Cuenca Hanging Houses

Nobody knows how these houses appeared, why they were built and how they were built. They are not regular buildings. They are buildings that could be included in the group of popular Gothic buildings. Their exterior is Renaissance and they have been rebuilt using, in most of the cases, materials such as masonry, wood and plaster cast. They have balconies and projections attached to the building. Inside, we can see beautiful murals and lattices as well as Mudejar coffered ceilings.

The Museum of Abstract Art of Cuenca, created by Fernando Zóbel in 1966 and located in the Hanging Houses, shows a permanent collection of 110 paintings and sculptures of Contemporary Spanish artists such as Millares, Tápies, Chillida, Rueda, Torner and Saura, and artists from the 50´ s, 80´ s and 90´s. Moreover, it also includes the selection of the collection of Contemporary Spanish art of the Juan March Foundation.

The current aspect of the building belongs to the rebuilding of 1950 and the enlargement of 1978, in which a Renaissance façade belonging to the old palace of Villarejo de la Peñuela was incorporated to the ashlar façade of the square.