10 Casa Méndez Fonseca - Casa de los Balcones

The land on which this house was built was an endowment of Diego González Nieto to his niece Juana Nieto after her marriage in 1657 to Captain Juan de Castro Bazo y Merino. The couple built one of the most emblematic buildings of seventeenth-century La Orotava, based on thedesign of the neighbouring Casa Jiménez Franchy, here adorned with interesting sgraffito motifs. The house is built on an enormous plot of irregular proportions the structure of which radiates out from a central patio. Its façade is very striking, rising up three floors, with sash windows on the lower floor, wrought iron balconies on the middle level and an elegant wooden balcony on the top floor. The woodwork of the galleries, windows, doors and balconies have been praised throughout the centuries and are a testament to the artistic and technical quality of the craftsmen that made them.