This building is a representative palace of the bourgeoisie of the nineteenth century. Located in a magnificent place next to the viewpoint of La Mota, with beautiful views of the Benavente valley. It was ordered to be built by the landowner and senator Don Felipe González Gómez in 1904. The work of the architect Segundo Viloria Escarda, it is a representative example of the quality architecture of the early twentieth century.
The building is divided into three floors plus basement and roof, highlighting the nobility of the second floor. Its elegant bourgeois salons are decorated with paintings of landscapes or oriental scenes, geometric and floral motifs on the ceilings, and excellent work of stained glass, wrought ironwork and tiles. The building, with a square floor plan, is arranged around the central courtyard and the main access staircase. It also has a cellar below ground level and a beautiful roof terrace overlooking the gardens of La Mota.
The elegant modernist balustrade that runs along the three floors of the building stands out, together with the door on the main floor, which has hinged stained glass windows decorated with tulips in the modernist style. Other parts of the building to highlight are:
- The landing or hall of the main floor: it has curvilinear radiators-heaters and a trapdoor in the floor that allows to observe the porter’s lodge of the mansion.
- Music or viewpoint room: with beautiful stucco and a beautiful viewpoint that is a privileged observatory overlooking the main façade.
- Hall of the doves: decorated with beautiful stuccoed ceilings, mantelpieces, floral motifs and doves.
- Main alcove or of the columns: it has twisted columns that support the dividing wall of the alcove with floral motifs and a bird’s nest (love nest). The room houses a beautiful and aristocratic marble fireplace.
- Oriental or Japanese room: this is a gallery located to the south and intended for the leisure of the women of the house and for the girls to play. The room reflects the taste for Chinese and oriental motifs that spread throughout Europe in the late nineteenth century. The room is decorated with paintings of landscape scenes. The paintings on silk (original from Japan in the 19th century) in the old window that connected it with the closet are worthy of note. Five of the six that adorned the glass panes of the window are preserved.
- Hall of the landscapes: it presents mural paintings that gather mainly landscapes of the South of Spain. Among them is the old river port of Seville along the Guadalquivir River. There are also some paintings of romantic taste with idyllic scenes and a railroad engine, since the owner of the house was the main promoter of the railway installation in Benavente in 1896.
At present, after the rehabilitation of the building, it is destined to cultural uses. It is called the Soledad González Cultural Center, in honor of its former owner who bequeathed it to the city of Benavente upon her death, so that it could be used for this purpose. The building houses the Municipal Public Library (first floor).
