Orense and the West coast of Spain
The road from Santiago de la Compostela to the rias cuts through the village of Padron, believed to be the place where the vessel carrying the remains of St. James arrived. Legend has it that the vessel was attached to a mooring stone, which is now displayed beneath the altar of the local church.
The rias themselves form a jagged coastline dotted with fishing ports and small resorts such as La Toja, a holiday island of pines and palms which has also expanded into a
popular resort.
A strategic port since the Middle Ages, Pontevedra is one of Galicia's most charming towns, with many fine old buildings, gardens, and spacious squares. The city's pride and joy is the Plateresque Iglesia de Santa Maria la Mayor in the old fishermen's quarter. Its sculpted facade is divided into compartments, each telling a New Testament story.
The patron saint of Pontevedra, the Pilgrim Virgin, is commemorated in the curvaceous 18th-century Iglesia de la Virgen de la Peregrina. Nearby, the Iglesia de San Francisco was founded in the 14th century; the provincial museum, housed in interconnecting historic mansions, offers departments of archaeology and art, and some enlightening exhibits on the Galician seafaring way of life.
The inhabitants of Bayona (Baiona) were the first to learn of Columbus' landing in the New World on I March 1493. Today, the town is an attractive resort, largely undiscovered by the masses. This delightful fishing port is full of traditional houses and tapas bars. Set on a ria, it overlooks a wooded promontory where an ancient castle has been transformed into a parador with wonderful views. Bayona's beaches are small and get crowded in season. A few miles out of the village lies the wide beach of Playa de America.
Set amidst beautiful countryside, the provincial capital of Orense is a fairly unprepossessing place. Still, it is worth visiting the historic hub and cathedral, built in Romanesque-Gothic style and consecrated at the end of the 12th century. Of special interest is the triple-arched Portico del Paraiso (Paradise Portal), patterned after the Door of Glory at Santiago de Compostela. Nearby, the down-to-earth, nofrills bars crammed into narrow Calle de Lepanto give a good impression of the unaffected nature of the people of inland Galicia. Orense today attracts thousands of visitors from all over Europe, and if you are planning to visit Orense, you can fly into Orense and hire a car directly from the airport.
The medieval centre of Lugo is enclosed by almost 2 km of the best-preserved Roman walls in Spain. Old Lugo is a pleasant place for a stroll, with a big, tree-shaded main square and historic houses and churches, including a cathedral founded in 1129. The Museo Provincial, housed in an old palace, has a good fine arts collection, and incorporates the cloister of the convent of San Francisco.
Asturias Spain
This is a wild, rugged province known for its fiercely independent people and potent cider. They say Asturias is the true Spain, because it was the only corner of the country which did not succumb to th
e Moors: after the seemingly invincible Moors had overrun most of Spain in the eighth century, a band of Christian soldiers, led by local hero Pelayo, descended from the mountains and initiated the Reconquest with a small but significant victory over the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga in A.D.722.
A modem statue of Pelayo stands in the main square of Covadonga, and his remains are interred in the Santa Cueva (Holy Cave), where he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary that inspired his victory. It is a place of pilgrimage for Asturians.
Oviedo Spain
The initial impression of the Asturian capital is of an ugly, industrial city. However, press on to Oviedo's compact historic centre and you will find many a fine monument, plus a host of friendly sidrarias, bars serving the lethal, potent local cider (sidra). Oviedo's cathedral culminates in a flourish with a tall flamboyant Gothic tower. Its Camara Santa (Holy Chamber) shrine was built by Alfonso II to house holy relics brought from Toledo after it fell to the Moors. Behind the cathedral, the Museo Arqueologico is housed in a splendid old palace-convent with a gorgeous Plateresque cloister.
Beyond the city centre, you will find two remarkable examples of Visigothic architecture. A short walk to the northeast, the church of Santullano, built in the ninth century, is claimed to be the oldest pre-Romanesque church in Spain. On the wooded slopes 3 km (2 miles) northwest of Oviedo, Santa Maria del Naranco is believed to be the reception chamber for a palace built for Rarniro I in 842. Just up the hill, part of the former palace chapel, San Miguel de
Lillo, has beautiful Byzantine-influenced carvings.
Cantabria Spain information
There is plenty of variety in Cantabria, where the sea and the snow-capped heights of the Picos de Europa can both be covered in a day's excursion. As well as fishing villages, ports, and miles of seafront wilderness, the coast of Cantabria also offers several popular summer resorts, such as Castro Urdiales, Laredo, and Comillas.
