Vigo. Pazo Quiñones de León

About this heritage

Officially known as the city´s museum « Quiñones de Leon » it is named after D. Fernando Quiñones de León, the Alcedo´s marquess. He was the one who donated the space in 1924 to the city of Vigo, in order to be turn into a museum. It contains one of the best permanent collections of Galician painting, housing at the same time a very representative section of archaeology. Located in the “Pazo de Castrelos” (an old aristocracy´s house, like a manor house) is an institution depending on the Vigo City Council, currently integrated into the Culture, Festivals and Museums circuit of the city.

The museum was inaugurated in 1937 and its origin lies in the old “Pazo de Lavandeira”, it´s an architecture with a military medieval origin built in 1670 and surrounded by gardens with obvious English and French influences. The building is flanked by two towers, currently renovated and enlarged with an add-on at the back. It has a perpendicular distributor that houses the chapel and the services pavilion. On the ground floor, we can find the remains of the former residence of the Marquises, with the ornamentation, furniture and decoration of the time, as well as the permanent exhibition of European painting of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, legacy of Policarpo Sanz.

Outside, gardens occupy five of the 24 hectares that make up the outline of the Castrelos park. At the back of the Pazo, the old orchard becomes a historic space, divided into six sectors: access, rose bushes at the top, French garden (geometric), English garden (landscaper), suntrap and forest.

It has been declared a historical-artistic monument as a whole: the museum, the collections, the gardens and Castrelos park are considered assets of Cultural Interest since 1955.

To learn more

Vigo´s municipal museum, also known as “Museo da Cidade Quiñones de León”, is a historical-artistic legacy of the marquess of Alcedo, D. Fernando Quiñones de Leon, who in 1924 when he did so, had the condition that it must be dedicated to a cultural museum space. It has managed to maintain, to a large extent and throughout its history, its original construction, integrated in the contour of the Castrelos Park.

This Vigo´s great lung, with a route of 24 hectares and its manor house, belonged between 1678 and 1918 to the Gago de Mendoza Oca Sarmiento family until D. Fernando Quiñones de León. Later, having no grandchildren he donated the park and the manor house to the City Council of Vigo, turning it into an institution depending on the City Council, which shares funds with the Francisco Fernández del Riego Art Gallery (in Arias Taboada´s house), both being municipally-owned.

It was inaugurated as a museum on July 22 of 1937, reaching the title of asset of Cultural Interest and Historic garden (with a route subtitled in braille language) by a Royal Decree of February 25, 1955. This standard from Vigo offers a space for interpretation with a language that combines the exhibition of original works with the narrative of historical and cultural contexts of the time.

It has become one of the main signs of Vigo´s identity, present in a large part of its history during the Modern and Contemporary age. Its origin goes back to the old “Pazo de lavandeira” from which one of the towers flanking the building takes its name, as shown by the coat of arms on the main façade. This typology follows the current of medieval military architecture. During the conflict with Portugal, the Lavandeira tower was devastated, in 1670 the new mortgage building founded by Juan Tavares Captain was erected again. This is an example of an urban-Castilian renaissance small palace, common in rural Galicia. It was later renovated and extended by the Marquess of Alcedo, with an add-on at the back that integrates a perpendicular distributor, housing the chapel and the services pavilion.

The ground floor is destined to service rooms, kitchen and warehouse. On the first floor, lounges and rooms. The current furniture is the result of countless donations and purchases made by the Vigo City Council. The chapel is austere, although it has an altar piece from the middle of the 16th century of unknown origin. With a plateresque space with two main bodies divided into three cloths, with four paintings on board signed by the artist Lorenzo de Ávila. This floor also houses the permanent exhibition of the 17th and 19th century European painting legacy of Policarpo Sanz, with pieces of classic Dutch, Italian, Flemish, French and Spanish painting.

The landscaped space is conceived in the manner of the great gardens of the Baroque France, starting from a longitudinal axis perpendicular to the façade. Designed at the end of the 19th century by the school of Jacinto Mattos (Porto), it is divided into six parts: the access garden, the rose garden, the French garden, the English garden or “tea meadow”, the suntrap in the background and the forest. Composed of a great variety of exotic, ornamental and centenary plants the camellia of the French garden stands out, a walk with a double row of camellia called “Paseo de Antonio Odriozola”.

This leads to the garden centre and the tennis field, pioneer of this sport in Galicia. The tulips brought from Virginia, as well as the old magnolias among which is the longest in Galicia, together with a line of eucalyptus planted in 1872, make up the most significant examples. It dress the space with myrtles, an original dovecote where they raise a controlled colony of zurite pidgeons, with some sculptures, a coat of arms gallery and various monuments in the remaining space.

To know it better

Quiñones de Leon manor house is located in the Vigo´s park of Castrelos, on the banks of the Lagares river. In 1670 was known as the old “Pazo de Lavandeira” and at the beginning of the XIX century, the property ended up in the hands of the Valladares marquisate. At the end of the XIX century, the manor house and its gardens were inherited by María de los Milagros Elduayen, VIII marchioness of Valladares, and her husband Fernando Quiñones de León, the Alcedo´s marquess.

In 1924, the manor house is donated to Vigo city. In addition, the property was set up to create the museum and he public park.

Apart from the manor house, there is a landscape space that was designed at the end of the 19th century. It can be divided into six parts: the access garden, the rose garden, the French garden, the english garden, the suntrap in the background and the forest.

This manor house converted into the Quiñones de León museum, lets you contemplate the Galician art of the 20th century. It has a total of 29 permanent exhibition halls.

Vigo in Pontevedra province, is the most populated city of Galicia. It stands out for it coast, its fishing activity and its industry.