Palacio de Aguirre

Palacio de Aguirre stands in Cartagena, Spain, as an eclectic modernist building designed by Víctor Beltrí for industrialist Camilo Aguirre. Construction began in 1898 and ended in 1901, during Cartagena’s mining and commercial expansion. A corner tower rises above two façades, carrying a ceramic dome with scale-like surfaces and metallic reflections. Ceramic angels crown the cornices, while stone, Novelda stone, brick and rococo-style ceramics vary the exterior textures.

The entrance combines richly worked wood and copper, with carved bees that recur around the tower. Those bees symbolise labour and prosperity, linking the decoration with Cartagena’s mining companies and late-nineteenth-century bourgeoisie. Inside, a glazed vestibule opens towards corridor balconies and an imperial staircase. Acid-etched glass panels show fluorescent poppies, while the preserved rooms include a Victorian office, a neo-Gothic oratory and a ballroom decorated in modernist rococo style.

The ballroom ceiling carries Cecilio Plá’s allegory of spring, and a nearby sitting room corresponds to the rotunda’s lookout. Today, the building houses the Museo Regional de Arte Moderno, or MURAM, whose exhibitions cover art produced broadly between 1870 and 1960. Its ceramic dome remains a clear landmark where Cartagena’s streets converge.