Casa del Cordón Palace

 Within the medieval quarter of the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, on one of its most popular former guild streets, Cuchillería Street, stands, at number 24, the Casa del Cordón, whose name comes from the Franciscan cord that frames one of its large pointed entrance arches.

This historic-artistic monument, a curious combination of a noble residence and a commercial building, is a vivid testimony to Vitoria at the end of the 15th century. At that time, Vitoria was a city of barely a thousand houses and around five thousand inhabitants, oriented towards trade due to its strategic position as a transit point between inland Castile and the Cantabrian ports. This was a period of economic, social, and urban growth, during which a permanent local market had been established and the city enjoyed increasing prosperity.

Over the centuries, the Casa del Cordón, owned by the Savings Bank of Vitoria and Álava, Caja Vital, and headquarters of its Social Work, has undergone multiple transformations. The restoration carried out in 1962 led to the discovery inside of a medieval tower that had until then been hidden by successive layers covering the building; from its original construction, only a magnificent vaulted hall on the first floor has been preserved. On the outside, the ground floor is structured around two large pointed arches which once served as the entrance gates to a palace, whose main activity was dedicated to commercial transactions.