Episcopal Palace (BIC)

     The Episcopal Palace was built on the site of the old Hospital del Corpus Christi, one of the medieval hospitals in the city. In 1558 the city exchanged the site with Bishop Esteban Almeyda, moving the Hospital to the parish of Santiago and establishing the residence of the Bishops in Calle Mayor, next to the Cathedral. His work may have begun in the sixteenth century, shortly after the erection of the Bishopric of Orihuela. It underwent profound transformations in the eighteenth century, under the mandate of bishops José Flores Osorio and Pedro Albornoz Tapia. In the middle of the twentieth century it lost its functionality, when the prelate D. Pablo Barrachina moved to Alicante in 1968, where San Nicolás was erected as a Co-cathedral in 1959. The palace has been abandoned for many years until its recent restoration on the occasion of the exhibition "The Light of Images. Semblantantes de la vida".

It is the largest palace in the city, with a rectangular floor plan structured around three courtyards. The main façade was largely made of exposed brick, although it is currently plastered, it is characterized by a clear hierarchy of floors reflected in the size of the openings and the treatment of the materials. It is sparsely ornamented, highlighting the main façade, ashlar work, linteled and topped with the coat of arms of Bishop Flores, the fencing of the openings and the wrought iron work of the balconies. The back facing the river is irregular, in it there is a gallery with columns and semicircular arches.

Inside the construction, the cloister must be highlighted, with semicircular arches decorated with heraldic motifs, on pilasters and the main stairwell, which has red marble steps and wrought iron railing and is topped by a dome on an octagonal drum that on the outside is shown with cobalt blue glazed tiles.