The origin of the stunning building A Quinta da Auga Hotel Spa Relais&Châteaux, is located in the 18th century , when it was built to be the paper mill of Laraño by Don Nicolas de Santamarina in 1792. According to several written testimonies of the time our history begans in Santiago de Compostela as plain paper mill, hence its location on the Sar River to channalized water and use its driving force. In the pre-industrial era was the largest factory of Galicia.
Commissioners of the City and the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery proposed to build in it a hospital in 1833. The ability to accommodate to two hundred people was one of the causes that motivated this request but the proposal was rejected because the economic damage that would cause the factory closure.
In 1834 it had forty-eight employees and produced annually about six thousand shipments of different quality papers, reaching the high cost more than 40 "reales".
The colonial trade crisis affected many paper mills. The closure of the American markets affects the national producers whom were displaced by the Catalan factorys. The paper mill of Laraño had to close soon as such, and like others, due to the crisis, it had to changed activity.
The old paper mill became a textile factory and lived pickled possibly its greatest splendor at that time. Later undergoes a new transformation and it becomes a mill stone and sawmill. In the first half of the twentieth century a new conversion it makes job change and now the building is an ice and beer factory.
The "Esgrimía paper mill" ruled by a family from another village, acquires the property for his own company, leaving their old facilities in Lousame, Noia, to settle in a modern paper mill in the capital of Galicia. The end of the current activity caused the abandon and the deterioration of the building and the property.
The architect Maria Luisa Garcia Gil and José Ramón Lorenzo promoter acquired the property and undertook the recovery and restoration of the facility and its conversion into a luxury Hotel with the result that can be seen today.
After six years of rehab A Quinta da Auga opens its doors as a luxury hotel . Restored respecting the original structure and even water pipes, and endowed with a friendly facilities with the environment. The interior design and decoration reveal to the visitor that every detail has been taken care to enjoy a unique and unforgetable experience.
