Village
Ortigueira is a town of about 5,400 inhabitants at the head of its broad ría, in the comarca of Ortegal, of which it is the most populous and extensive municipality, at 209.60 km². Its ría, the most notable of the Rías Altas, forms one of the most important wetlands in Galicia, protected under the Ramsar convention. The territory combines mountainous landscapes, such as the sierra da Capelada, with cliffs and beaches of geological interest. There were human settlements some 35,000 years ago, and from the megalithic period the Forno dos Mouros dolmen survives, along with burial mounds catalogued by the local archaeologist Federico Maciñeira. The town is famous today for the Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta, which each July brings together thousands of fans of Atlantic music, and has kept its bagpipe school since 1979.
Monument
A Dominican convent founded in the first half of the 14th century, destroyed by fire in the 16th and rebuilt in the 18th; disentailed in 1835, it today houses the town hall, the theatre and the town's parish church.
Monument
A church built from scratch between 1776 and 1799 in a neoclassical key, on a Latin cross plan with a single nave; its high altarpiece and the Rosary altarpiece stand out, and it gives its name to the patronal festivities of 29 July.
Monument
The Teatro da Beneficencia occupies the east wing of the convent of San Domingos in Ortigueira, in a hall the monks used to store wine and firewood. A group of residents promoted the 19th-century works that turned it into a cultural venue, financed with contributions from the town and inaugurated in 1850; twenty-five years later the town council gave it its present appearance. Only the curtain and the ceiling paintings were missing, made in 1892 by the local artists Vicente Martínez, with a predominance of light tones and semi-nude bodies, and Pedro Castiñeiras, author of a panoramic view of the town. Measuring 35 by 6.5 metres, including stage, box and gallery, it is the reference covered theatre of a town marked by its music festival; it was reopened in 1991.
Nature
An Iron Age coastal settlement on one of the three peninsulas that close off the cove of Santo Antón de Espasante beach, near the hillforts of Coroa de Ladrido and O Tallo de Ladrido and a Roman villa; its only access by land was defended by two ditches alternating with two walls and a now almost vanished parapet. Excavated in five campaigns between 1987 and 1992, it had two periods of occupation, the second around the 1st century BC, when its most outstanding feature was built, the Monumento con Forno or pedra fermosa, one of the few hypogean constructions of this type in Galicia, interpreted as an ancient steam bath. Native pottery, terra sigillata, amphorae, fibulae and a bronze as coin from 26 BC were found, together with animal bone remains and shellfish shells.
Curiosity
Inside the castro a monument with an oven was excavated, that is, a ritual steam sauna with its perforated pedra formosa dividing off the hot chamber; restored and open to visitors, it is one of the few accessible in northern Galicia.
Nature
A megalithic tomb preserved in the parish of Couzadoiro, one of the many prehistoric funerary monuments scattered across the inland ranges of the municipality, among the richest in burial mounds in the whole province.
Nature
An estuary of about 3,000 hectares with salt marshes, intertidal flats and dune systems, listed under the Ramsar Convention in 1989; between 6,000 and 7,000 birds winter here, including wigeons, oystercatchers, curlews and grey plovers. Also known as the Ría de Santa Marta de Ortigueira, it lies wedged between the Capelada and Coriscada mountain ranges, which culminate at Cabo Ortegal and Estaca de Bares, and it is formed by the Mera river, whose tributary the Baleo gives rise to the small Ría de Ladrido. It is about 10 kilometres long and up to 3 wide, and its interior empties almost completely at low tide, exposing a wide plain of silt and mud. The oceanic climate has given way on its banks to eucalyptus monoculture, although patches of willows, birches, chestnuts and oaks survive.
Nature
Morouzos beach occupies one end of an extensive stretch of sand in the parish of Luama, in Ortigueira, whose other end is Cabalar beach; together they form a long sandbar, about 2000 metres long and 110 wide, facing north, which closes off the ría on that side. With dark-coloured sand and moderate swell, it holds the Blue Flag distinction and has an extensive pine grove with a recreational area with barbecue hearths, benches and children's playgrounds. Facing it lies the Illa de San Vicente, which can be reached on foot with caution at low tide. Every July, participants of the Ortigueira International Festival of the Celtic World camp for free in this pine grove.
