, and together with the parish church is the oldest building in the old quarter. Its origins can be traced back to the thirteenth century medieval town. The town was substantially altered by devastating fires in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, but although adjoining buildings were affected, the tower remained unharmed. The urban landscape we see today was mostly formed during the eighteenth century.

This emblematic building housed the town hall until 1922, when the council moved to the newly reclaimed land at the Ensanche de la Alameda de San Pedro (Plaza del Astillero), after which the tower was used as a courthouse, gaol and a post office. Until that time the building had often been used for maritime matters, when the people of Plentzia were mostly employed in shipping and shipbuilding. It also houses the papers of the Seamen's Guild (Cofradía de Mareantes de San Pedro) founded in the sixteenth century, which included many of the local inhabitants and out of which the Nautical School was founded in the nineteenth century.