Santiponce Itálica

Heritage

An immense legacy waiting to be discovered

Diego Velázquez's birthplace 

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The Diego Velázquez's birthplace is one of the oldest houses in Seville, built between 1560 and 1570, in the heart of the Moorish quarter of Seville, during the decades when the town became the economic and commercial engine of the Spanish Empire.

In 1598, the couple formed by Juan Rodríguez de Silva, an ecclesiastical notary, and Gerónima Velázquez moved into the house. The following year, in June 1599, they had their first child there, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, who has gone down in history as one of the greatest geniuses in the history of art. Little Diego remained with his family until 1610, when at the age of 11 he began his apprenticeship as a painter; first, he worked for a few months with Herrera el Viejo, and later, with Francisco Pacheco, with whom he completed his training over a period of six years. In 1617 he was admitted to the guild of painters and began his professional career.

The house remained a popular residence, inhabited by several families, for four centuries, until, in the 1970s, it was acquired by several Sevillian entrepreneurs who, after renovating it, converted it into the M11 art gallery, where important creators such as Antonio Saura and Luis Gordillo, who had great prestige in the Seville of the transition, exhibited their works.

In 1984, it was bought by the famous Seville couturiers Victorio and Lucchino who made it their workshop until 2010 when it went into receivership

In 2018 a company managed by the writer and cultural manager Enrique Bocanegra and the engineer Enrique Piñeyro acquired the house for the purpose of preserving it and opening it to the public as the Velázquez's Birthplace, an interpretation centre dedicated to the life, work and time of the Sevillian painter. We are currently working on this project.

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