Pazos manor houses in As Rías Baixas

In the parish of Santo Estevo de Oca there was an old fortress from the 12th century, but the first material remains of the building date from the mid-15th century and are contemporary to the first lords of Oca of whom there is documentary evidence: Álvaro de Oca and his son Suero. The Baroque-style property has passed through the hands of the Neira family, the Gayoso family and the Casa de Comarasa until it became part of the estate of the Dukes of Medinaceli.

Andrés Gayoso and his son Fernando were the promoters of the remodelling and extension of the complex; they are also credited with the design and construction of the two ponds that form the central axis of its spectacular gardens. Water enhances the majesty of this impressive botanical ensemble, without forgetting to stroll along the Carrera de los Tilos or enter the part of the garden reserved for boxwood figures inspired by folk tales and songs.

The pazo de Oca, known as the Galician Versailles due to the geometry and great variety of species in its garden, has been declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) and preserves its double aspect of usefulness and beauty. The property's ornamental plantings coexist with vineyards, kiwi orchards and historic collections of apple trees. It is undoubtedly one of the most stately and best preserved Galician pazos. It can be visited at any time of the year or you can rent one of its rooms for events.

The first records of the current Quiñones de León manor date back to the 16th century, when there was a medieval tower called Lavandeira, owned by the Tavarés family. According to the inscription on the coat of arms at the main entrance, the current building was erected between 1665 and 1670. It was in the 19th century when Fernando Quiñones de León y de Francisco-Martín carried out the reforms that would give it its current appearance and designed its formidable gardens, a meeting point today for several generations of Vigueans.

In 1924 the property was donated to the city, and the park, previously private, opened its doors to the public. This space is divided into the entrance garden, the rose garden, the French garden, the English garden, also known as the Tea Meadow, the solana and the forest. In 1984, the project to clean up and improve the park began: the road that now divides it in two was widened and a lagoon was created following the sketches of the landscape architect Francisco de Sales.

It was declared a Historic Garden of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 1955, and in 1991 its powers were transferred to the autonomous community. The pazo houses a museum with collections of paintings, sculpture, applied arts and collections of extraordinary interest for discovering the history of Vigo.

The Lourizán pazo experienced its greatest splendour after being acquired in the 19th century by Eugenio Montero Ríos, who in 1909 commissioned Jenaro de la Fuente to renovate the imposing building surrounded by 54 hectares of land. It was at this stage that its characteristic glazed galleries and upper terraces were added. The first historical reference to the estate where the building is located is a religious document of concord between clerics from 1320.

The suggestive beauty of the building is enhanced by the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century it was the political and social epicentre of the province. Architecturally, its spectacular staircase, its ornate façade and its French-style slate roof stand out. It also has a large granary from the 18th century. Special mention should be made of the garden of the Rías, with a grotto and a fervenza at the start and a stream with meanders and bridges covered by a thick, tall canopy of trees.

The heirs of Montero Ríos could not afford to maintain the property and in the second decade of the 20th century they sold it to the Caja de Ahorros Provincial. The pazo has been in the hands of the Diputación de Pontevedra since the 1940s and currently houses the Lourizán Forestry Research Centre.

The visit to the pazo will be an unforgettable experience walking among vineyards and lush camellias. The origin of the Casa de Rubianes dates back to the Middle Ages, when in the 12th century the Caamaño family, owner of the House of Noia and founder of Vilagarcía de Arousa, settled in the Arousa estuary. The pazo was originally founded in 1411 by García Caamaño and rebuilt 300 years later by Jacobo Ozores. It is a rectangular building surrounded by the largest vineyard in the region of O Salnés.

In the 18th century, the lord of the House of Rubianes was exiled to France and on his return he found the property in a very deteriorated state, so he decided to rebuild it with the services of a French architect who gave it its current appearance.

With a surface area of around 70 hectares, its grapes are grown among camellias. It is believed that the first attempt at ornamentation on the property was made in 1714, when the original building was transformed into a manor house. The frog pond, with its trellis and arbour, is the most important structure of the early garden. Its botanical park is today the International Camellia Garden of Excellence thanks to its more than 4,500 specimens and is open to the public.

This former 18th century farmhouse is located in the heart of the O Salnés valley and is an excellent example of Galician neoclassical architecture. In the 1970s the property was acquired by the Piñeiro Lago family, who restored the pazo, the courtyard and the surrounding buildings. Its entrance is dominated by a spectacular stone hórreo (granary) 15 metres long, which makes it one of the most unique examples in Galicia.

