Piedrahíta

Piedrahíta lies in the Corneja valley of western Ávila. From 1366 it belonged to the house that became the dukes of Alba and served as one of the principal towns of the lordship of Valdecorneja. Its walls and castle reflected the authority of those lords. Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, later known as the Great Duke of Alba, was born in Piedrahíta in 1507. In the eighteenth century the old castle gave way to a palace built for the dukes in 1755–56. María Teresa Cayetana de Silva later made the palace a gathering place for artists and intellectuals; Francisco de Goya visited the town. Piedrahíta's history combines its place in a rural valley with the long influence of a prominent Castilian noble house.