The monumental building is located northwest of Caracas, on a lot of land formerly called La Trilla. Its construction started in 1893 under the direction of Italian lieutenant, explorer, engineer and geographer, Count Giuseppe Orsi de Mombello (1840-1910) who was responsible for directing several public construction works in Caracas during President Joaquín Crespo goverment (1884-1886), in conjunction with Juan Hurtado Manrique. Miraflores, intended to beautify the city as a «gesture of splendor, magnificence, social and urban sensibility» should outperform the «Villa Santa Ines.» Inspired by European mansions built as unique suburban areas, is shaped by quadrangular volume whose rooms are arranged around a central courtyard with arcades. The volume and shape of the windows confer Miraflores features of a French Neo-Baroque palace from the late nineteenth century. A group of Catalan sculptors and decorators, directed by Catalan architect Juan Bautista Sales, made the details. The solemn lounges (Ambassadors, Boyacá, Vargas, Peru´s sun, Ayacucho, Joaquín Crespo and the mirror saloon, the Chapel and the President›s Office) have furniture of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, murals by Arturo Michelena (1863-1898), and paintings by Spanish Juan de Oñate and Juarez (1840-1899). Inside are works of Martín Tovar y Tovar, Tito Salas, Gabriel Bracho, Cyril Almeida and others. The palace has been renovated and interven by almost all the presidents who have occupied it. Architect Luis Malaussena, partially erasing the Crespista decor, did the more radical renovation. General Joaquín Crespo never dwell Miraflores and died before seeing it completed. The building began to be used as the Presidential Palace from 1900.