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Introduction: Pazos

As the saying goes “A big house with a chapel, a pigeon-house and a Cyprus tree, a pazo is”
The word pazo comes from the latin pallatium and, in Galicia, it is used to refer to stately houses often built in the countryside. Its origin dates back to the medieval castles and fortresses belonging to the nobility or the church. They reached their maximum splendour in the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of the foros (rent) which the peasants had to pay to the local nobility. These noblemen acted as intermediaries between the peasants and the lords, who tended to reside in the city or the court. According to Pardo Bazán, author of Los Pazos de Ulloa, “the castles, conceived for states of war and turbulence, were followed by constructions which were more in keeping with long periods of peace”.
The pazos began to fall into decline in the 19th century, and the General Primo de Rivera put a final end to them with the legal abolition of the foros.
Valle Inclán left us masterful descriptions of pazos in Autumn and Winter Sonatas and Barbaric Comedies and Otero Pedrayo set several of his tales in them describing their decline.

The origins

To trace the history of the place where the Pazo da Trave is located we must go back to the year 1435, when the bishop of Mondoñedo, the dean of the cathedral and two lawyers met in a place known as the Paso dos Cabaleiros to discuss the legal dispute held by the nobility and the church over the parish of Galdo and the foros. After several quarrels and legal disputes, Galdo finally lost its status of municipal council and became part of Viveiro.

Genealogy of the Pazo da Trave

In 1435, the bishopric of Mondoñedo sold the Galdo estate to Don Alonso Pérez de Viveiro for 5.000 maravedies. Many years later, the property fell in the hands of the merino of the estate(local judicial authority), the viscount of Altamira, Don Juan de Pita Pumariño, who left the property to his son, Fernando Pumariño, alderman of Viveiro who was married to Catalina de Miranda, sister of the archbishop of Seville, Fernando de Valdés y Salas, who founded the university of Oviedo.  This married couple is an example of the close ties, not just geographical, between Asturias and Galicia.

The property was subsequently inherited by the couple’s daughter, María de las Alas Pumariño, who was married to the judge of A Coruña.  In 1607, it was sold for 1000 ducados to Antonio da Ponte y Prada, who subsequently left it to his son Teodoro.

The property continued to change hands by way of inheritances and bequests, until it fell in the hands of El Señor de Galdo, Juan Gabriel da Ponte, in the mid 19th century. His daughter, Luisa, sold it in 1881 to Bartolomé Basanta, mayor of Viveiro and conservative party senator in the decade of 1880.

In 1885, Bartolomé Basanta left the Pazo to his son-in-law, Ramón Rebellón, who was a parliamentary representative for Viveiro for four legislatures as member of the political party of Cánovas del Castillo, and managed to secure the status of city for Viveiro.

Ramón Rebellón left the Pazo to his children.   None of them actually came to live in it and the premises gradually fell into a state of abandonment and deterioration.  They finally sold it in 1993.

Today

The Pazo da Trave was rebuilt and restored preserving its original state, using autochthonous materials and the craftsmanship techniques of the local ceramic tradition, spear headed by the nearby Sargadelos factory.  On completion, the Pazo da Trave was placed in www.pazosdegalicia.com, which embraces a group of palaces, castles, monasteries, local government houses and “large houses” dedicated to Rural Tourism.
The objective of its new proprietors, who acquired the pazo in 2007, is to respect the tradition and the elegance of the pazo whilst professionalising its management and modernising its facilities in order to offer its guests the property’s original tranquillity and comfort with all the benefits of a modern and efficient Pazo - a rural guest house with all the comforts and benefits of a modern Pazo, offering large common areas, a spectacular garden and all the services.

In short, a small Parador.