Loop from Santiago de Compostela

01 Church

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de Santiago de Compostela

According to tradition, the Apostle James lies beneath this Romanesque granite cathedral, begun in 1075, which became the goal of one of Europe's great pilgrimages. Mingle in the Plaza del Obradoiro with the walkers arriving, rucksacks on their backs, at the foot of the Baroque façade. Behind it, Master Mateo sculpted the Portico of Glory from 1168.

02 Waterfall

Cascada del Ézaro

Get close to the falls of the Xallas, which tumble 40 metres into the granite canyon of Monte Pindo. It is one of the few waterfalls in Europe to plunge directly into the ocean. As early as 1724, writings described its spray as a smoke visible several kilometres out to sea.

03 Coast

Cape Finisterre

Cabo Finisterre

The Romans regarded this rocky headland as an end of the known world, hence its Latin name, finis terrae. Many pilgrims extend their route here from Santiago de Compostela, facing a Costa da Morte strewn with shipwrecks. Watch the sun sink into the Atlantic from the rocks at the foot of the lighthouse.

04 Archaeology

Castro de Baroña

Inhabited from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD, this hillfort occupies a peninsula battered by the Atlantic. Cross the ditch dug across the isthmus, then climb the steps between the twenty surviving houses, round or elongated. With no spring or cistern within the walls, its inhabitants lived off the sea: mussels, limpets and fish.

05 Castle

Pazo de Fefiñáns

In Cambados, this pazo built in the 16th century for Juan Sarmiento Valladares, adviser to Philip II, closes two sides of the Fefiñáns square. Look up at its coats of arms, then at the neighbouring arcade and tower of the church of San Bieito. Its winery, recorded since 1904, now sells an albariño under the palace's name.

06 Island

A Toxa Island

Isla de La Toja

Its thermal muds, rediscovered in the 19th century, turned this island in the ría de Arousa into a spa resort. The Gran Hotel keeps its Belle Époque air, and a dense pinewood still fills the heart of the island, between golf course and private estates. Take a closer look at the chapel of San Caralampio, entirely clad in scallop shells.

07 Village

Combarro

This fishing village on the Ría de Pontevedra lines its hórreos along the waterfront, stone or wooden granaries raised on pillars. Between them stand many cruceiros, old stone crosses, and the whole ensemble has been listed since 1972. Follow the shore from one granary to the next, your eye on the ría.

08 Mountain

Monte de Santa Trega

From the summit, at 341 metres, take in the Miño estuary, the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains of Portugal. This headland was inhabited long before the castro of Santa Tecla, as petroglyphs more than 2,000 years old show. Near the church, a slab covered in engraved signs pays tribute to the fishermen of Póvoa de Varzim.

09 Village

Allariz

In the Arnoia valley, Allariz, a former royal town where the future Alfonso X the Wise was raised, keeps a historic centre listed in 1971. On the church of San Pedro, look for the portal of San Salvador, the church struck by lightning in 1902 during a funeral, killing 25. A Castilian infante asked to be laid to rest in the monastery of Santa Clara.

10 Monument

Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil

Clinging to the south bank of the Sil canyon, this Benedictine monastery took in nine retired bishops in the 10th and 11th centuries, whose rings were said to heal. Four of these rings resurfaced in 2020 in a reliquary, during restoration of the high altar. Around the building, a parador since 2004, listen to the silence of the gorges.

11 Nature park

Sil Canyon

Cañón del Sil

Between Ourense and Lugo, the Sil carves a gorge with drops sometimes exceeding 500 metres, where the vineyards of the Ribeira Sacra descend in terraces to the water. Follow the south bank along the 22-kilometre trail from San Esteban to Santa Cristina. Quaternary fractures opened up this gash.

12 Monument

Roman walls of Lugo

Muralla romana de Lugo

Built in the late Empire around Lucus Augusti, these walls, inscribed by UNESCO in 2000, still encircle old Lugo for more than 2 kilometres. Climb onto the wall walk, now a street for strollers, and count the towers: 71 survive. The oldest remains are concentrated around the Porta Miñá.

13 Monument

Lugo Cathedral

Catedral de Santa María de Lugo

Begun in 1129 by Master Raimundo, Lugo cathedral hides its Romanesque treasure behind a Neoclassical façade with two towers. Find it at the north portal, where a Pantocrator in a mandorla tops a strange carved pendant of the Last Supper. A papal privilege keeps the Blessed Sacrament permanently exposed here.

14 Nature park

As Catedrais

Between Ribadeo and Barreiros, the sea has sculpted arches and pillars into the cliff that recall the flying buttresses of a cathedral. Go down onto the sand at low tide to pass beneath these rock vaults, among caves and corridors. In winter, sandpipers and turnstones peck along the beach at the foot of the cliffs.

15 Coast

Cabo Ortegal

Cape Ortegal marks the symbolic boundary between the Atlantic and the Cantabrian Sea, facing three slender reefs, the Aguillóns, which Ptolemy called Trileuco. From the red and white lighthouse, watch the cliffs grow westwards up to the Vixía Herbeira, 613 metres high. The cape is made of black granite some 1,160 million years old.

16 Heritage

Santuario de San Andrés de Teixido

Place a stone on a cairn along the path, like the pilgrims climbing to this chapel in the Serra da Capelada, near the sea cliffs. According to a Galician saying, whoever does not come here alive will come dead, and a will from 1391 already mentions the pilgrimage. Sarmiento judged it small and unadorned, apart from its Baroque altarpiece of 1624.

17 Monument

Tower of Hercules

Torre de Hércules

Facing the Atlantic, this Roman lighthouse from the late 1st century is the only one of its time still guiding sailors. Look on the façade for the diagonal line of the old ramp that once wound around the core. In the 18th century, Eustaquio Giannini topped its 34 Roman metres with a new storey, bringing it up to 55 metres.