Fuentes3

By Fuentes3

La Ballera

La Ballera is a ruined medieval palace, beside the road which separates Villaviciosa from San Vicente. 
It was originally the seat of the Solares family, whose ducal shield is visible in the photo. The building  fell into disrepair and was for a time the municipal cemetery of Villaviciosa. 
The Solares have long been a notable local family, and their arms, which are not very visible in my thumbnail, are shown in wikipedia - https://www.houseofnames.com/solares-family-crest. 
The Solares name is said by Wikipedia to be of Catalan origin but there is a village of that name a few km from Villaviciosa, which will either have given its name to the family or taken it from them. Solares is also a reasonably current family surname in the Villaviciosa area. The Wikipedia article is America-oriented and doesn´t do enough in its quoted exert to prove (or at least not to me) that its derivation is correct. 
The wooden framework in front of the gate, by the way, is the underpinning of a roof of another laundry fed by a spring, as in my upload of March 17th. 

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