The Palace of the Verdugo family dates from 1531, and was ordered to be built by Don Suero de Águila, knight-errant of the Infante Don Fernando, brother of Carlos I. It is located in Calle de Lope Núñez, then known as Calle del Lomo. It was built in response to the boom in the city in the 16th century due to the growth of the wool textile industry, the construction of churches and convents and the religious impulse of Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint John of the Cross.

The sober stone façade is Plateresque in style and defensive in character, with no low windows and two wide towers on either side. To the left of the façade, there is a stone boar from the Vétonic period, similar to the dozens of them that are scattered around the city and to the well-known Guisando bulls.

Since its construction it has been the seat of the house of Don Suero de Águila, who in 1536 granted a letter of entailed estate to his son Don Sancho de Águila and his wife Isabel de Carvajal, aunt of the Infante Don Fernando, with the proviso that, if the lineage disappeared, his estate would pass to the order of the Hieronymites.

In 1606, when his grandson Rodrigo de Águila died without descendants, the Hieronymites converted it into a convent-house until 1616, when they exchanged it with the Society of Jesus for the College of San Gil.

The palace remained in the hands of the Jesuits until it was put up for public auction and acquired by Francisco Guillamas y Velázquez. It remained in the possession of his descendants until 1990.

The building was declared a national historic-artistic monument by Royal Decree 760/1979 of 9 March 1979, published in the BOE of 12 April 1979.

Since 2008, and after several years of restoration work, it has been the permanent headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain.4 It forms part of the assets of cultural interest of the province of Ávila.

The coat of arms of the Verdugo surname, which has its origins in the foundation of the city of Arévalo, Ávila, and is commonly found in Latin America, due to Hispanic colonisation, can be found above the door of the palace house in the centre. Pedro Briceño y Verdugo, a native of Arevalo, by 1520 was Royal Treasurer of the Governorate of Santa Marta by 1511. His son, Sancho Briceño Verdugo y Alvarez, settled in Coro in 1528 with the Belzarez family.

The coat of arms of the Verdugo surname is a lion rampant and, although there are various colours for the background and frame, there are no precise references to the rest of the details.