The Municipal Museum of Vigo, known as the Quiñones de León Museum. It contains one of the best permanent collections of Galician painting, as well as an interesting archaeological section. It is located in the pazo of Castrelos, one of the most architecturally outstanding pazos in Galicia, a building whose origin is the old pazo of Lavandeira, built in 1670, years after the foundation of Captain Juan Tavares in 1665. It is surrounded by gardens of French and English influences. The museum was inaugurated on July 22, 1937.

The Castrelos park and its pazo belonged between 1678 and 1918 to the Gago de Mendoza Oca Sarmiento y Montenegro family, from Antonio Feliz Tavarés Ozores y Sotomayor to Fernando Quiñones de León y Elduayen, IX Marquis of Valladares and VII Marquis of Mos.2 Married to Marianne Wythe, he died without descendants at the age of 34, and left as heir to his father, Fernando Quiñones de León y Francisco-Martín, III Marquis of San Carlos, I Marquis of Alcedo Grand of Spain first class and VII Marquis of Montevirgen. The latter, having no grandchildren, donated the park and the palace to the City Council of Vigo.

The gardens

Outside, the transformation of the manor’s rear orchard at the end of the 19th century, apparently with the Portuguese firm Jacintho de Mattos from Porto, offers five hectares with the category of a historic garden and a botanical route of high aesthetic value. It is divided into five sectors: access, upper rose gardens, French garden, English garden, and forest.