This is an exceptional building in the civil architecture of the islands. The first records of its construction date back to 1629 and refer to the work of stonemasons and carpenters. But it was in the mid-17th century that Maestre de Campo Cristóbal Lázaro Salazar de Frías, first Count of the Valle de Salazar, that the building we know today was erected. Works ended with the commission to build the noble façade in 1681.
On 21 October 1982 the process to have it designated Historic-Artistic Monument started.
This noble house was built following Canarian tradition and was the residence of the Captain General of the Canary Islands Valhermoso in 1723. In 1858 it housed the club “El Porvenir”. It was later purchased by the bishop don Ramón Torrijos y Gómez (1888-1894), to be the bishop’s residence, a use it has kept up to the present. On 23 January 2006 it accidentally caught fire, which led to its reconstruction for the Diócesis Nivariense.
The façade has two fairly high storeys, a doorway in the centre and four great windows protected by projecting iron bars. The windows of the upper floor are flanked by Corinthian columns with a triangular pediment; the middle window features paired columns and a pediment with rounded ends. Above it, a stone attic with sculpted ornaments in the middle of which rests the Casa Salazar’s coat of arms made of Carrara marble and including the Count crown.
Two quadrangular turrets rise on the corners; they are higher than the attic and have balconies and stone hip roofs. In general, it has similar ornaments to another example of Canarian Baroque, the Palacio de Nava in Plaza del Adelantado.
The doorway features a modern iron railing that bears the coat of arms of the Bishop Torrijos and leads straight to the courtyard. This has columns on both sides standing on plinths with diamond-shaped patterns. The three-flight stone staircase is opposite the entrance and features an octagonal coffered ceiling. It leads to the Bishop’s private rooms, his chapel and some rooms featuring interesting coffered ceilings.
