Cristina Brunetti y Gayoso de los Cobos died in Cristina Enea in 1914 at age 83. Her husband, Fermín Lasala y Collado, survived her by three years, dying in Madrid in 1917 at 85. This couple had no descendants, so they had no direct heirs to leave their possessions to. The Dukes of Mandas decided to bequeath to Gipuzkoa and their beloved Donostia what they had built during their lives. The Cristina Enea estate was left to the city of Donostia, to, as the will states: “provide it with a promenade park”. For a time, the duke’s siblings and nephews could use it in usufruct, but soon they decided to stop using the estate and in 1926 the city took effective possession of Cristina Enea.

However, the dukes left a written list of requirements for the city to inherit the park. Among other conditions, they requested that the name Cristina Enea never be changed, that it should be closed every day at nightfall, or that not an inch of land nor a tile of the buildings should ever be sold, rented or exchanged… As a curiosity, they wrote that playing any game in the park was strictly prohibited, be it pelota, football or the filthy roulette. In addition to all this, Fermín asked that the portrait of his beloved wife be brought from his palace in Madrid to Cristina Enea, and that it be placed in a prominent place in the palace. Thus, Cristina would always be in her home, in Cristina Enea

In this circular clearing in the upper part of the estate we find a sculpture in homage to Gladys Del Estal. Gladys was a young woman from Egia, the neighborhood where Cristina Enea is located, committed to the environment and part of the neighborhood’s ecological and anti-nuclear group. She was also very connected to Cristina Enea and here she developed nature activities for young people. She died in 1979 in Tudela from a police gunshot during a peaceful anti-nuclear protest. After her death, the neighborhood and the city took to the streets in a wave of protests across the Basque Country and Navarre. In her honor, this sculpture by artist Xabier Laka was placed, made up of female figures of different sizes in limestone.

Right in front of the sculpture, on the other side of the path, we can see a large tree with rough bark. This is the famous Ginkgo biloba. With its curious fan-shaped leaves, it is the only surviving species of a family that populated large regions of the planet millions of years ago. This species, a champion of resistance, has survived some of the worst catastrophes on the planet, from the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Ginkgo biloba always resists.

Interestingly, this species exhibits sexual division, meaning some trees are female and others male. This specimen in Cristina Enea is female, and every autumn it bears fleshy yellowish-brown fruits, similar to small plums. These fruits contain butyric acid, which gives them a very strong and unpleasant smell. That’s why most ornamental ginkgos planted today in streets and gardens are usually male, to avoid this bad odor. In China its medicinal use is widespread as it helps improve blood circulation in the brain, especially for memory problems, fatigue relief, depression and even hangovers. The dukes wanted a ginkgo in Cristina Enea, for which they had to pay a generous bill. This was the species that marked the status of a country house and the family that lived in it.

In 1832, don Fermín de Lasala y Collado was born in San Sebastián. His father, Fermín Lasala Urbieta, was mayor of this city and one of the promoters of the reconstruction and resurgence of Donostia after the burning and destruction of 1813, at the end of the War of Independence. He came to have great political influence both in the province and in Madrid, an aspect that smoothed the political path for his son. His mother, Rita Collado y Parada, belonged to one of the richest families in the city, great maritime entrepreneurs and merchants of Santander origin.

The future Duke of Mandas, our Fermín de Lasala y Collado, was an only child and inherited from his father and mother a great fortune and a wide network of contacts, which allowed him to rise to the highest layers of society at the time. He became a deputy in the Cortes in Madrid, Provincial Deputy of Gipuzkoa, minister of several portfolios and ambassador in Paris and London at different times. He became everything in the political sphere of the time, with direct access to both Queen María Cristina and King Alfonso XIII, and was very close to the then Prime Minister Cánovas del Castillo.

In Madrid he met María Cristina Fernanda Brunetti y Gayoso de los Cobos. She was the daughter of Lázaro Brunetti, ambassador of the Austrian Empire in Madrid, and María Josefa Gayoso y Téllez Girón, daughter of one of the most important aristocratic families of the time. It was her uncle, the powerful Duke of Osuna, who bequeathed her the title of Duchess of Mandas when he died. Not much is known about her, but she was part of the group that founded the Royal Spanish Society of Natural History, which speaks to her character and her interest in the knowledge of nature. Of its 26 founding members, only 3 were women, Cristina Brunetti among them. In 1859, Fermín and Cristina married in Madrid. It was the perfect union between the perfect bourgeois politician and the perfect aristocrat. He contributed his political influence and she the aristocratic title. Right after marrying, they set off for his hometown, San Sebastián, to start their new life and join the custom of building an estate in the court’s summer city.

The Dukes of Mandas chose some land on the last meander of the Urumea, in what were the outskirts of the city. The first lands they bought belonged to the Mundaiz estate, followed by farmhouses, orchards and a tidal mill by the river. A good amount of money buying all this made the estate the perfect size to build their own paradise on earth. As they acquired the plots, the estate was designed to the taste of the time and the couple. Paths, groves, trees, the pond… were the first things designed and built, even before the palace or service buildings. For this, they hired renowned architects and landscapers of the time, the best available, such as gardener Lecour, Parisian landscaper Georges Aumont or the very famous gardener Pierre Ducasse. The main building of the park, the palace, was designed by José Clemente de Osinalde, a great architect and trusted person of the duke. Initially it consisted only of a ground floor and an attic, but later a second floor and an extra section were added to one side until it acquired its current appearance.

