Originally it was a palace-house designed in 1880 as the residence of Ramón Pla Monje, a businessman and philanthropist born in Ferrol who, after emigrating to Cuba, settled in Madrid in the 1860s (Pla Monje received the pontifical title of Marquis of Amboage, and to him belonged the Amboage Palace current headquarters of the Italian Embassy).

Agustín Ortiz de Villajos, was the architect who designed the building, based on historical languages, created a very personal style and became one of the most characteristic representatives of Madrid eclecticism. He designed a neo-Gothic style building that had a basement, ground floor, two floors and a recessed basement creating a roof terrace, with a single access from Paseo de Recoletos.

Everything was finished off with three bodies like towers with slender spiers, located at the ends of both fronts and on the chamfer, located on the corner between Paseo de Recoletos and Calle del Marqués del Duero.

The palace underwent successive changes. The next owner, César Cañedo y Sierra, Duke of Agüera, transformed the property in 1918 to convert it into rental housing. The architect was José Monasterio Arrillaga, who added two more floors to the building and replaced much of the ornamentation with an eclectic style reminiscent of the French Baroque.

In 1919 the property was rented to the company insurance La Aurora. Company that acquired it definitively in 1922. New renovations in which the interior patio would be closed and the current access door would be opened in the chamfer. In 1920, a bronze chariot was placed on the dome, the work of the sculptor Juan Adsuara and perhaps the most recognizable thing about the building.

A beautiful palace that, although with changes, has survived in an area of ​​Madrid that has seen many palaces built and demolished.

A abrazo.