Estimated time to arrive at Tamarita from Pudget: 14 minutes
This private garden occupies an space surrounded by fences of stone and wrought iron built to save a space that was private and now public. These gardens are full of details. As we enter, we are welcomed by a semicircular pond fed by sources of small pumps, water plants and two terracotta lions on both sides.
In the Tamarita we find everywhere discrete spaces protected by the shade of old trees, with small entries that invite to spend a while sitting on a bench. They are cool, as the source of "Granotes" at one end of the garden.
(Order and nature)
In the Tamarita we find everywhere discrete spaces protected by the shade of old trees, with small entries that invite to spend a while sitting on a bench. They are cool, as the source of "Granotes" at one end of the garden.
(Order and nature)
The principal axis of the garden consists on a small walk surrounded by allegorical statues of America , Africa, Asia and Europe. It gets there by paths bordered by a dense and well myrtle cut into geometric compositions. In the centre the central square of the "Quatre Continents", there is a source In the upper part, a waterfall made with pumice and shells, as it was earlier in the background of many patios, fences the classic part of the garden.
Beside this most orderly and regular classical part of the garden, there is another more natural and spontaneous, located in the back of the house. A large lawn leads to the most rugged area of the garden, very important since it is located in the stream of Frare Blanc. We access there through an ornate pergola with vines. Between the children's play area and the entrance to the gardens, there is a path to walk along the old river.
(Vegetation)
There are plant specimens, both tree and shrub, frankly exceptional. Going to the right of the walk, which is the central piece of the gardens, at the beginning of the meadow, an oak (Quercus pubescens) stands: it is possibly the oldest tree in the garden. Apart from its age, is remarkable for a branch of exceptional measures, both the thickness and the length.
Playing the building that now houses Blanquerna Foundation, there are two huge yews (Taxus baccata) with a height over the ten meters. There are also several cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens) and bananas (Platanus hispanica) of large dimensions. It is also worthy looking at the big laurel (Laurus nobilis) and at some pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira) approaching the three meters in height, if not exceeded.
(History)
When we go through the gate of the gardens Tamarita brings us memories of the bourgeoisie who built their mansions in the upper part of the city surrounded by gardens that steady.
In this case it is a five-acre farm belonging to the family Craywinckel that in the early twentieth century was acquired by the cotton industrial Alfredo Mata. He built a mansion, that actually is the headquarter of the Foundation Blanquerna, surrounded by gardens whose design is considered one of the earliest works of Rubio i Tudurí. Mata built three houses for their children at the top of the farm, which currently does not belong to the gardens.