Just 25 km (16 miles) from the coast, behind steep green pastures coloured with wildflowers, the great wall of the Cantabrian Mountains (Cordillera Cantabrica) rises to a height of 2,600 metres (8,530 feet), culminating in the spectacular Picos de Europa.
The N621 cuts through the dramatic Desfiladero de la Hermida gorge along the River Deva to Potes, the main gateway to the eastern Picos. Here you can pick up maps and walking suggestions from the tourist office. Wonderful wildflowers adorn the mountains, and there is good bird-watching, too. Chamois and bears also roam around here, but are rarely seen.
A perfectly preserved medieval village of golden stone houses, cobbled streets, farmyards, and patrician mansions, Santillana del Mar has been described as "the prettiest village in Spain" by none other than Jean-Paul Sartre. At the north end of the village, the Colegiata (Collegiate Church) is dedicated to St. Juliana (Santil-lana is a contraction of her name), whose tomb is inside. Its 12thcentury Romanesque cloister is a real beauty. In the convent at the other end of the village, the Museo Diocesano specializes in carvings of saints and angels gathered together from outlying churches.
Discovered in 1868, just 2 km inland from Santillana, the AItamira cave complex contains some of the finest and most inspiring ancient works of art in Europe. They were painted very long ago-though that is not the sole reason they are rated so highly. These paintings of bison and other beasts are an example of astonishing draughtsmanship, in which their creators used the curvature and protuberances in the rock to give added life and motion to their subjects.
The actual caves are closed to the general public, but there is a museum containing the 30,000-year-old remains of a caveman. At Puente Viesgo, 29 km (18 miles) out of Santander on the Logroiio road, there are four caves open to visitors. The main one, Cueva del Castillo, features bison and curious handprints thought to be the artist's signature.
The city of Santander successfully combines the roles of major port and tasteful resort, though there is little of cultural or historic interest here. Two-thirds of the town was destroyed by fire in 1941. After the fire, the cathedral overlooking the ancient port was reconstructed to resemble the medieval original, a mixture of fortress and watchtower above a Romanesque crypt. The Museo Provincial de Prehistoria displays notable finds from excavations around the province, and the town also boasts a fine Museo de Bellas Artes, featuring some powerful works by Goya.
The beach suburb of El Sardinero, with its flower gardens and numerous seafood bars, contributes to the city's resort mood. Overlooking the sea from the rugged peninsula is the Victorian-style Magdalena Palace, built for Alfonso XIII as a summer escape, housing a host of architectural eccentricities.
The rias themselves form a jagged coastline dotted with fishing ports and small resorts such as La Toja, a holiday island of pines and palms which has also expanded into a
popular resort.A strategic port since the Middle Ages, Pontevedra is one of Galicia's most charming towns, with many fine old buildings, gardens, and spacious squares. The city's pride and joy is the Plateresque Iglesia de Santa Maria la Mayor in the old fishermen's quarter. Its sculpted facade is divided into compartments, each telling a New Testament story.
The patron saint of Pontevedra, the Pilgrim Virgin, is commemorated in the curvaceous 18th-century Iglesia de la Virgen de la Peregrina. Nearby, the Iglesia de San Francisco was founded in the 14th century; the provincial museum, housed in interconnecting historic mansions, offers departments of archaeology and art, and some enlightening exhibits on the Galician seafaring way of life.
The inhabitants of Bayona (Baiona) were the first to learn of Columbus' landing in the New World on I March 1493. Today, the town is an attractive resort, largely undiscovered by the masses. This delightful fishing port is full of traditional houses and tapas bars. Set on a ria, it overlooks a wooded promontory where an ancient castle has been transformed into a parador with wonderful views. Bayona's beaches are small and get crowded in season. A few miles out of the village lies the wide beach of Playa de America.
Set amidst beautiful countryside, the provincial capital of Orense is a fairly unprepossessing place. Still, it is worth visiting the historic hub and cathedral, built in Romanesque-Gothic style and consecrated at the end of the 12th century. Of special interest is the triple-arched Portico del Paraiso (Paradise Portal), patterned after the Door of Glory at Santiago de Compostela. Nearby, the down-to-earth, nofrills bars crammed into narrow Calle de Lepanto give a good impression of the unaffected nature of the people of inland Galicia. Orense today attracts thousands of visitors from all over Europe, and if you are planning to visit Orense, you can fly into Orense and hire a car directly from the airport.
The medieval centre of Lugo is enclosed by almost 2 km of the best-preserved Roman walls in Spain. Old Lugo is a pleasant place for a stroll, with a big, tree-shaded main square and historic houses and churches, including a cathedral founded in 1129. The Museo Provincial, housed in an old palace, has a good fine arts collection, and incorporates the cloister of the convent of San Francisco.
