The House of Deaths is a house designed by the architect Juan de Álava in the historic center of the city of Salamanca (Spain). The popular name of the house responds to a mixture of popular legend and history. The house has four skulls carved in stone that, like a corbel, seem to hang from the jambs of the two upper windows of the façade. This ornamental feature, coupled with a murder of four inhabitants occurred at the beginning of the nineteenth century, gave it the popular name: "House of Deaths".

History

The house was located in a street of Upholsterers, currently in the street of Bordadores . In 1500 Alfonso de Fonseca had this house built (together with the Palace of La Salina). At the beginning of the 19th century there was a fourfold murder of a family composed of four individuals who lived inside it. This event impressed the inhabitants of Salamanca and increased the popular denomination of the "House of Deaths". In May of 1835 a young lady who, months before had fired her servants, living in her retirement in the house appears one morning murdered in the well of the patio. Because of these events the house was uninhabited for some time until it was inhabited again at the end of the 19th century.

The most outstanding feature of the house is the façade, carved in the stone of the Salamanca quarries of Villamayor. All of it shows a Plateresque ornamentation. In a central medallion can be seen a bust with the legend dedicated to Alfonso de Fonseca, where you can read the inscription: Severísimo Fonseca Patriarcha Alexandrino.