Popularly known as “la placeta”, this little square has been officially called Plaza del Conde de Cedillo since 1930 but its oldest and more genuine name is Plaza de Cantarranas, the place where the street of the same name begins.
It takes its present-day name from the aristocrat and scholar Jerónimo López de Ayala, an erudite man of letters, historian and passionate expert on the history of the city of Toledo with ties to Uclés. Considered a driving force behind the promotion of tourism, he founded the Spanish Society of Excursions, edited its newsletter and was the society’s chairman from 1909 until he passed away.
This family paid for masses at the parish until the 1960s, as a chaplaincy or ecclesiastical benefice, and they are also remembered for providing dowries for orphaned women when they married or entered a convent.
The square is dominated by the Pareja House, an irregular-shaped building from the 15th-16th century between party walls, made of different sizes of ashlar stones. The entrance door is flanked by engaged columns that support a lintel with a frieze and an architrave. The family coat-of-arms sits above the keystone of the arch and there is another one at the corner. None of the original elements from the original structure have survived inside the building we see today.
At the centre of the square is a small memorial to the Peninsular War made by José Puchaes. It was inaugurated in 2009 on the second centenary of the Battle of Uclés.