Los Arcos, from refurbishment to new construction

Until the 16th century, when the old town hall was built, the municipal meetings were held in the portico of the parish church of Santa María and in the Hospital of Santa Brígida. This primitive town hall was located on Rancho Street until the end of the seventeenth century, on the same site as the present one.

In 1761 permission was requested from the Real committee to make urgent repairs to the town hall before it fell into ruin, and two years later a project was presented for the integral reform of the building, which ended up being rebuilt in its entirety following the traces of Andrés García. It was made entirely of ashlar stone and brick, with ashlar chains at the corners. Finished in 1766, it was recognized in 1767. The work was crowned by the placement of the coat of arms of the town, dated 1769 although it was placed a year later.

Its typology fits perfectly in the model of palace or stately mansion that in the baroque centuries were abundantly erected in the town, built as horizontal cubic blocks articulated in three floors: the first of them in stone; the rest in brick. The openings of the main façade open neatly and ornamentation is reservation especially for the front, with ironwork, the large balcony of iron balustrades and ostentatious coats of arms magnificently decorated.

The second floor is made of excellent ashlar and is articulated by means of five smooth Tuscan pilasters. On one side there is a simple lintel door and a window for the butcher's shop with stone slabs forming lugs. In the noblest area is the main doorway in the center, flanked by pilasters and with two rectangular windows with plain lug frames on each side. It is worth noting the profuse flared molding that runs the rectangular opening of the door, drawing lugs in the part leave, in the upper corners and a semicircle in the center. The entrance door, with a single leaf, but with another smaller one, has good ironwork with rhomboidal nails.

The second floor is entirely of brick in regular courses and at the ends there is a chain of ashlar stone. In it they opened four linteled openings that carry the brick work and arch of discharge in circle, and a good carpentry with panels. On a molding and projecting stone cornice they placed the iron balconies: one that barely protrudes in the area of the butcher's shop and the other that covers the other three openings, on "s" shaped rods, and with the railing formed by balusters topped with six bronze balls.

The attic is of little height and is joined to the first without any separation. On the top, above the central opening, there is a rococo stone shield, framed in a simple molding, with the arms of the town. The facade is topped by a brick cornice with an elegant eave composed of canes of good decorative work.