The House and Lavender Field
Parc Sama is a strange tropical curiosity dropped into the Spanish countryside. There is a botanical collection of tropical palms, but all that remains of the menagerie is a large collection of exotic birds. However, worthy projects abound, such as a donkey sanctuary, a conservation project for Mediterranean tortoises and one for the not-at-risk Moorish hedgehogs.
The Viewpoint Tower
Situated just back from the mass tourism of the Catalan coast, a few miles south of Tarragona lies this strange place. The land was bought by Salvador de Sama Torrents, Marquis de Mariano i de Vilanova i la Geltru, and the garden started in 1881. His family were ‘Indianos’ who went to Cuba in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, to seek and make their fortunes. As the 19th century progressed, Spain became increasingly concerned by the influences of republican ideologies on Cubans, and granted titles of nobility to prominent families in an attempt to make the recipients remain loyal to the Crown. Salvador inherited his title from his uncle at the age of 5, in 1866. He became a distinguished liberal Catalan politician, a member of parliament, mayor of Barcelona and from 1898 to 1923 a senator in the upper house of the Spanish parliament.
The Aloe Vera Parterre
The Parc sits comfortably around the house, a heavy-looking square block in the Catalan Modernista style, by architect Josep Fontsere I Mestres, probably best known for the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona. His assistant was the young Antonio Gaudi, but more of that later. The Parc is reminiscent of an exotic colonial plantation, with a ‘parterre’ of aloe vera, palms laid out in rows for ease of harvest, a plantation of mandarin oranges and a field of lavender edged with rosemary. Stables and farm buildings scattered through the Parc make if feel like a farm. There is a large aviary, replacing the one destroyed in the Spanish Civil War.
Viewpoint Tower Grotto Room
Viewpoint Tower Grotto Room
Gaudi’s most significant contribution, the series of follies, is reminiscent of the romantic Rococo gardens of the early 19th century, with their emotive fascination with ‘the sublime’ – the idea of inspiring awe and fear in those who visited. (My favourite of these is Hawkstone Follies – a visitor describing ‘the awfulness of the shades, the horror of the precipices’ Reference my garden description.)
The Viewpoint Tower is a classically styled building on a ‘rock’ of concrete and stone ballast, the stair winds around it with a handrail of concrete ‘branches’. The delight of this folly is in the two internal rooms, one above the other. They express the design talent that Gaudi would make his own – they feel organic, light, cavern-like, mysterious, other-worldly spaces. Nearby is, in design terms, a less successful grotto, with concrete stalagmites, a pond and classical marble statue, and attached behind is the conventional classically-designed Parrot House.
Taxodium Grotto
Grotto Waterfall
Behind the house can be found an area of woodland and a large lake, with an island and another grotto room. A sheet of falling water obscures the view of the lake. On a concrete and ballast rock outcrop above is a belvedere, not unlike a 19th century bandstand. The view across the lake is to a building with two curious pointed towers covered in bright, glazed tiles, formerly the menagerie monkey house.
Everywhere are large numbers of very tame, unhurried peacocks strutting around and displaying their plumage which adds a surreal feel to the place.
View of the Monkey House
A visitor expecting a garden is in for a disappointment, but as an unusual and slightly surreal curiosity, Parc Sama is well worth the visit.
Garden Details:
Website: www.parcsama.es
Address: Carreta de Vinyols, 43850 Cambrils, Tarragona, Spain
Small bar and cafeteria, picnic area
Disabled access to all but the grottos.
Opening times: Varies through the year – check the website
Richard Jackson 31 October, 2025