Quinta Vergara

Quinta Vergara is a park in the commune of Viña del Mar in which you can find the Vergara Palace, with its gardens, and the amphitheatre where the annual Viña del Mar International Song Festival is held.



In this place was the house of the founder of Viña del Mar, José Francisco Vergara. The Vergara family built a building in the Venetian Gothic style in 1910 to replace the family mansion that had collapsed in the earthquake of 1906. Most of the furniture was acquired directly in Europe and a great variety of styles can be appreciated there, the most attractive being the rococo, Louis XVI and Empire.

In the park there are a number of exotic species brought from Asia, Australia and California, introduced there in the 19th century when it was still the Hacienda de las Siete Hermanas, for the comfort of its owners.

In 1941 the Municipality of Viña del Mar bought the palace and park, which became public, while the building was destined to the Museum and School of Fine Arts. The oil paintings owned by Blanca Vergara were donated with the sale. 60 works by outstanding European artists formed the basis of the collection.

In the gardens of the park there are some sculptures, among which the bust of Gabriela Mistral stands out, made and donated by the artist Nina Anguita on the occasion of the Nobel Prize obtained by the poetess in 1945.

Festival de Viña

After the success of the first Viña del Mar Song Festival, held between February 21 and 28, 1960,1 it was decided to build a more stable stage than the then existing one. In 1963, this was designed by the architect Hernando López, while the construction was carried out by the civil builder Juan Pinto Delgado.

The result was an amphitheatre at the Quinta, whose wooden stage was crowned by an "acoustic shell" that helped both to project the sound to the audience and to protect the artists from the cold viñamarinas nights, becoming an icon of the festival. The audience sat on wooden chairs on the ground floor and many spectators were located on the hills adjacent to the Quinta and on the tops of the nearby trees, giving the event a clear provincial air.

It was remodeled in 2002 by architect Borja Huidobro, who replaced the "acoustic shell" with an enclosed amphitheater, simulating a coliseum, made of solid concrete, with a capacity of over 15,000 spectators.