La Sebastiana

On Sunday, after our beautiful graffiti tour in Valparaiso, we were given the option to either go back to the hotel for leisure time, or to take a tour of Pablo Neruda's summer home. A group of eleven students chose to see this beautiful home. This was one of his three homes, named "La Sebastiana" after the homes first owner. 

Pablo Nerudo's house, "La Sebastiana"

On January 1st of 1992 the government funded the renovation of this home to make it a museum. Matthew Lawson was very excited to see this house because he has studied Pablo Neruda before and really enjoyed his poetry. Before touring the house we were able to go to the overlook and see the beautiful view that inspired a lot of his famous pieces. 

View from the overlook.

Emily Helenius (left) and I (right) on the overlook.

When our tour began we were given a handheld device with recordings of information on the house and Pablo Neruda. For those of you who may not know, Pablo Neruda was a famous, noble-prize winning poet in the 20th century. As you may imagine, a poet is a very artistic person and his house reflected this directly.

 Every room had a breathtaking view of either the mountains, ocean, or even the beautiful homes around it. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures of the inside of his home, but below you can see the images of views from various rooms in his house.

View from the bedroom.

View from the living room.

This was a 5 story house with stained glass windows, murals on walls, and various collections. He enjoyed anything beautiful and had various collections of maps, paintings and other precious pieces. Emily Helenius said that her favorite part of this home was the mural on the first floor that his wife created. It was made out of painted stones and it was a map of Patagonia and Antarctica. It was amazing that someone was able to create that wall and it perfectly displayed his artistic influence.

Matthew Lawson sitting with the silhouette of Pablo Neruda.

The eleven of us that took this opportunity were very happy that we did. Our tour guide through the Austral group, Francisca was able to give us a lot of additional information about Neruda. She told us that towards the end of his life he, as a man, became less popular because of his political beliefs. On the contrary, as a poet, his work became more well-known and is now translated into about 51 different languages. It was amazing to be in the same house as a poet with such great influences on modern poetry. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was very clear how Pablo Neruda was able to write such beautiful poems, influenced by this location.