Quinta Vergara

Large historic park at the heart of the city, with palace, museum, and amphitheatre

The Quinta Vergara is the green heart of Viña: a large nineteenth-century landscape park climbing into the hills behind downtown, full of mature trees, fountains, and quiet lawns. It is the easiest place in the city to escape the traffic, and a long lunchtime walk under its araucarias is one of the best things to do here.

Inside the park stand the Palacio Vergara, an ornate 1908 mansion now used as a fine arts museum, and the Quinta Vergara Amphitheatre, the open-air arena that hosts the famous February song festival. Both are worth visiting; the gardens are free.

things to do sight park
A story
The grounds were laid out in the nineteenth century by the Vergara family on land that had once belonged to a Spanish encomienda. Doña Blanca Vergara — wife of the city's founder José Francisco Vergara — planted many of the rare trees from her travels, including araucarias, sequoias, and a now-vast Moreton Bay fig that still dominates the lower lawns.

Other places in Things to Do