It is in this picturesque-style palace that the dukes established their summer residence and where great political, military and religious personalities of the time passed through. The beloved estate of the Dukes of Mandas, Cristina Enea, became one of the most admired and visited for its size, design and landscape richness. The former palace currently houses the Cristina Enea Environmental Resource Center, where we can find exhibition rooms and a documentation center. It is also the headquarters of the Foundation that bears its name, which works on environmental awareness and education.

Shortly after building the palace, a new building separate from the main one was constructed. This is where the kitchens were installed. It was quite common for fires to occur in kitchens, so to prevent the main building from burning down, moving them to another building was the best option. The curious thing is that, to take the food to the palace dining room, an underground passageway was built, connecting both buildings. Thus, there was no need to carry the food through the estate. A little later, a small chapel was added to the kitchen building where the dukes could hear mass without leaving their estate.

The dukes enjoyed Cristina Enea as much as they could. Fermín’s political obligations in Madrid, London or Paris kept him separated from Cristina for long periods. She also moved around the country to their different estates or palaces, making communication between them difficult. But this is where we see Fermín’s cunning again. Fermín promoted the arrival of the railway to France via Donostia and that the station be next to their lands. His strategic eye made it possible to have the station of the main communication route of the time practically at the entrance of their estate.

Mail arrived by train from Madrid or Paris to San Sebastián every day, so the couple managed to have daily correspondence during the times they were apart. The letters Cristina received from Fermín from wherever he was are preserved, and in them we can follow the works at Cristina Enea, the love the couple professed for each other and the great affection they had for Cristina Enea.

This corner where we find ourselves is one of the most unique and magical places in the park and also one of the least known. It is a set of small artificial ponds built to imitate natural ones. Their bottom is waterproofed with biological materials and the water supply they receive is rainwater collected in the park itself. These freshwater habitats are very important for amphibians to complete their life cycle and also provide water for the other animals in the park.

In the small hidden jungle surrounding the ponds, we can find the Japanese maple, with its star-shaped leaves that turn a beautiful red color in autumn. We can also see the Alocasia, an evergreen plant, also known as “elephant ear” since its main characteristic is its large arrow-shaped leaves that perhaps resemble an elephant’s ears. In this area, the park’s amphibians reproduce; such as the common toad, the common frog and the common midwife toad. Due to the disappearance of wetlands, amphibians are the vertebrates that are becoming extinct most rapidly in the world. Therefore, maintaining this habitat becomes more important.

An interesting fact: the male midwife toad we can find in Cristina Enea carries the fertilized eggs between its hind legs for a month, from laying to hatching. This is an atypical and fascinating behavior in the animal kingdom, males taking care of the fertilized eggs, their sons and daughters.

This area of Cristina Enea is surely the best known in the park. Certainly, it is the most visited and is where the ducks, swans and peacocks that permanently inhabit Cristina Enea move around. Peacocks are birds characterized by their large tail and striking colors. But you should know that not all have those famous tails, nor are they always so handsome. Those bright colors with which we identify them are nothing but the males’ gala suit for courtship. It is in spring that their majestic tail grows, which they open to call and attract females and show off those bright bluish colors. But by mid-summer the long tail feathers begin to fall, which disappears completely until the following year. Females, on the other hand, have a more discreet plumage, brownish in color, which helps them camouflage, a very useful aspect during breeding season.

In addition to peacocks, in Cristina Enea there are also more discreet and less glamorous animals, but no less interesting for that, as they contribute to increasing the park’s biodiversity. One of them is the Stag beetle, the largest beetle in Europe. This beetle, which can measure up to 9 centimeters, needs old trees to live, as females lay eggs under their bark. In Cristina Enea we know they use the park’s old oaks. Males are larger than females and have much more developed jaws, which is very useful for fighting. These have a shape reminiscent of a stag’s antlers, hence the common name of this insect.

In these extensive gardens, alongside native species, we can find trees of extraordinary size and beauty, from all five continents. Some of them are found in this meadow here. It is one of the most beautiful corners of the park, where we can see a Cedar of Lebanon, a Lawson’s Cypress or different types of sequoias.

Today the ornamental use of plants from other countries is very widespread, but in the second half of the 19th century, when Cristina Enea was created, it was exceptional to enjoy species from exotic places. The Dukes of Mandas wanted to bring to Cristina Enea plants from all over the world that could only be known after traveling thousands of kilometers. This practice demonstrated their economic power, as it was neither easy nor cheap to obtain species that were not native. The enormous tree that presides over this meadow is a Cedar of Lebanon and is one of the oldest in Cristina Enea. It is also one of the largest, measuring about 30 meters high

This cedar has lost the characteristic cone shape of Cedars of Lebanon, which indicates it has reached its maximum height and has stopped growing. Its needle-shaped leaves have a variable color, from dark green to bluish green. Its fruits have a characteristic barrel shape and are made up of flattened scales with a purplish margin and often resinous. Due to the quality of its wood, strong and durable, Cedar of Lebanon forests have been exploited since ancient times. The Egyptians already used its wood for their great constructions and the oil from its leaves to embalm mummies. It is the national tree of Lebanon, in the Middle East, and its silhouette appears on the flag of this country.