The property also conserves a chapel and a Romanesque baptismal font from the 12th century. But the most singular element is its International Camellia Garden of Excellence, designed at the beginning of the 20th century by the French landscape designer Dorgambide and surrounded by trees and forests of oak, chestnut, pine and laurel. The Quinteiro da Cruz pazo also has albariño grape vineyards, from which they make their own wine in an adjoining cellar.

This stately building has the soul of an open-air museum, housing more than 300 different botanical species from the five continents. Recently created is the Bosque das Palabras, inaugurated in 2014 by the writer Nélida Piñón, and the so-called oriental garden. It is possible to visit it all year round and end the day with a Quinteiro da Cruz Albariño or a green tea, also from the house.

This is a 17th century manor house founded by Álvaro Núñez Taboada. It was inhabited until the beginning of the 20th century, although in its last stage it was reserved only as a holiday residence. Architecturally, the most interesting elements inside are the library, a display of weapons and a Romanesque baptismal font. The Baroque-style building has a large balcony and preserves a chapel, the servants' quarters, two ovens, an alpendre, a granary and a dovecote.

This palace was the birthplace of the aviator Joaquín Loriga, known for making the Madrid-Manila flight in 1926 in 17 stages and 33 days. It is the most stately manor house in the lands of Deza and is one of the jewels of Galician rural architecture. It was baptised by Emilia Pardo Bazán as El Palacio del Recuerdo (The Palace of Remembrance). The last owner to occupy it was José Cano Otero, president of the Galician Academy of Medicine and Surgery.

The pazo was acquired by the City Council of Lalín in 2002, and in 2009 it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC). A recent refurbishment has returned it to the splendour it enjoyed in the 19th century, converting it into a socio-cultural space that houses the Centre for Archaeological Management and Knowledge of the Castros culture (CXCA) and the Galician Puppet Museum.

It was built in the 16th century by Juan Sarmiento Valladares, advisor to King Philip II of Spain. It is a Renaissance-style building with Italian influences to which successive additions were made, commissioned by Gonzalo Sarmiento de Valladares, Viscount of Fefiñáns. Today it is still in the hands of the descendants of the Marquises of Figueroa, who live in part of the pazo, the rest being used for wine production by the Bodega Gil Armada and the Bodega Palacio de Fefiñanes, the first to bottle wine under the Albariño brand, in 1928.

In the outer corners of the palace, the large circular balconies and the Renaissance decoration on the windows stand out. On the eastern corner of the wall there is an independent tower, known as the keep, and a baroque bridge at the northern end. Inside, there is still a small vineyard with centenary vines that gave rise to the estate's wine-growing activity a century ago.

The pazo gives its name to the most important square in Cambados and is one of the most outstanding buildings of the impressive historical complex. The property is open to guided tours all year round, tastings are held and it can be rented for events.

It is a historic granite building from the 16th century, later renovated in the 18th century, with a crenellated tower that dominates the grounds of more than 20,000 m². One of the most outstanding features of the building is the balustrade at the main entrance, the coats of arms, the human figures and the gargoyles with lion heads that protect the native camellia gardens, with hundred-year-old trees and a box maze.

The latest renovation, carried out in the winter of 2009, makes this incredible building one of the best places to find a haven of peace and tranquillity in which to relax. Its aristocratic exterior contrasts with its completely refurbished interior. This pazo located in Nigrán is considered one of the most emblematic buildings in Val Miñor.

Walk through the doors of this manor house, a protagonist of 19th-century Spanish naturalism, and immerse yourself in the history of feudal and matriarchal Galicia. This building, converted into a winery, is a magnificent example of Galician manor houses. It seems to date back to the 16th century and is the site of notable episodes such as that of having housed the last king of Portugal, Manuel II, when in 1910 the republic was established in the neighbouring country and the monarch had to flee and hide within the centuries-old walls of this house in Vilanoviña, in Meis.

The name of the pazo today is intimately linked to the wine that bears its name. The surrounding vineyards began to be cultivated in the 1980s. Marisol Bueno and Javier Mareque, owners of the Señoráns pazo, were ahead of their time when 25 years ago they trusted in the nobility of Albariño and opted for aged wines -with bottle-ageing properties- with very good results.

Today it is their children who continue with the project and share with visitors their particular way of making wine. In their cellars they have also started to distil pomace to make traditional Galician liqueurs and brandies, made from albariño grapes.

It is a farmhouse dating back to the 18th century with an English-style garden recognised by UNESCO for housing one of the most important private botanical collections in Spain with species brought from all continents. It forms part of the Camellia Route of As Rías Baixas and can be visited every day of the year.

