The gardens of the Pazo de Oca are one of the jewels of gardening in Galicia and northern Spain. Its gardens, belonging to the Camellia Route, is a perfect balance between the English garden style, where the freedom of growth of plant species predominates, and the French garden, where nature is subjected to human control , this characteristic has marked the evolution of the garden of the Pazo de Oca throughout the centuries.
Some highlights about Pazo de Oca in A Estrada, Pontevedra, Galicia (Spain)
Asset of Cultural Interest
Pazo de Oca, A Estrada 36685
Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain
Coordinates: 42.74650, -8.39494
Open in Google Maps
Open every day of the week:
Gardens entrance:
Full ticket: Gardens and interior of the palace
Web: fundacionmedinaceli.org
Email: pazodeoca@fundacionmedinaceli.org
Phone: 0034 986 58 74 35
Although tradition speaks of an ancient fortress from the 12th century, the first material remains that still exist today date from the mid-15th century and are contemporaries of the first lords of Oca of whom there is documentary evidence: Álvaro de Oca and his son Suero.
In 1575 the property passed into the hands of the royal crown, until in 1586 when it was acquired by María de Neyra. During several centuries, different descendants of that family inherited this entailed estate until they reached the Duchy of Medinaceli. In the 18th century, this property became a Baroque-style agricultural and residential complex, inside it houses the oldest baroque garden in Galicia, terraced and where water is the main protagonist.
After the establishment in 1978 of the Casa Ducal de Medinaceli Foundation, the pazo de Oca became part of the historical heritage of that institution. Its complex, which has been declared a historical-artistic monument in 1972, is made up of three main elements: the chapel, the palace and its gardens.
The gardens of the Pazo de Oca are one of the jewels of gardening in Galicia and northern Spain. Its gardens, belonging to the Camellia Route, is a perfect balance between the English garden style, where the freedom of growth of plant species predominates, and the French garden, where nature is subjected to human control , this characteristic has marked the evolution of the garden of the Pazo de Oca throughout the centuries.
One of the most interesting contributions came towards the end of the 19th century, when François de Vié was hired to transform the garden in the English style. Years later, in 1920, Ignacio Fernández de Henestrosa, Marqués de Camarasa, would decide to return to recover the French-style line that the garden originally followed, leaving only one part, “the grove”, in which the influence of the romantic anglo-Saxon court is still recognized, developed by Francois de Vié.
The garden contains various spaces organized under a distribution that combines the essence of each one of them in relation to the whole.
Through a hallway, which preserves 16th century doors on both sides crowned by the arms of the Luaces and the Neira respectively, you enter the courtyard, a space surrounded by buildings from different periods, from the 16th to the 20th century.
Of the different designs that this patio has had, the only piece that remains constant is the central trilobed stone fountain, surrounded by trimmed boxwood and with two boxwood beds, accompanied by camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas and rhododendrons. The current geometric and formalist flowerbeds are a work carried out around 1930 and completed in the restorations carried out in the last thirty-five years.
In 1929, part of the old blocks that closed the patio were demolished to communicate it, by means of stairs, with the era and open a new perspective towards the Ulla Valley. In this area, the following stand out: the hórreo (typical granary from the northwest of the Iberian Península), the trough-laundry in carved stone with an octagonal structure and in the background the Portal from another family property and decorated with the arms of Sotomayor, Moscoso, Parga and Mariñas.
Behind this first part of the garden there is a transition space, about thirty meters bordering the facade of the palace that serves as a hinge between the more closed space of the patio and the open one of the gardens and orchards. They are drawn, squares of low boxwood hedges and specimens of great botanical interest due to their antiquity: Camelia reticulata, Cryptomeria japonica, fastigiated yew, etc.