Palacio del Cordón

Historical context

The Palacio del Cordón was built in the XVII century. Instead of the Palacio del cordón in 1575 there were situated the casas del cordón wich was the residence of Antonio Perez (the secretary of Felipe II). He carved a wooden cord in the casa del cordón because he lost in the battle of Almansa. He lived there from 1575 to 1585. Manuel de Becerra and Alberto Aguilera also lived here.

360° photo

Architectural style

All the symmetry of the palace is centered on the stone cord at the entrance. This cord was carved  by Antonio Perez one century before Antonio Pérez lived here.  The stone cord was carved when the palace was built to simulate the wooden one

Geological aspects

We havent found anything about what materials compose the palace, but we think that is made up of this rocks:
Granite: Is a hard rock composed of little grains and it is  very resistant to water, it was obtained using hand tools with poor results, and it has been used a lot during human history, and the columns and the door frame are made up of granite.
Limestone: It is not  a durable, hard material, and its easy to find. It is a sedimentary rock mainly composed of a lot of skeletal fragments of marine organisms like coral, and also some carbon carbonate. It was very used in the XIX century and nowadays, it is very common in North American and European architecture. It composes the walls of the palace.
 

Why were these rocks selected

They used granite because it is a hard and though rock that resist erosion, and it was very used in Madrid at that age.

They used limestone because it was (and it is) very used in that time because it is easy to recognise, but is less hard comparating it with cooper

Alterations sufered

The alterations granite sufferes are because of  living microorganisms, pollution (carbon dioxide), and meteorological phenomena such as rain(granite is not very resistant to watter), wind … etc. They cause the rock to become darker and to turn red.

 

limestone sufers alterations when is in contact with acid (for example hydrolic acid), it can be diluated by watter with the pass of time, and this causes the rock to be dissolve in watter.