Elena Gocmen Rueda
AN historic palace built in the 19th Centuty by a Spanish adventurer who made his fortune in the colonies has gone on sale in Cantabria in northern Spain.
Named Palacete de Las Magnolias because of the abundance of the shrub growing in its gardens, the estate in the village of Mazcuerras was created by Pedro Fernandex Campa in the early 1880s.
Campa was a businessman who, like many young men at the time, sailed off to South America to make his fortune returning to his birthplace in later life to spend his riches.
Known as ‘Indianos’ because of the misnomer given by Christopher Columbus to the native Americans when he thought he had discovered a new route to India, these returning fortune hunters were responsible for building palaces in the colonial style.
Las Magnolias is one such Casa de Indianos, but one that invited royal patronage.
It was reportedly visited by King Alfonso XII and his mother Isabel II as well as serving as inspiration for the Spanish writer Josefina Aldecoa who lived on the estate until her death in 2011.
It was here that she wrote La Enredadera (the vine), a literary work inspired by the house itself.
The villa is typical of a Casa de Indianos in its eclectic style having been built by the acclaimed architect of the time, German Del Rio Iturralde.
It includes four bedrooms and four bathrooms plus a mezzanine spread over three floors behind an impressive facade and set within glorious landscaped gardens designed by Isaac Escalante in 1975.
The property is for sale for €1.8million and is advertised on Idealista.
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