Asturias Spain
This is a wild, rugged province known for its fiercely independent people and potent cider. They say Asturias is the true Spain, because it was the only corner of the country which did not succumb to th
e Moors: after the seemingly invincible Moors had overrun most of Spain in the eighth century, a band of Christian soldiers, led by local hero Pelayo, descended from the mountains and initiated the Reconquest with a small but significant victory over the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga in A.D.722.A modem statue of Pelayo stands in the main square of Covadonga, and his remains are interred in the Santa Cueva (Holy Cave), where he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary that inspired his victory. It is a place of pilgrimage for Asturians.
Oviedo Spain
The initial impression of the Asturian capital is of an ugly, industrial city. However, press on to Oviedo's compact historic centre and you will find many a fine monument, plus a host of friendly sidrarias, bars serving the lethal, potent local cider (sidra). Oviedo's cathedral culminates in a flourish with a tall flamboyant Gothic tower. Its Camara Santa (Holy Chamber) shrine was built by Alfonso II to house holy relics brought from Toledo after it fell to the Moors. Behind the cathedral, the Museo Arqueologico is housed in a splendid old palace-convent with a gorgeous Plateresque cloister.
Beyond the city centre, you will find two remarkable examples of Visigothic architecture. A short walk to the northeast, the church of Santullano, built in the ninth century, is claimed to be the oldest pre-Romanesque church in Spain. On the wooded slopes 3 km (2 miles) northwest of Oviedo, Santa Maria del Naranco is believed to be the reception chamber for a palace built for Rarniro I in 842. Just up the hill, part of the former palace chapel, San Miguel de
Lillo, has beautiful Byzantine-influenced carvings.Cantabria Spain information
There is plenty of variety in Cantabria, where the sea and the snow-capped heights of the Picos de Europa can both be covered in a day's excursion. As well as fishing villages, ports, and miles of seafront wilderness, the coast of Cantabria also offers several popular summer resorts, such as Castro Urdiales, Laredo, and Comillas.
Just 25 km (16 miles) from the coast, behind steep green pastures coloured with wildflowers, the great wall of the Cantabrian Mountains (Cordillera Cantabrica) rises to a height of 2,600 metres (8,530 feet), culminating in the spectacular Picos de Europa.
The N621 cuts through the dramatic Desfiladero de la Hermida gorge along the River Deva to Potes, the main gateway to the eastern Picos. Here you can pick up maps and walking suggestions from the tourist office. Wonderful wildflowers adorn the mountains, and there is good bird-watching, too. Chamois and bears also roam around here, but are rarely seen.
A perfectly preserved medieval village of golden stone houses, cobbled streets, farmyards, and patrician mansions, Santillana del Mar has been described as "the prettiest village in Spain" by none other than Jean-Paul Sartre. At the north end of the village, the Colegiata (Collegiate Church) is dedicated to St. Juliana (Santil-lana is a contraction of her name), whose tomb is inside. Its 12thcentury Romanesque cloister is a real beauty. In the convent at the other end of the village, the Museo Diocesano specializes in carvings of saints and angels gathered together from outlying churches.
Discovered in 1868, just 2 km inland from Santillana, the AItamira cave complex contains some of the finest and most inspiring ancient works of art in Europe. They were painted very long ago-though that is not the sole reason they are rated so highly. These paintings of bison and other beasts are an example of astonishing draughtsmanship, in which their creators used the curvature and protuberances in the rock to give added life and motion to their subjects.
The actual caves are closed to the general public, but there is a museum containing the 30,000-year-old remains of a caveman. At Puente Viesgo, 29 km (18 miles) out of Santander on the Logroiio road, there are four caves open to visitors. The main one, Cueva del Castillo, features bison and curious handprints thought to be the artist's signature.
The city of Santander successfully combines the roles of major port and tasteful resort, though there is little of cultural or historic interest here. Two-thirds of the town was destroyed by fire in 1941. After the fire, the cathedral overlooking the ancient port was reconstructed to resemble the medieval original, a mixture of fortress and watchtower above a Romanesque crypt. The Museo Provincial de Prehistoria displays notable finds from excavations around the province, and the town also boasts a fine Museo de Bellas Artes, featuring some powerful works by Goya.
The beach suburb of El Sardinero, with its flower gardens and numerous seafood bars, contributes to the city's resort mood. Overlooking the sea from the rugged peninsula is the Victorian-style Magdalena Palace, built for Alfonso XIII as a summer escape, housing a host of architectural eccentricities.
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