Palacio de Rajoy

The Palace of Raxoi (Galician: Pazo de Raxoi; Spanish: Palacio de Rajoy) is a neoclassical building located in the Obradoiro square in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Completed in 1772 by French architect Carlos Lemaur, it houses the city hall and the presidency of the Regional Government of Galicia.

The building is one of the best examples of neoclassical architecture in Galicia. Its construction was ordered by the archbishop of Santiago, Bartolomé Raxoi Losada, in 1766 with the purpose of serving as a seminary for confessors. The French engineer Carlos Lemaur was responsible for the work. On its façade you can see a representation of the battle of Clavijo and a sculpture of the apostle Santiago.

The palace is located in the western part of the Plaza del Obradoiro, which closes on that side, in front of the main façade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. To its right is the College of San Jerónimo, which today serves as the headquarters of the Rectorate of the University of Santiago; to the left of the palace is the Royal Hospital of the Catholic Monarchs, currently part of the network of National Paradores of Spain.

In 2015, when UNESCO approved the extension of the Camino de Santiago in Spain to «Roads of Santiago de Compostela: French Way and Routes of Northern Spain», Spain sent as documentation a «Retrospective Inventory - Associated Components» in which the Rajoy family palace appears at no. 912.

The land on which Rajoy's palace was built was previously occupied by the city's civil and ecclesiastical prisons, and a section of the wall, which defended the city from the west. The double ownership of the property caused disagreements between the Bishopric and the City Council. The latter presented a project in 1764, authored by Lucas Ferro Caaveiro, with the idea of locating the Casa del Ayuntamiento between both prisons. For his part, the archbishop Bartolomé de Rajoy had in mind to place there the Seminary called Confessors and the residence for the children of the cathedral choir, for which he presented a different project, commissioned to Andrés García de Quiñones. However, in addition to the controversy between the co-owners, a third interested party emerged, the Royal Hospital, alleging that its property was being infringed.

Text adapted from “Pazo de Raxoi” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Palacio de Rajoy ranks #2,275 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #85 of the 600 mapped in Spain. Founded 1766, it is older than 16% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 525 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,819 times in the last 60 days, more than 74% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

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