ConstituciÓn square
Arcades and grilled windows

The Peñaranda market was so popular in the Middle Ages that in the early 16th century new spaces were needed to organise the stalls in a better way. This was the origin, successively, of this Constitución square you are at, and the next one along, España square.

Constitution square, formerly known as "del Ganado" (livestock square) or "de Arriba" (upper square) was part of the urban reforms driven forwards by the counts Álvaro and Juan de Bracamonte. Their intention was to create a public area beside what was then their palace, located on the southern side of this square.

The arcades that surround almost the entire square are testament to this intention, since they are essential to guarantee commercial activities all year round, regardless of the weather conditions. The existence of wrought iron windows tells us something about the bourgeois class who liked to discreetly look at the intense social life that took place a few feet below them.