The Casino

The Casino an emblematic building in the city was a long lasting project in which several architects took part for almost 50 years. It was founded in 1847 and initially laid out around what we know today as the Ponpeian Patio and Dancing Hall, a real neo baroque jewel, withness of social changes in the city for almost a century. The hall shows fresco paintings on the ceiling about Music, Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture.

There are also four large medallions with as many illustrious Murcians, like Francisco Salzillo, Julian Romea, the count of Floridablanca, and the painter Villacis. The five chandeliers in the hall have more than 300 lights bulbs and crystal pieces of eight different sorts.

In 1902 the board of directors of the Casino Society purchased some adjacent plots of land and under orders from Pedro Cerdán the long yearned for extension to calle Traperia was begun.

The façade erected in this crowded street is a superb monument to Eclecticism with two large windows from which to peer in and out of in one´s spare time. Both the library and the wonderful ladies room with a painting on the ceiling dedicated to the goddess Selene in 1922 were accommodated into the new wing.

Also from the start of the XX century is the palace built in calle Ceballos by order of José Moñino count of Floridablanca. A prototype of sober and bare architecture typical of classicism and covered with pumpkin coloured plaster.