The Building
In the 18th century, El Puerto de Santa María had a population of around 20,000 inhabitants. The urban development of the municipality was marked by its commercial relations with America and its importance as a major military enclave for the Spanish Navy.
Specifically, it was in Calle Larga, where the tourist flats are located, where a large number of merchants and high-ranking military officers decided to build their homes or seek accommodation among those with the required prestige. El Puerto has been described more than once as the city of 100 palaces.
The building known as Larga 70, in clear allusion to its location, is the result of a series of actions carried out from the 18th century until the 20th century.
The genesis of the building is to be found in the union of three plot units that belonged to Francisco Villabona (bread oven), María Cordero (central body, shoe manufacturer) and Domingo de la Barreda (it reached from Calle Larga to Calle Diego Niño), where the warehouses were located.) The house of the Barreda family, known as the big house, met the necessary conditions for its use in trade with the Indies, or Spanish America, such as having good warehouses at the back (Diego Niño street).
During the 18th century, two illustrious shippers to the Indies lived in this house, Domingo de la Barreda and Juan Antonio María Faustino Borgnis Desbordes, who joined the three plots of land mentioned above and built a house for his residence with the structure it still has today. In 1799, the house was acquired by Manuel Cano, who provided it with drinking water from the general water supply, which came from the springs of La Piedad.
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In the 19th century the house passed into the hands of the Orlando and Moreno de Mora families; one of the members of the Orlando family was the Marquis of Torresoto. Moreno de Mora was for years a surname linked to the world of business and to the support of social works. In El Puerto de Santa María they are linked to the winery business, Bodegas Moreno de Mora in Calle de los Moros; and to the refurbishment of the hospital of San Juan de Dios at the beginning of the 20th century.
This house corresponds in style to those built in the 18th century in El Puerto de Santa María, with marked Baroque lines. It had three floors and a garden, the first two with nine rooms and the last with verandas; the garden was at the back of the house with a fountain and an open, colonnaded gallery. In Larga 70, various alterations were carried out that ended up shaping the current building.