Galicia, from the rías to the end of the world

A coast of rías and a green interior

You discover Galicia first by its coast: nearly 1,500 kilometres of coastline, cut into rías, old valleys flooded by the sea. The road runs along these rías, from fishing port to beach. South of Santiago, the Rías Baixas are calm estuaries lined with beaches and mussel rafts. At Combarro, the hórreos, granite granaries raised on stilts, stand in a row at the water’s edge, beside the stone crosses, the cruceiros. Further south, Monte Santa Trega towers over the mouth of the Miño, facing Portugal. At the top, you can visit the ruins of a castro, a fortified village from the Iron Age.

Inland, the country is green and rainy, scattered with granite villages. The Sil and the Miño have carved canyons several hundred metres deep here, their slopes covered in terraced vines: this is the Ribeira Sacra. In the Middle Ages, there were a great many monasteries here. This is often given as the reason for the name Ribeira Sacra, the ‘sacred bank’. In Lugo, a Roman wall more than two kilometres long still rings the old town. You can walk all the way round on the wall-walk.

To the Romans, Cape Finisterre was the end of the known world. Its name comes from the Latin finis terrae. Today, people come to the lighthouse for the sunset, near the Camino’s kilometre-zero marker.

Further north, at Muxía, the sanctuary of the Virxe da Barca stands on the rocks, facing the waves. According to tradition, the Virgin arrived here in a stone boat to encourage the apostle James. Many pilgrims extend the Camino to Finisterre or to Muxía.

Santiago de Compostela

Since the 9th century, people have come from all over Europe to Santiago de Compostela. According to tradition, the apostle James is buried there. Behind its Baroque Obradoiro façade, the cathedral is Romanesque. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arrive there, on foot or by bike. The old town has been a World Heritage Site since 1985.

At certain masses, the botafumeiro, a censer weighing more than fifty kilos, swings from one end of the transept to the other, hauled by eight men. Santiago is also the capital of Galicia. The region has its own language, Galician, close to Portuguese, and its own bagpipe, the gaita.

What not to miss

1. 1The Praza do ObradoiroThe cathedral’s Baroque façade, and the pilgrims arriving.
2. 2Cape FinisterreThe lighthouse and the Camino’s kilometre-zero marker, at sunset.
3. 3The Ézaro waterfallA river that falls into the sea as a waterfall, at the foot of Monte Pindo.
4. 4The hórreos of CombarroGranite granaries on stilts, at the edge of the ría.
5. 5The Sil canyonVines clinging to the slopes, best seen from the Balcóns de Madrid viewpoint, high above the river.
6. 6Cathedrals BeachSchist arches you can walk through at low tide.

Galicia in pictures

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Combarro and its hórreos on the edge of the ría.

The Galician table

Galician cooking is first and foremost a cuisine of the sea. The best-known dish is pulpo a feira: boiled octopus, snipped with scissors and dressed with olive oil and paprika. The rías provide mussels and shellfish. On the Costa da Morte, people prise percebes, goose barnacles, off rocks pounded by the waves.

White albariño wine comes from the Rías Baixas, and Cambados holds a festival in its honour every summer. For dessert, there is tarta de Santiago, an almond cake stamped with the cross of the Order of Santiago. Tetilla cheese is easy to recognise by its shape, like a small breast, hence its name.