The roots of the pazo of Vilar de Francos date back to the time of Carlos I, five centuries ago. It was built around an old defensive tower, from the 16th century, and is within a large estate surrounded by a sturdy wall with battlements.

The visit, of course, is worthwhile: a complex formed by the imposing pazo, built mostly in the seventeenth century, with the four-storey tower in its center, a beautiful garden, the house of the landlords, an old granary, a transept and the chapel dedicated to San Antonio de Padua.

During the life of the marquis, the feast of St. Anthony, June 13, was used to open the doors of the pazo to the neighborhood. Outside the walls, in a nearby farm, you will find the oak of San Antonio, which is already several hundred years old.

The estate of Vilar de Francos was born in the time of Carlos V, and has its origin in the marriage of a member of the Pardiñas family, who had a plot of land in the tower of Pardiñas, with a woman of the Vilardefrancos. Of this lineage is Fabián Pardiñas Vilardefrancos, a Galician poet of the XVII century who became dean of the cathedral of Santiago. In the 19th century, the pazo was bought by the Marquises of Atalaya.

The last Marquis of Atalaya to inhabit the pazo, José Antonio Martínez de Pisón, was a military man who fought for Franco’s side in the Civil War. He was saved from the well-known shipwreck of the Castillo de Olite, in which more than a thousand people died. The ship was sunk by the Republican army in 1939 when it was on its way to Cartagena.