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Casa Campana at Calle Nuñez de Prado, 4

Entrance to the house by night

On October 6th in the year 1900 Don Juan de Dios Ruiz Herrera bought a section of the Mayorazgo Palace and turned it into his house. Don Juan would have been one of the richer people in Arcos as all the houses in this part of town were owned by the nobility. As you go inside the house you see a large inner patio with original floor tiles and a long vaulted ceiling (see left). How old is the house? Well, the high arches on the ground floor number six and are exact matches of those in the palace courtyard next door. This suggests the patio here dates back to the fifteenth century.

As you may have read elsewhere on this site by now, all over Arcos de la Frontera there are remnants of its long and interesting past. Here in the house, at the back of the inner patio you'll find a Roman memorial stone measuring 1.05m x 0.60m (see picture below). We know it precedes the reign of Augustus (31 B.C. - 14 A.D.) because of the style of lettering on its inscription. This marble stone was discovered long ago in an old house nearby, and later it was transferred here. Why? It was a donation of some kind but our knowledge ends there. The passage of time has made the Latin inscription almost illegible now, but this is what it says:

Roman memorial stone in the patio

CALPURNIAE. Q.F. GALLAE. D.D. ET. POPVLI. CLODIA. C.F. OPTATA. MATER. HONORE. VSA. IMPENSAM. REMISIT.

In essence the stone honours Calpurnia Gala, whose generous mother Clodia used to contribute to the costs which the town incurred. It is unlikely that the town would have been Arcos de la Frontera, as the stone was probably originally discovered in the countryside around here - where Roman ruins were once abundant.

Let's go up the flight of stairs next to the stone. At the top of them we find another stone with a symbol on it, also set into the wall (see right). We know very little about the meaning of the symbol, nor to what period the stone belongs. We think it could be Roman, Celtic or Moorish!

Ceremonial stone, at the top of the stairs

Given there's already a Roman stone in the house, perhaps it would make sense if this one were Roman too. But if you look at the symbol itself, you might think it had more in common with the designs of the Celts. Our research into Celtic symbolism suggests the layout of the spiral may represent Summer and that the locket in which the spiral is placed could be a symbol of fertility. However, this is not a region associated with Celtic settlements. So might the stone be Moorish? The spiral at least does bear a striking resemblance to the geometric shapes often found in Moorish art. If you have a theory please get in touch with us!

Next to the stone at the top of the stairs is a door into the apartment and another leading out to the sun terrace (pictures 1-3, below). The terrace is on different levels and affords lots of privacy. It has some curious steps (see picture 2 below) which now lead nowhere, but once would have led up onto the terrace of the neighbouring Mayorazgo Palace. There are views across to and beyond the lake, an excellent view of St. Peter's church and an almost medieval outlook across the rooftops (see picture 3 below) to the castle and St. Mary's church. On the sun terrace we have two en suite guest rooms and, a recent addition, the viewpoint

1	2	3
Sun terrace	Curious steps	View across rooftops

For more images of the house visit our photo gallery.

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