Isla Negra is a locality at south Quisco, in Valparaíso Region.
The locality, in spite of not being an island proper, was baptized with this name by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, when seeing a black rock in the sea, near his house in front of the ocean. This house, known as Casa de Isla Negra, is currently a museum managed by the Neruda Foundation, where remains of the poet lie along with those of his wife Matilde.
The sea seemed cleaner to me than the earth, so I came to live on the coast of my country among the great foams of Isla Negra.
Previously, at the beginning of the hispanic period, it was known as Quebrada de Calbín. The lagoon that joins the sandy bar of the beach was named Laguna de Córdoba by Alonso de Córdoba, the first entrusted to the area. Pablo Neruda settled in this area when he returned from one of his many trips abroad, in 1937, in search of an ideal place to write his famous book Canto General. The site was purchased in 1938 from a former Spanish navigator who landed in the area after his ship sinking in Punta Arenas. In the place was a small stone house, which became angular home of what would be the artist's great refuge.
The house ... I do not know when I was born .. It was mid-afternoon, we arrived on horseback through those solitudes ... Don Eladio went ahead, fording the estuary of Córdoba that had grown ... For the first time I felt like a twinge this smell of marine winter, mix of boldo and salty sand, seaweed and thistles ... Here, Don Eladio Sobrino (navigator) said and we stayed there. Then the house grew, like people, like trees.
During the following decade architect Germán Rodríguez Arias designed a large part of modifications under the poet careful supervision. Instructions were clear: a tower in the access, a chimney and a large window towards the sea. Plans were ready in 1943 and two years later renovations saw the light.
The Pablo Neruda Foundation even has a restaurant in the house. If you like poetry, come follow in the footsteps of Pablo Neruda. Just like the Nobel Prize winner for Literature did, fall in love with this coastal town, where the constant sound of waves breaking over rocks is an eternal inspiration for artists of all fields.
Come to the house that the poet built right by the shore and be surprised. Discover Neruda’s ludic imaginarium through wild objects he collected during his life. Figureheads, globes, boxes full of strange insects and masks of different shapes and origins are some of treasures that give the house, its magical aura.
Walk through town’s winding roads, surrounded by pine trees. Contemplate attractive mix of houses built in the 1960’s, hippy-style, and the contemporary flair of the modern architecture.
If you were captivated by your tour, now it’s time to visit Arts and Crafts Fair with a sophisticated rustic style, many of which are inspired by Neruda