Palace and Gardens of Sotogrande

A 2,300 m² palace set in 6 hectares at Sotogrande: Italian gardens, a lake crossed by bridges, a palm grove of 300 palms, 8 bedrooms and a guest house.

A palace within six hectares of historic garden

Some properties are described by their square metres, others by how it feels to walk through them. This one belongs to the second group. In the setting of Sotogrande, across six hectares of woodland and garden, stands a palace of 2,300 built square metres conceived, from the first line drawn, as the centre of a park.

The main residence holds eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms, every one finished to a standard that is felt in each room, along with a separate suite for household staff. Alongside it stand a guest house with three bedrooms and their own bathrooms — real privacy for visitors, in the same language of quality — and a four-bedroom staff house.

Italian gardens, lake and grotto

The formal garden is reason enough on its own to visit the property. Laid out in the Italian manner, it orders walks between parterres down to a sunken lake crossed by masonry bridges. At one end, a small grotto; at the other, a figure of Neptune presiding over a cascade. It is a setting made both for celebrations in the open air and for a quiet walk at the end of the day.

The romantic garden and the palm grove

Around the guest house lies a second garden of the opposite character, some 10,000 square metres: informal, enveloping, organised around a winding lawn. Here you find a natural pond, stands of bamboo and birds of paradise, and a collection of fruit trees — pomegranate, lemon, guava, persimmon and loquat — that scents the walk. Old roses and viburnum add a note of the classic English garden.

The lawn ends at the entrance to the palm grove, the most singular element of the estate: close to three hundred palms of seven different varieties, edged by cypress and mimosa. Up the slope stand carob, Aleppo pine and stone pine; among the groups of palms, stands of ficus and Monterey cypress. Oleander flowers in summer; almond and the other fruit trees in spring.

Who this property is for

This is an estate for a buyer who wants space, privacy and a garden with a history of its own, a short distance from one of the most established enclaves in southern Europe. It also offers a rare capacity to host: between the main house and the guest house there are eleven bedrooms.