Calle Antonio Borrero 8-44 y Simon Bolivar. Antigua Casa Del Doctor Manuel Vega Davila. Built in 1859

This lovely republican house was built in 1859.  It was owned by the Vega family for over a century and its walls have witnessed major events in the political history of the region. In 1999 restoration and alteration works were conducted by the architects Jorge Roura Cevallos and Javier Roura Herrera, attracting the Fray Jose María Vargas Prize in 2002, granted by Cuenca City Council, as the best adaptation of a historic building.

In functional terms, it still displays the typical characteristics of republican architecture, with a large courtyard surrounded by galleries serving the various interior spaces. All the original wood and ironwork of the doors and windows were recovered.  Travertine marble was added to the entire width of the façade.  A glass roof was placed over the old courtyard to equip it for use as a restaurant, while still maintaining the fruit trees. 

Wall paintings of pastoral scenes, by the Cuenca artist Ernesto Galarza, were incorporated to emphasize the old Callejón del burro – “Donkey Alleyway” located in the right-hand gallery of the courtyard.  This space was originally a service gallery that divided the block into two and led directly to Calderón Square.