Palacio de los Duques de Medins Sidonia

Palace of the Duke of Medina Sidonia is the city's oldest civil building and is located on Palacio Street and dates back to the 17th century. A large building that fits in with the typical architecture of the city. It is now, after the necessary renovations, an office building with a restaurant on the ground foor, where the residents of Huelva come to enjoy the various Mediterranean dishes that restaurant 'La Mafia offers.

The building was built from 1656 to 1658, when Gaspar Alonso de Guzmán commissioned it for his first-born successor Conde de Niebla, Gaspar Juan Alonso, who would live in Huelva from 1654 until shortly before his death in 1667. More houses were purchased in 1664 and 1672. In 1777 it became the property of the Marquis de Villafranca of the House of Toledo and Duke of Medina Sidonia.

The building was also home to Huelva's institutional life and was the seat of the town hall, as the building on the Plaza de San Pedro was destroyed in the early 19th century, until it moved to Calle Puerto in 1840.

Later, on November 16, 1835, the installation session of the Provincial Council of Huelva was held, a provincial body that would later have the seat of the Monastery of La Merced, acquired in 1863 by Almarqués de Villafranca, a property that is still preserved.

It was also the seat of the civil government or political headquarters from 1834 until it was moved to the new headquarters on Gran Vía. In 1852, the building was renovated by Governor Alonso y Castillo for official use.

Although the first floor remains the seat of the civilian government, in 1888 the new owner - Antonio García Ramos - put the ground floor to commercial use. This provides a new appearance, partly if the municipal council gives permission to convert two window openings in the palace house into a door.