1. PALACES Written by: Miriam Casillas y Beatriz Martín

2. Index  Los Serrano Palace  Núñez Vela Palace

3. Los Serrano Palace  From the rests of an old palace, after its recovery, a Cultural Center for the abulense society has been born. Besides increasing the educational and cultural offer of the city, this Cultural Center has allowed the recovery of a Palace and tries to recover the life of a public space: Italia Square, which at the moment is basically a passage. Its location, near the Cathedral, the Provincial Museum and Santo Tomé churchprovides the historical and artistic heritage with a tourist value and creates a functional building for the different activities that are carried out in this space at the present time. The reform has made the recovery of historical spaces and construction of new ones possible to cover the necessities of a contemporary Cultural Center with a great variety of facilities that have been very successful.

4. The palace  Exhibition area where exhibitions from contemporary authors withinternational relevance have been installed, and that counts on three spaces: A room destined to promoting artists; another one, located in the basements of the Palace where fotography, engraving exhibitions, and pottery collections are carried out. and the third, located in the first floor of the Palace, lodges the artstic batches of the Organization that has promoted the recovery. Although located in different levels, the three rooms make an only itinerary and,therefore, a whole.  Classroom Area: Four multipurpose classrooms, with capacity for between thirty and forty people, which are asigned to courses and different activities.  Audition area: It consists on a hall with forum for 140 people, where different activities are made like: lectures, musical auditions, theater, dance.

5. The palace  Workshop area: Three spaces are asigned to painting, sculpture, engraving, restoration.. with a great success among the citizens.  Library area : It is one of the most significant spaces in this Cultural Center. The Library is located in the second floor and the attic in the historical building. It has been thought as a complement to the already existing libraries in the city, and tries to cover the necessities of the university sector becoming a library for the study and the reference, well equipped with new technologies. Some of the offered services are: bibliographic information, reading in rooms, research on abulenses and regional subjects, direct access to batches, access through the net to documentation centres and public libraries, reprographic services, study and reference in the room, CD-ROM readers, access to Internet...

6. The palace  Information area and shop: it promotes the activities to be carried out in the Centre and the information of cultural and turistic interest in the city and the province  Institutional Representation area: Meeting Room and other dpendencies.  Leisure area: with a lively cafeteria with access to an inner yard. Besides these open spaces, it counts on other spaces asigned to storage, organization, installations, security.

7. Pictures

8. Núñez Vela Palace

9. Information  Blasco Núñez Vela and his wife were responsible for the reforms in the palace.The works were made in the middle of XVI century. The building has a clear horizontal development and in its façade the lack of symmetry stands out. It was the headquarterst of the Military Administration Academy until its transfer to a nearby building, then it lodged the Provincial Audition.  Blasco Núñez Vela was the first viceroy in Perú. His function was to enforce the new laws that tried to put an end to the abuses committed with the inatives by the Spanish settlers. He was defeated and beheaded by Pizarro's supporters in Añaquito battle.