Around 1850 the mansion nowadays known as the “Don Bosco House” was built. Its original architecture was characterized by a great Moorish influence, like most of the houses in Ronda.
On the facade, a large balcony sat above the main door. The higher floors featured small windows or mullioned windows in asymmetrical shapes. The family crest in stone crowned the entrance door. A hallway gave passage to a large square courtyard with large carpanel arches on Tuscan columns. The courtyard lead to the main rooms of the house, opening up to a large gallery in wood. Throughout the ground floor of the property there was a large cistern to collect rainwater, thus to remedy the eternal lack of drinking water in the city.
At the beginning of the 20th century, “Modernism” arrives in Ronda at the hands of a great architect, Santiago Sanguinetti Gómez. He was the municipal architect in Ronda between 1907 and 1910. Despite of this relatively short time, the influence of his modernist architecture in the city continued for many years.
Sanguinetti remodels the house, adding modernist elements, but without completely breaking with the basic elements of the original building. He keeps the entrance hall and courtyard and distributes the rooms around them. Where the courtyard originally was open, a large skylight in the ceiling now covers it. He also gives the facade a certain symmetry and adds exuberant decoration with floral and vegetal motifs. A particularly beautiful example in iron are the doors leading to the garden. The baseboards, tiled benches and planters represent polychrome decoration, with a great explosion of colours.
We can still see the high-quality architecture and magnificent local craftsmanship in the interior and exterior of the house today.
