🏰 El Palacio de los Menéndez Pola
Two towers, two coats of arms and three hundred years looking over the village: the Menéndez Pola palace is Luanco's great house. It was raised between the 17th and 18th centuries by the most powerful family in the area, and it still stands a step from Santa María church, forming with it the most solemn corner of the old town.
Its whole history can be read from the outside: the doorway with carved pilasters, the jutting balconies, the blazons on either side and the wooden gallery leaning out from the tower. Inside it keeps a courtyard of Tuscan columns that almost nobody has seen — because this listed monument never opens its doors to the public.
That is its mystery and also its sorrow: partly inhabited and with parts crying for help, it is Luanco's silent giant. Walk past it slowly, look up at the towers and imagine what they have seen. It is free, and it is one of the best stops on a walk through old Luanco.