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Innkeepers Anna Gallagher, an Irish American from Philadelphia, and Juan Luis Guillen, a Spaniard, born and raised in the Alicante region of Spain, first met in Central America, where she was a human rights attorney and he a freelance journalist. After spending some years in Washington, D.C. and then Bilbao, Spain, they decided to settle in the wine region of Ribera de Duero, in the heart of the province of Castilla-Leon.
Shortly after settling, they discovered the Palacio de Guzman and made preparations to open this jewel to the public. The palacio, built during the 17th century and recently restored by the local government, combines the rustic with the modern, stone walls dating back several centuries alongside vibrant colors and modern conveniences. The Palacio de Guzman has conserved its original structure and contains a suite with 18-foot ceilings, two suites in the north and south towers, two spacious family rooms, and a wine cellar with a capacity to accommodate 50 persons for meals, meetings or wine tasting events.
The town of Guzman is located halfway between Madrid and Bilbao, in the center of the pentagon formed by Segovia, Valladolid, Palencia, Burgos and Soria. Within a 25 mile radius of the palace, guests can see some of the finest wineries in Spain, visit local Romanic and baroque monasteries, churches and ruins, walk through vineyards, sample mouth watering suckling lamb and other local gastronomic delights, play golf and generally enjoy country-living.
The Palacio de Guzman is an elegant example of the baroque period. Early in the 17th century, Don Cristobal de Guzman y Santoyo, Obispo de Palencia, commissioned the construction of the palace itself and a chapel in the nearby Saint John the Baptist Church. This renaissance church houses altars from the 17th and 18th century and images from the 14th through the 19th centuries. From the palace’s elegant towers, you can see Cuesta de Manvirgo, a beautiful tabletop mountain presiding over the region. |
