In the heart of what was once the land of the "Siete Hermanas" ranch and those of the hacienda "Viña de la Mar" is the current Palacio Vergara next to the park known simply as Quinta Vergara.
Quinta Vergara is a park in the municipality of Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile. In the interior of this enclosure is located the Vergara Palace, with gardens and the amphitheater where the International Festival of the Song of Viña del Mar is held annually. In this place was the house of the founder of Viña del Mar, José Francisco Vergara. The Vergara family built a Venetian Gothic building in 1910 to replace the family house that had collapsed in the 1906 earthquake. Most of the furniture was purchased directly in Europe and it can be seen a variety of styles, being the most attractive Rococo, Louis XVI and Empire. In the park there is a series of exotic species brought from Asia, Australia and California, introduced there in the 19th century when it was still the Hacienda de las Siete Hermanas. In 1941 the Municipality of Viña del Mar bought the palace with the Park, which became public use, while the building was allocated to the Museum and School of Fine Arts. The oils that Blanca Vergara owned were donated with the sale. 60 works by prominent European artists formed the basis of the collection. In the gardens of the Park there are some sculptures, among which the bust of Gabriela Mistral, made and donated by the artist Nina Anguita on the occasion of the Nobel Prize obtained by the poet in 1945.
After the success of the first Festival of the Song of Viña del Mar, held between February 21 and 28, 1960, it was decided to build a more stable scenario than the then existing one. In 1963, this was projected by the architect Hernando López, while the construction was in charge of the civil constructor Juan Pinto Delgado. The result was an amphitheater in La Quinta, whose wooden stage was crowned by an "acoustic shell" that helped both to project the sound to the public and to protect the artists from the cold Viña del Mar nights, becoming an icon of the festival. The public sat in wooden chairs on the ground floor and many spectators were located in the hills adjoining the Quinta and on the tops of the nearby trees, giving a clear provincial air to the contest.
It was remodeled in 2002 by the architect Borja García-Huidobro, who replaced the "acoustic shell" with a closed amphitheater, simulating a coliseum, made of solid concrete, with a capacity of more than 15,000 spectators.
Artequin Viña del Mar, opened in 2008, is a museum of photographic reproductions of the most representative works in the history of Western art, which through an interactive educational methodology seeks to encourage interest in art and enhance creativity in children and adults.