Velez Blanco castle to get copy of original patio

    The castle in Velez Blanco was built between 1506 and 1515 by Don Pedro Fajardo y Chacon who was given the title
Marquis of Los Velez by Ferdinand and Isabella for his help in suppressing the Moors at the time of the reconquista. The castle was built with a central courtyard embellished with Italian Renaissance ornament in local Macael marble carved by craftsmen from Lombardy.
Ornament in this style was known in Spain as a lo Romano, reflecting its origins in the monuments of Roman antiquity.
The patio carvings were among the earliest of this style in Spain and antedate any of the published designs. The coats of arms of Don Pedro and his second wife, Dona Mercia de la Cueva Mendoza de la Vega y Toledo were carved between the arches of the arcade.

    The patio's marble fittings were sold by the castle's owner in 1904 and taken to Paris where they were bought by George Blumenthal in 1913 who had them incorporated in his New York townhouse. In 1945, after his death and the demolition of his residence, the approximately 2,000 marble blocks were taken to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they were reassembled, as faithfully as possible, in 1964.

    Now a team from the Spanish company Delta Cad has been sent to New York by the Junta's ministry of culture to make a three dimensional digital scan of the patio using laser technology. When the digital copy has been made it will be used to recreate the patio here. Some of the information will be used directly by marble milling machinery in Macael and the rest will be carved by hand by students of the Andalucian School of Marble in Fines. The work could be finished and on display to the public by the end of 2009.