Palmeretes Estate
The Palmeretes estate, with a quadrangular floor plan, has a tower-shaped body and a terrace running to the southeast. The ground floor acquires a strong personality thanks to its porch, erected on slender cast iron columns that extend to form the parapets of the terrace. Its sloping roofs, with ceramic crests, have large eaves supported on thin corbels or wooden corbels. The openings of the openings and the lines of the slabs are nuanced with ceramic motifs. The carpentry has delicate booklet blinds, and when the wooden lattice is deployed, spectacular shadows are projected on the façade. All these elements give the architectural complex a sophisticated visual dynamism.
The house has two floors, a low attic and a semi-basement. Originally the house did not have bathrooms or kitchen. The food was prepared in an adjacent building, also very attractive but with different formal characteristics than the residence. The subsequent installation of the bathrooms involved a restructuring of the building. If previously the staircase was linked to the main living room, it had to be made independent of the rooms in order to accommodate the toilets, an essential room by 20th century standards.
The complex is completed with what were beautiful gardens with sculptures, pinnacles and monumental trees. The architect Santiago Varela In the 1980s, he made the following description of his gardens: “[…] a small space surrounded by cane fences, quadrangular in shape, crossed by a multitude of asymmetrical paths, which lead to corners with cement sculptures, between the paths there are They have flower beds bordered by privet hedges, and planted with perennials, such as the rigorous heliotrope, lemon verbena, geraniums, brusques, and an endless number of shrubs. Among its trees, the date palm, the Washingtonias dominate, highlighting a large Canary Island dragon tree, a gigantic ficus affected by drought and a sequoia, among others, in addition to the two stone pines that shade the entrance door, several jacarandas, and a small pine forest, on one side of the house, on the other side of the Tenderel road, next to the aforementioned complex, and in front of its main entrance, is the hermitage of the estate, surrounded by an authentic palm grove of small dimensions, and forming a rather picturesque complex […]”.
In recent years the complex has suffered numerous looting and fires, along with the theft and destruction of the garden sculptures. Most of the doors and windows have been forced, the bookcase looted and some books have been burned. The railing of the terrace and stairs has disappeared. The first floor was also consumed by flames. The privately owned estate is awaiting comprehensive action to restore the house, the hermitage and its gardens.
Did you know that...?
In front of the entrance arch to the property, there is a door located between stone buttresses with eclectic shaped finishes typically from the 19th century. In front of it, across the road, is the chapel with an eclectic style and French influence. It was blessed in 1861 and is dedicated to the Virgin of Sorrows. Originally it was a free-standing building with a square floor plan, but a later extension ended up giving it a rectangular finish. The cover of zinc sheets in the shape of scales is a vault also in the French style with a circular central lantern.
At the beginning of the last century the owner was Mr. Alfredo Salvetti. Its last occupant was Mrs. Ana Ballenilla Fajardo. Every September 15 Mrs. Ana opened the doors of her hermitage so that the Festival Commission and the town’s inhabitants could celebrate a mass offered by D. Federico Sala, in honor of the Virgin of Sorrows.