Palacio de los Marqueses de Benamejí

The Palace of the Marquises of Benamejí is a magnificent example of the 18th-century Baroque style characteristic of Écija and the lower Andalusia.
 

It was owned by the Marquises of Benamejí and later by the Counts of Valverde. Its construction dates from the first third of the 18th century and its layout is irregular. Its exterior is notable for the spectacular Baroque entrance and the towers on both sides of the façade. Inside, its main front stands out, with a lowered arch giving access to a monumental imperial staircase, not to mention its central patio and highly decorative semicircular arches.

During the French occupation in the early 19th century, the palace became a military barracks. In 1906, the municipality of Écija acquired it to hand it over to the Military Remount for most of the 20th century. It was declared a Site of Cultural Interest and a National Monument in 1994 and three years later became the headquarters of the Municipal Historical Museum of Écija.

The permanent exhibition of this museum shows the chronology of the local heritage of Écija. It is supplemented with a study of the social organisations of the different cultures that settled in the municipality.

Its initial section is archaeology: Prehistory, Iberian, Roman Empire, and Medieval. It also houses a room of Roman mosaics, and another section dedicated to the horse and equestrian art.
 

One of the museum's outstanding pieces is the sculpture of the Wounded Amazon. It was found in 2002 inside a Roman pond during excavations in Plaza de España. It is a Roman copy from the first third of the 2nd century AD. It is made from Greek marble in a single block. Its exceptional nature lies in being preserved almost intact and with visible traces of the colour it was finished in. Artistically, it corresponds to the Greek Classicist prototype of the Sciarra Amazon of the 5th century BC.

Although other three examples are preserved (in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, Berlin Museums, and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen), the one from Écija is the only one found outside Rome and with the characteristics previously noted.