Village
A Laracha is a concello in the comarca of Bergantiños, in the province of A Coruña, with about 11,800 inhabitants spread across thirteen parishes, bordering Arteixo, Culleredo, Cerceda and Carballo; of all of these, only Caión touches the sea, on the Ártabro gulf, at the north-eastern edge of the Costa da Morte. The relief combines, to the south, the chaira of Ordes with the mountains of the sierra de Montemaior, and, in the centre, the valley of the river Anllóns. Nineteen catalogued castros are preserved, among them those of San Román and A Castreira, along with megalithic remains such as the do Cruceiro burial mound; in 1987 a milestone from the time of the emperor Magnentius, dating from the 4th century, appeared in the church of Vilaño. Its agricultural and forestry base today coexists with a large business park opened in 2011.
Monument
The church of San Pedro de Soandres, documented as a monastery as early as the late 10th century, in the year 956, is the religious complex of greatest historical standing in the municipality of A Laracha and for centuries was the spiritual centre of inland Bergantiños. The present building, in ogival style, dates from the 14th century and has a basilical plan with three naves, three polygonal apses, stepped buttresses and pointed windows. From the original church, in Romanesque style, the corbels supporting the eaves survive, along with a few loose pieces scattered at various points in the building.
Monument
The Torres de Cillobre, in the parish of Torás (A Laracha, Bergantiños), were originally a medieval stronghold of the Andeiro family, a testimony to the fortified architecture that lined the roads between A Coruña and the Costa da Morte. A branch of the Andeiro family moved to Portugal, where João Fernandes Andeiro received the lordship of several towns from Peter I; the estate later passed to Gómez Pérez das Mariñas, son of Dona Constanza das Mariñas, and in time became a seigneurial pazo. In 1958 the building of a bridge destroyed most of its towers, gateways and walls; today several rectangular tower bodies survive, much reduced in height, along with the chapel of Santo Antón, with its restored Romanesque façade.
Nature
The only sea front of a largely inland municipality: the parish of Caión looks out over the Ártabro gulf at the north-eastern end of the Costa da Morte, with its fishing village perched on the rocky point.
Curiosity
The parish church of Santa Mariña de Lemaio reuses two pre-Romanesque capitals as holy water stoups, pieces much older than the present building and a rare testimony to the early Christianisation of inland Bergantiños.
Monument
Former Benedictine cenobium documented since the 10th century, as early as the year 956, although the present building of its church, with a basilical plan of three naves and three polygonal apses, dates from the 14th century and is in Gothic style. The corbels supporting the eaves, in Romanesque style, together with some loose pieces scattered around the temple, are attributed to the original building, of which only the church survives; it was the main monastic centre of the concello of A Laracha, in the comarca of Bergantiños, and stands in the parish of Soandres.
Nature
The concello's only sea front, with low cliffs and coves open to the Ártabro gulf around the old fishing settlement of Caión, the only parish of A Laracha that reaches the Atlantic.
Historical milestone
Documentation places the existence of a Benedictine community in Soandres, in the concello of A Laracha, at the end of the 10th century; it organized the agricultural exploitation of the valley and maintained its influence until the disentailment.
Food and drink
A cured and salted pork shoulder covered by a protected geographical indication, the centrepiece of the Galician cocido when boiled with turnip tops and potatoes; it is made with pigs raised in the country.
Historical milestone
From the 14th century the Torres de Cillobre were in the hands of the Pardo das Mariñas lineage, which transformed them from a fortification into a noble residence and from them controlled much of the concello.