Nature
The Serra da Coriscada, called Serra de Solleiro in its northern stretch, is an inland mountain range of Ortigueira that begins at Estaca de Bares and borders the municipality of Mañón, reaching its highest point, Mount Coriscada, at 523 metres above sea level. Together with the Capelada and the Faladoira it forms the mountain arc that separates the Ortegal coastline from the flat inland lands of Lugo, and its heathland and gorse moors, in the areas furthest from the coast, feed the headwaters of the Mera river, while the Sor river runs along its eastern slope. The range's vegetation combines eucalyptus plantations with small carballeiras (oak groves).
Activity
The Ortigueira International Festival of the Celtic World, also called the Ortigueira Festival, is an annual festival of traditional folk music of the Celtic nations, free since 1985, founded in 1978 by the staff of the local Bagpipe School, interrupted between 1988 and 1994, and held on the second weekend of July. Declared a festival of national tourist interest in 2003 and of international interest in 2005, it received the Martín Códax Music Award in 2022. Its stages have hosted the most outstanding groups and performers of Celtic music and Galicia's popular tradition; the main stage is located at the harbour, while between 2000 and 2010 a smaller stage, the Proxecto Runas, gave exposure to emerging groups. Every year a camping area for the public is set up on Morouzos beach.
Activity
The patronal festivities of 29 July, with traditional processions and the bringing out of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, patroness of Cuba, a reminder of the heavy emigration from Ortigueira to the island in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Activity
Porto de Espasante is a locality in the parish of Espasante, in the A Coruña municipality of Ortigueira, in the Ortegal comarca, which in 2009 had 432 inhabitants, compared with 558 in the year 2000. A fishing port for an artisanal fleet that works outside the ría, its cove, closed off by three peninsulas, allows the coastal hillforts overlooking it to be explored on foot, within the extensive Ría de Ortigueira, one of Galicia's most protected wetlands.
Monument
Founded around 1302 and rebuilt between 1748 and 1776 after a fire, its church of Latin cross plan, today the parish church of Santa Marta, holds a high altarpiece by the Compostela master Juan Domínguez Estivada.
Monument
The heart of the historic centre of Santa Marta, it brings together in a single space the town hall, the parish church and the Beneficencia theatre, all of them heirs of the old Dominican convent.
Curiosity
A local resident placed this wooden bench on the edge of the Loiba cliff in 2009; shortly afterwards some Scottish musicians who had come to the festival wrote on its back the best bank of the world and made it famous.
Nature
A cove of sand and rounded pebbles set at the foot of the Loiba cliffs, on a stretch of coast open to the north where the sea comes in between schist walls and fallen crags.
Nature
One of the two ends — the other being Cabalar beach — of an extensive sandy area in the parish of Luama, in Ortigueira, facing north at the mouth of the ría; it is the largest sandy area of the ría de Ortigueira, about two kilometers long and around a hundred and ten meters wide, protected by a line of dunes and a pine grove reached by wooden walkways. With black sand and moderate surf, it holds the Blue Flag for its many services: restrooms, showers, lifeguards and rescue services, and a large-capacity car park. Facing the beach rises the island of San Vicente, which can be reached on foot with caution at low tide. In the pine grove, those attending the Festival Internacional del Mundo Celta de Ortigueira (International Celtic World Festival) camp for free.
Activity
Born in 2015 and held on the praia de San Antonio, it devotes the octopus of the estuary to preparations such as the stew with Lourenzá beans or the octopus empanada with seaweed, besides the classic á feira.
Food and drink
A show with more than a quarter of a century of history that brings together the beekeepers of the comarca around the heather and eucalyptus honeys of the sierra, along with cheeses, cured meats and local bread.
Food and drink
The sands of the estuary produce cockles and clams of great quality, worked on foot by the shellfish gatherers; in the comarca they are prepared sautéed with onion and paprika, beyond the canning that made the area famous.
Historical milestone
On the 15th of November 1442, Juan II of Castile made Ortigueira the seat of a county by royal grant, a jurisdictional leap that boosted its port and the salt warehouses (alfolíes), the basis of trade on the Ortegal coast for centuries.
Historical milestone
More than ten thousand five hundred people left the concello bound for America, above all for Cuba; between 1900 and 1963 Ortigueira led in absolute figures the emigration of all Galician municipalities and the emigrants formed sixteen communities abroad.
Monument
A seigneurial house of the parish of San Cristovo de Couzadoiro, with a central body flanked by two unequal towers, a continuous balcony on the façade and an external staircase giving access to the upper floor; it belonged to the lineage of la Peña.