The palatial homes that are used to house the building for the Municipal Bullfighting Museum are in Cordoba’s old town, in the area known as the “Jewish Quarter”, in Plaza de Maimónides, no. 1, formerly Plaza de los Armentas, no. 6. As you leave on the right it is adjacent to Calle de los Judíos and, on the left, to what was formerly Calle de San Bartolomé, now Averroes.

The building is located in an area that has been declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco since 1994 and it is included in Cordoba’s List of Protected Properties from the Historic Site, legally classed as a type II Monument (M), with Protection level B. There are items of interest throughout the building, in particular the entrance courtyard and main courtyard, the façade and the greenery.

The original property had about 2,000 metres per floor. It has two floors and is built around several very distinct courtyards and a garden at the back, in the area now occupied by the current “Souk”, which was part of the old building.

From Plaza de Maimónides you enter the first courtyard through an entrance which could be the carriage doors. At the end of the courtyard remains the old building which has undergone extensive renovations. At its entrance there is an atrium with a beautiful arcade of salvaged Roman columns, with bases and capitals. The arches are made of Mudejar brick, with interesting polychrome “dry cord” tiles, what are known as “relief” tiles, from the 16th century, which cover the spandrels and bays that are connected to the splendid “Loggia" from the first floor, which also has old columns, bases and capitals. The house continues through the shopping area that has been established in the "Souk".

On the first floor, which is accessed via a period staircase, one of the halls has been preserved, a central brick arcade with columns and Moorish capitals, which are known as wasps’ nest capitals, and a splendid mullioned window with a small Arabic column and capital which overlooks a small courtyard in the Souk. Next to the entrance gate through which you enter Plaza de Maimónides, to the right, there are some steps that connect it to another building, with floors and ceilings at different levels. This new palatial home which is adjacent to the previous one is organised around a central cloistered courtyard, with wide corridors at the bottom and galleries at the top.

A hall on the ground floor features rich wood panelling with modillions or baroque corbels dating from far later than the construction of the house. On the façade that overlooks the Souk courtyard there is a large gallery with four brick arches and marble columns and a row of balconies, the bottom of which have four arches and brick pillars.

The artistic value of the Bullfighting Museum building and the collections that it houses is matched by the history of its inhabitants.

Historical documents, from archives and the Land Registry, tell us that these palatial homes belonged to the Dukes of Almodóvar and Hornachuelos, who received them as the direct heirs of Juan de Góngora, the city’s 24th Knight, and the younger brother of the poet and Prebendary of the Cathedral, Luis de Góngora. Their grandparents, parents and the poet Luis de Góngora lived in this ancestral home with his brothers and, after his younger brother Juan became the direct heir, his heirs.