The Camellia Route: a natural itinerary to discover Galicia

Camellias are a tourist attraction that increasingly attract a more international public, interested in the plant heritage of our land. Enjoying the gardens blooming is a spectacle for the senses and the Camellia Route is a way to drive our experience. We tell you all about this natural, cultural and gastronomic proposal!

Camellias are a tourist attraction that increasingly attract a more international public, interested in the plant heritage of our land. Enjoying the gardens blooming is a spectacle for the senses and the Camellia Route is a way to drive our experience. We tell you all about this natural, cultural and gastronomic proposal!

The Camellia Route is an itinerary that has this flower as the protagonist. Through eighty different varieties and twelve gardens distributed in the provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra, you can get to know the beauty of nature, history and even gastronomy.

A little bit of history

The camellia is a bush of beautiful flowers, of varied colors, that finds its origin in Chinese and Japanese lands. It arrived in Galicia at the end of the 18th century and, since then, it has been a flagship of Galician gardens. Although in the beginning they were only installed in manor houses and stately homes of the Galician nobility, they were also introduced in other private and public spaces. Thus, nowadays, the community is an international reference in the cultivation and production of this plant, with almost 8,000 varieties.

The twelve route points

The itinerary begins in Bergondo, in the Pazo de Mariñán and its gardens, declared a historic-artistic and monumental site in 1972. This building, whose history began in the 15th century, houses seven varieties of japonica camellias.

If the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela attracts thousands of pilgrims every year, the Alameda has nothing to envy. One of the busiest green areas of the city has more than 60 different varieties of camellias. In addition, very close to it, the Belvís Park boasts the Labyrinth of Camellias.

In the last stop in the province of A Coruña you will visit the Pazo de Ribadulla and its imposing specimen of camellia japonica, whose trunk reaches 1.90 meters in circumference.

The Pazo de Oca, in the town of A Estrada, together with its gardens, were declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1982. The Galician Versailles houses in its interior japonica varieties, wabisuke and a reticulata that reaches 12 meters in height.

The next stop, in Padrón, you can get to know it through the traces of the figure of Rosalía de Castro. In addition, in the House-Museum of Rosalía de Castro stands a kind of camellia, named in her honor.

They are followed by the Pazo de Quinteiro da Cruz, in Ribadumia, with 5,000 specimens of more than 1,500 varieties and the Pazo de la Saleta in Meis, with its wild garden, delicately cared for.

The Pazo de Lourizán is an obligatory stop if you visit Pontevedra and its surroundings. It has a natural space of 54 hectares, with a beautiful collection of camellias. One of the last points, already in the city of Pontevedra, is the Castle of Soutomaior, which has 100 different varieties and, among them, the specimen with the largest trunk perimeter in Galicia and a crown of 15 meters in diameter.

The final stretch, from Pontevedra to Vigo, invites you to visit the urban park of O Castro, the Quiñones de León Museum Garden, where the so-called "Methuselah of Camellias" is preserved, whose history began in 1860 when the Marquis of Alcedo incorporated it into his garden.

Events and exhibitions

Not only the gardens attract public of all nationalities, but also the different events and exhibitions that are held throughout the year. Thus, for example, as reported by the Spanish Camellia Society, in the remainder of March, events such as the IV Jornada Internacional da Camelia "Come and eat the Camellia" in Quinteiro da Cruz, Ribadumia (25 to 27), the VII Exposición da Camelia e Bonsai in Padrón (26 and 28) and IX Exposición da Camelia in Torneiros, in O Porriño (26 and 27) will be held.

Due to the extension of the route and the location of the gardens and pazos, it is of tourist, artistic and eno-gastronomic interest. In short, a unique and different experience that allows us to know Galicia through our senses.