Pazo de Tor, museum of the stately life in the 18th century

02/07/2019 Monforte City Council has, in its municipal area, several museums with a very diverse theme. In this same web in the museums section you can access a general view of each of them.

Precisely, the Pazo de Tor is one of the essential museums in a visit to our town hall. The Pazo is located in the parish of San Xoán de Tor, 8 kilometers from the city of Cabe. Its origins date back to the fourteenth century and the Garza family, although the construction of the Pazo corresponds to the last third of the eighteenth century, with Baroque and Neoclassicism the predominant styles. Currently, the facilities are part of the Provincial Museum Network, after the last noblewoman of Lemos, María Paz Taboada de Andrés y Zúñiga bequeathed it to the Provincial Council. The condition for this donation was that it be opened free of charge to all Montfortians and visitors and that, as established, the furniture, the distribution of the belongings and the artistic works were maintained.

In July 2006 the Pazo was opened to the public as a museum, after a thorough restoration in which the structure and distribution was kept intact, and today it is a must for those who like to experience the life of another era. The Pazo is a "living" example of the Galician manor residences of the 18th century; it is, therefore, an ethnographic museum that transports us directly to another way of life. The last inhabitant, until his death, in 98, María Paz Taboada and Zúñiga, kept the interior as he knew it and bequeathed it.

 

How did the Galician rural nobility live in the Modern Age?

After crossing the courtyard and climbing the stone staircase, we enter the interior and our history will always accompany us. You can visit, in its entirety, practically all the rooms, the weapons room; the north hall, presided over by a portrait of María Paz Taboada and with a showcase full of antique jewelery, fans, pocket watches, pipes, ... the room at noon, the most luminous room of the house whose walls hang three large mirrors; the music room with curious instruments such as a Longman and Broderip organ and a Collard & Collard pianoforte; the office of the Pazo where some of the most valuable copies of the Pazo de Tor library of almost 3000 volumes published between the 16th and 20th centuries are located; the bishop's room; the nursery; the chapel with a rococo altarpiece of the last third of the 18th century and, in addition to other dependencies, the service area could not be absent, with the servants' rooms, garages, cellars, courts, tulips and horses.
The hours of the guided tours are, from Tuesday to Sunday at 11.00 h., 12.30 h., 16.30 h. and 18.00 h.

Access here the audiovisual of the museum resources of the town hall

Pazo de Tor