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The modern times
Did you know?
“It is said that remains of the convoy made up by nineteen Spanish
galleons, escorted by twenty-three French war ships, which carried one
hundred an eight millions of silver and gold pieces, together with other
precious gems with which Felipe V was going to finance the Succession
War, can still be found in the ría of Vigo Bureaucratic delays allowed the
arrival of an English-Dutch fleet that, after the battle, got to take barely
forty million pieces.”
Palace of Mateus (Vila Real)
The pazos: great jewels of the
Galician-Portuguese culture
The history of these years is also the time of the fidalgos, noblemen who fought
to find a place to ascend in society, and to legitimate their position. With this
aim, they invented lineages and mythic bloodlines, and built houses that imitated
the ones of the nobility, which is the class that they wished to join. The pazos are
a kind of architecture than exemplified like no other the values and aspirations
of their producers.
The Galician and Portuguese geographies are sprinkled with many
examples of this type, to the point that it is difficult to find a place where there
is none. In spite of this, there are some areas where the pazos proliferated in a
greater way. This is the case of Vilagarcía de Arousa, head of an area, the
region of Salnés, which in modern times underwent an unprecedented growth,
what gave rise to a series of highlighted families. The presence of these pazobuilding
noblemen is appreciated at its best in these lands, and this is why so
many examples have made it to our days.
The first known pazo is the one of Rubiás, whose construction was ordered by
García de Caamaño, who is also assumed to have founded the city itself. In the
18th century, over this building from which there are barely any remains, another
one was erected according to the new taste. From the current ensemble, the
common resource of the lion as an iconographic symbol stands out, as well as its
cared gardens and its sundial.
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