There is documentary evidence of the property since 1721, when Mateo Pérez de Caamaño inherited the land, where he ordered the construction of an initial farmhouse. Half a century later, his eldest grandson would build the chapel dedicated to the virgin of A Saleta, which finally gave its name to the estate. More recently, in 1967, it was acquired by the Gimson couple with the intention of turning it into an international reference in gardening and botany with the help of the landscape architect Brenda Colvin.

The pazo is privately owned and is in the hands of the Rodríguez-Coladas family, who acquired the property in 1996 and carefully look after, in the heart of Meis, the important botanical legacy left by the Gimson couple, who are credited with the introduction to Spain of unique camellia species that are now more popular.

The Baroque-style pazo of Carballeira de Gandarón was built by order of Archbishop Sebastián Malvar Pinto at the end of the 18th century and since 1928 it has been the headquarters of the Galician Biological Mission, part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). In the mid-19th century the property was transferred to Jerónimo Malvar y Taboada, to whom the extension of the building and the creation of the garden are attributed.

Its fountains, ponds, granary, chapel -today a museum- or its arbour are among the most significant elements of this space, which preserves its original style. All this frames an experience full of romanticism in a space crowned by a large 22-foot granary. The pazo is located in the parish of Salcedo, very close to Pontevedra, and its structure is architecturally notable for its French-style balconies and chimneys.

The installation of the Galician Biological Mission there was an initiative of the provincial president Daniel de la Sota, who was also behind the foundation of the museum, the transformation of the hospital and the construction of new access roads. These public buildings now occupy 12 hectares of land with three main buildings and other service buildings.

Also known as pazo do Conde or pazo de Sarmiento, it was the residence of Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar, a title he received from Philip III. This pazo was presumably built on the remains of a medieval fortress. It was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) with the category of Monument in 1999.

In the 16th century it was the residence of García Sarmiento y Sotomayor, lord of Gondomar and Vincios, Peiteiros and Mogandáns, corregidor of Granada and captain general of the Canary Islands. But the history of the property is more closely linked to his first-born son, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar, who was born in this pazo. During the reign of Philip II, he was one of the most important figures in Spanish diplomacy and was even appointed Spanish ambassador to London.

During the Count's lifetime, the pazo was at the height of its splendour, with a large area of land surrounded by a wall that reached as far as the gates of what is now the town hall of Gondomar. In the 18th century, a fire caused serious damage to the pazo, which was restored in the 19th century by the successors of the Galician nobleman. The latter were related to one of the most prestigious lineages of the Spanish nobility, the Fernández de Córdoba, descendants of the Gran Capitán, and so this county was joined to the titles of the Duchy of Medinaceli.

In the space currently occupied by this building, a monastery of the Franciscan order existed since the 16th century, which previously lived on the island of San Simón and received the land from the Duke of Soutomaior. The building was consumed by fire and rebuilt, only to be abandoned after the disentailment in the mid-19th century.

There is hardly any confirmed information about its subsequent owners. The pazo has occupied the site of the ruins of the monastery and the stones of the original building were used for its construction, around 1865. The history of this pazo in Redondela is linked to the figure of General Antero Rubín Homent, a native of this municipality who distinguished himself in the war in Cuba. In 1936 the Iturria family acquired the property and it is believed that the grotto and pond in its gardens were created around this time, in imitation of those of Santa Lucia in Portugal.

The pazo is now experiencing a new period of splendour since it passed into the hands of the Marcote family at the beginning of the 21st century. It was refurbished and partly dedicated to the cultivation of vines and to hosting celebrations and banquets. Its gardens are home to impressive camellias and several specimens included in the Galician Catalogue of Ancient Galician Trees.

Also known as pazo de Santo Tomé, it is located in the Vila Vella of Cambados, on a hill overlooking the sea, and is accessed from a small square via an ornate staircase. It was built by Diego de Zárate y Murga, 1st Marquis of Montesacro, by decree of Felipe V, in the 18th century and following the Baroque style of the time.

The elegant coat of arms of the Zárate y Murga family stands out on the façade, stamped with the cross of Santiago, and the crown of the marquis, from which an arm wielding a sword emerges. In 1937, the wife of the 8th Marquis of Montesacro, Juana María Grisone, was widowed and childless when she decided to sell the pazo.

At first it was thought that the property would pass into the hands of a well-known businessman of the area, but finally the family decided to give it to the Little Sisters of Charity so that they could expand the asylum which at that time was located in the pazo of Torrado.

Its history is curious, as the stately property was destined for a social project and in 1942 the pazo was remodelled to adapt it to the needs required to set up this centre for the elderly, a use that it still retains today.