Parque Nuestra Señora de Gabriela, Public park in Puente Alto, Santiago, Chile
Parque Nuestra Señora de Gabriela occupies the grounds of the former Casas de las Rosas estate in Puente Alto, Santiago. Its centrepiece is the casona, the old manor house that housed the Pontifical Major Seminary from 1971 and now holds the offices of the Corporación Cultural de Puente Alto. The building was damaged in the 2010 earthquake and its roof and walls were repaired before it reopened in 2011.
The land belonged to the Casas de las Rosas estate, about 150 hectares held by the Videla family in the late 19th century and named after the nearby Las Rosas railway station. In 1910 it passed to Ignacio Valdés Ortúzar, who made it highly productive and opened the street he named Gabriela after his wife, Gabriela Sánchez García de la Huerta. After the death of Blanca Valdés Subercaseaux, the Archdiocese of Santiago took it over in the 1960s for the Pontifical Major Seminary, inaugurated by Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez in 1971. The municipality bought the estate in 2002 and reopened it as a park in 2003.
The name Gabriela comes from Gabriela Sánchez García de la Huerta, wife of Ignacio Valdés Ortúzar, who had a street laid out and named after her. Since 2003 the Corporación Cultural de Puente Alto has run free cultural activities and workshops from offices inside the park.
The Corporación Cultural de Puente Alto has had its offices in the park since 2003, and its free workshops and cultural activities are the main reason to time a visit around its programme. The casona was damaged in the 2010 earthquake and reopened in 2011 after its roof and walls were repaired, so the restored building is the structure to look for. The park lies in Puente Alto, at the end of the old road from Santiago.
The name Gabriela comes from a street Ignacio Valdés Ortúzar opened in 1910 to link Santa Rosa with Vicuña Mackenna, named for his wife Gabriela Sánchez García de la Huerta. The estate's earlier name, Casas de las Rosas, referred to the nearby Las Rosas station on the Ferrocarril del Llano de Maipo between Santiago and Puente Alto.
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