The Torres lineage is one of the oldest in the town and as senior lieutenants of the kingdom of Castile the family held the privilege of carrying the military banner “Torres de Castilla”.
The Torres ancestral home stands on Calle Isabel I de Castilla (former Calle Baldosería) and dates from the 16th century. The main entrance bears an alabaster coat-of-arms comprising five gold towers: four geminate ones and a fifth tower in the centre.
The central door in the facade displays thick curvilinear moulding and is surmounted by a steeply pointed pediment on which decorative balls frame the coat-of-arms. The top floor has two balconies and two windows with typical Cuenca grilles.
Some 200 metres further down the same street we see this family coat-of-arms again.
At the beginning of Calle Baldosería stood the Redención de Cautivos hospital, housed in the buildings adjacent to the Torres dwelling. The council of Uclés founded this hospital in 1227 with a spiritual mission “to serve God and save his souls and those of their kin”. Moorish prisoners were kept there until they were exchanged for Christians. In the meantime, they were put to work in the vegetable gardens and orchards, and the association that managed the hospital was therefore known as the “gardeners’ association”.