Quinta Vergara, Municipal park in Viña del Mar, Chile
Quinta Vergara is a public park in Viña del Mar, Chile, whose grounds hold the Vergara Palace, the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater and the Artequin museum. The photograph shows a broad lawn with mature trees, a tall tiered conifer, and low beds of yellow and white flowers.
The grounds were part of the Hacienda de las Siete Hermanas, where exotic species from Asia, Australia and California were planted in the 19th century. The Vergara family's mansion collapsed in the 1906 Valparaíso earthquake, and in 1910 they built the Venetian Gothic Vergara Palace as its replacement. The municipality bought palace and park in 1941, turning the building into a fine arts museum and the grounds into a public park.
The park hosts the Viña del Mar International Song Festival every year, first held 21–28 February 1960. The 1963 wooden stage by Hernando López, built by Juan Pinto Delgado, had an acoustic shell; Borja Huidobro replaced it in 2002 with a concrete coliseum seating over 15,000. A bust of Gabriela Mistral by Nina Anguita marks her 1945 Nobel Prize.
The park entrance is at Errázuriz 596, with visiting hours from 7:00 to 18:00. The Artequin museum is reached through the Potrerillos section, entering from Alcalde Prieto Nieto street. The amphitheater holds over 15,000 spectators.
The exotic species in the park were brought from Asia, Australia and California in the 19th century, when the land was still the Hacienda de las Siete Hermanas. Among the garden sculptures is a bust of Gabriela Mistral, made and donated by the artist Nina Anguita after the poet won the Nobel Prize in 1945.
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