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Charles III commissioned Juan de Villanueva for this construction, carried out between 1785 and 1797, in order to provide suitable accommodation for the First Secretary of State, the Count of Floridablanca. With this building, the perimeter of the Lonja is closed.
The chosen plot was not empty; the early Bourbons had allowed a good number of houses and kitchens to emerge there for lords of the palace servants which, due to their "improper appearance", had to be demolished. In its construction, Juan de Herrera's scheme was followed when resolving the existing difference in level between the upper street, now Floridablanca, and the Lonja.
Just as in his design for the Casa de Infantes and that of Herrera's Casas de Oficios, Juan de Villanueva proposes a detached building, separated from the sides by narrow streets.
In the elevations of Villanueva, as in all his work at the Royal Site, he again opts for a historicist volume. Even the facade facing the Lonja is an imitation of the Herrerian Casas de Oficios, adopting its rhythm and composition.
In 1797, the elevated walkway connecting it to the Second House of Trades was built. For a time, it housed the administration and offices of the National Heritage in San Lorenzo de El Escorial and is currently fully occupied by private tenants who use it as housing.
Building constructed by Juan de Villanueva between 1785 and 1797 by order of Charles III to house the First Secretary of State, the Count of Floridablanca, an example of the late Neoclassicism of the Royal Site.