City hall
History
It was built in the last quarter of the 16th century by order of Alfonso de Pina, a notable member of the Almansa nobility. It is unknown who its builders were, although a certain relationship can be found with the work of the Jaén architect Francisco del Castillo, one of the main exponents of Spanish mannerism.
The family of Ximén de Pina, whose origins date back to the Aragonese knights who accompanied King Jaime I in the conquest of the kingdoms of Valencia, settled in Almansa in the 15th century, with Alfonso Pina being the first owner of the Casa Grande.
In 1793 it belonged to the Count of Cirat, Miguel de Catalá y Calatayud, who had the title of Grandee of Spain (from which the nickname Casa Grande may come). It then passed into the hands of the Marquises of Montortal, until 1992 when it was acquired by the City Council.
Architecture
The palace of the counts of Cirat was built on the site of an old inn, in the Plaza de Santa María, where the most important buildings of the town were also built, such as the church, the castle and the town hall.
The cover of the main façade, slightly offset from the center, is divided into two bodies. The lower body has padded façade columns on both sides of the door, this rustic façade extending towards the second body and the windows. In the second body the fundamental theme is heraldry, appearing in the center the shield of the Pina lineage held by two children, and on both sides two roughly carved human figures.
The building is distributed around a square patio, which is accessed from a hallway with a lowered arch, and which serves as a distributor for the living spaces, a structure that maintains the palace concept of the 16th century. The galleries with semicircular arches supported by Ionic columns corresponding to its two floors overlook the patio. The motifs of the shield on the main façade are reproduced in the spandrels of the arches, and above the south door, through which you access the garden, there is a shield similar to the one on the main façade, but smaller in size and in worse condition.
The west door also faces the garden, and covering this opening is the 18th century doorway from the old asylum, incorporated into the building in the sixties of the last 20th century. Through the north door you access the rooms and on both sides there are two windows with good wrought iron grilles.