Palacio Portales
Mansion built for the tin magnate Simón I. Patiño, now a cultural centre shown by guided tour.
The house was built between 1915 and 1927 for Simón Iturri Patiño, who had risen from modest beginnings in Cochabamba to control much of the world tin trade. He commissioned the French architect Eugène Bliault, who worked from Paris and never saw the site, and almost every material was imported: Carrara marble, Italian glass, French tapestry and timber from Asia. Patiño's health kept him abroad and neither he nor his family ever lived in the finished house.
The rooms borrow freely from European models, among them a games room modelled on the Alhambra, a dining room in Louis XVI manner and a hall recalling the Palace of Versailles. Gardens laid out in the French formal style surround the building. The Patiño Foundation opened the property to the public as the Simón I. Patiño Pedagogical and Cultural Centre, which runs a library, exhibition rooms and a concert hall in the grounds. Visits to the interior are made only with a guide.
Highlights
- Games room modelled on the Alhambra of Granada
- Dining room and salons with imported marble and tapestry
- Formal gardens in the French manner
- Library, gallery and concert hall of the Patiño Foundation
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