Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Ames

What to see and do in Ames (Santiago, A Coruña): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Ames

Ponte Maceira 6.3 km
Palace of Lens 6.8 km

Towns near Ames

What to see in Brión 2.4 km · 6 places
What to see in Negreira 8.9 km · 41 places
What to see in Santiago de Compostela 9.9 km · 30 places
What to see in Teo 10 km · 9 places
What to see in Rois 12 km · 15 places
What to see in Padrón 13 km · 36 places
What to see in A Baña 15 km · 42 places
What to see in Pontecesures 15 km · 10 places

Spain › Galicia › A Coruña › Santiago › Ames

What to see and do in Ames

Ames
Village
Ames is a municipality in the province of A Coruña, in the Santiago comarca, which borders Santiago de Compostela and forms part of its urban area; it has about 33,000 inhabitants, mostly divided between its capital, Bertamiráns, and O Milladoiro, which in 2022 together accounted for 69% of the municipal population. Its name has been documented since the 12th century as Oliames or Oyames, interpreted as “very damp place”, consistent with its location beside the watercourses of Fonte Fría, Pasos and Riamonte. The district, covering 94 square kilometres, is defined by the banks of the river Tambre, which forms the border with A Baña and Negreira, and the river Sar, which arrives from Santiago. At O Milladoiro pilgrims caught their first sight of the towers of Santiago cathedral.
Ponte Maceira
Monument
Medieval ashlar bridge of five arches over the river Tambre, the central one pointed with a span of fourteen metres, built between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the parish of Agrón to link Compostela with the ports of Fisterra; pilgrims still cross it on their way to Fisterra, and legend has it that it collapsed after the disciples of Saint James had passed, holding back their pursuers. It has been a Ben de Interese Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 2022.
Way of Finisterre and Muxía
Activity
The Fisterra-Muxía Way is the only one of the Ways of St James that starts in Compostela instead of ending there: it is a continuation or epilogue of the other Jacobean routes, and because of its secular character it has been debated whether it deserves the category of Way of St James. After visiting the Apostle, many pilgrims continue on to Fisterra, to reach the finis terrae of the ancient world, or to Muxía, where they visit the sanctuary da Barca; tradition says that there the boat in which the Virgin came to encourage St James was turned to stone, today the Pedra de Abalar, the Pedra dos Cadrís and the Pedra do Temón. On its way through Ames, the path crosses the Ponte Maceira over the Tambre before continuing towards Fisterra and, finally, Muxía, facing the Atlantic.
Palace of Lens
Monument
A seigneurial house of the parish of Lens, one of the two great pazos of the concello along with that of Leboráns, heirs of the lineages that dominated this valley from the late Middle Ages.
Creation of the municipality of Biduído, later Ames
Historical milestone
The valley constitutes itself as a municipality under the name of Biduído within the shelter of the new municipal organisation; in 1835 it adopted the name of Ames, documented in the Middle Ages as Oiames.