They were not prepared to lose forever the artistic and cultural heritage of their municipality. And this Duke Inns The city’s old post house was in danger of ruin. so that the Union our Spain include them in your red List earlier this year. So 30 residents of Librilla (Murcia), a town of just over 5,000 inhabitants, agreed, formed the “Forum in Defense of Las Posadas” and, in just 24 hours, raised the 251,000 needed to purchase the building. Euro contributed. Neoclassic. Each of them had acquired one of the 50 shares for 7,500 euros with which they had entered into their agreement.
It was auctioned a few days ago tax agency (at us), platform took ownership of Las Posadas. But your work doesn’t end there: you now have a few days to apply for one of the subsidies of the “Program for improving the competitiveness and revitalizing the historical heritage for tourist use”. Granted by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism within the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience plan and which can reach up to a maximum of 3 million Euros. Its purpose is to donate the building to the City Council for its rehabilitation and to make it available to the residents of Liberia.
Las Posadas was built at the behest of del Duque José María Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga, Duke of Alba and successor house of Velez, Lord of Librila. The exact date of construction of the building cannot be established, but there are historical data that allow us to guess. The last lease of the Old Inn in 1779 and the subsequent lease deed in 1784 have an expiry date. It is understood that the building work took place between 1780 and 1783. The date it ceased to be used is unknown and at the end of the Civil War, it is proposed that it be converted to a canning industry without being finalized.
It has a rectangular plan consisting of two areas, one for the lodging and reception of passengers and the other for auxiliary rooms which were distributed around a courtyard, dedicated to housing draft animals and carts. The materials used are masonry and brick, the roofs are one-sided, facing outward on its main façade, and the rooms face the courtyard. All this results in a very stern and sober style. The housing area is oriented to the north and divided into two floors. The lower one was dedicated to the kitchen and dining room while the upper one was for the bedrooms. The façade has eleven axes that correspond to the eleven rooms of the inn, with the highest rank facing outward and the rest facing the inner courtyard.
Of the three doors on the main façade, the central one was the entrance area for passengers and the side ones gave way to carriages. The rest of the dependencies, distributed in pavilions, were dedicated, in its western nave, to serve as garages and the rest as stables. Above the stables were located barns and rooms for fodder. Carved in stone in one corner is a coat of arms belonging to the family.
