Village
Mazaricos is a livestock-farming concello of around 3,700 inhabitants with its seat at A Picota, in the province of A Coruña; together with Santa Comba it forms the region of Jallas, the leader in Galicia for milk production and one of the main producers of Ternera Gallega. Separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land, it lies ten minutes from the beach of Carnota, and the Way of St James towards Finisterre crosses its territory. The river Xallas marks its northern boundary — the only river in Europe that reaches the sea in a waterfall — with falls known at Chacín and Arcos. Its greatest natural landmark is Monte Pindo, 627 metres high and known as the Celtic Olympus, shared with Carnota; it also preserves the Devesa de Anllares, the westernmost native forest in Galicia.
Monument
A passage-grave dolmen, also known as the dolmen de Corveira, located at the site of Estivada Vella, in the parish of San Fins de Eirón (Mazaricos, A Coruña), dated between the 4th and 3rd millennia BC and part of the Sotorraño-Parxubeira-Portocoiro necropolis. Its passage, facing east, retains thirteen orthostats, six in the polygonal chamber and seven in the passage, and was covered by a mound between 19 and 22 metres in diameter with a stone shell. Inside were found flint blades, an arrowhead, bell-beaker pottery and several stone idols, among them incised betyls planted vertically next to the passage, possibly to protect the deceased; the whole grave goods assemblage is kept at the Archaeological Museum of A Coruña.
Monument
Group of prehistoric burial mounds which, together with the mámoas of Eirón and the Parxubeira dolmen, make Mazaricos one of the concellos with the greatest density of megalithic remains on the Costa da Morte.
Nature
Group of mounds in the parish of San Fins de Eirón, part of the megalithic complex of Sotorraño, Parxubeira and Portocoiro, one of the best documented Neolithic funerary groups in south-western A Coruña.
Monument
Fortress also known as the Castelo Grande, today in a ruinous state and reduced to a few foundations, raised on a height from which it commands a very wide panorama of the comarca; the sources place it at the spot of Monteagudo and on the monte da Ruña, in the parish of Colúns. Of uncertain chronology, perhaps early medieval, it was one of the two fortified houses that controlled this territory between the Xallas and the Pindo massif.
Monument
Manor house of the parish of Santiago de Arcos that belonged to the lineage of the Mariño de Lobeira and displays on its façade the coats of arms of the Mariño de Lobeira, Lobeira and Dacosta families; beside it remains of the course of the old Roman road are preserved.
Monument
Parish church of the municipal capital, listed as Galician heritage along with its rectory and its two cruceiros, the one in the atrium and the one in the old cemetery; it presides over a concello of twelve parishes.
Monument
Former priest's house next to the church of San Xoán, included among the concello's inventoried heritage; its rubble masonry and its solaina follow the model of the Galician rectory of the Ancien Régime.
Monument
A Roman road ran through the concello and traces of it can still be made out in the parish of Arcos, evidence that these inland hills formed part of the network of roads leading to the finis terrae.
Nature
The largest reservoir in the Xallas, built in 1966 to supply a hydroelectric plant today operated by Ferroatlántica; it stores 103 cubic hectometres over around 1,250 hectares spread across four municipalities, and its dam, raised on the boundary between Dumbría and Mazaricos, is 27 metres high by 127 metres long. It takes its name from the Castelo da Fervenza, one of the mountains forming the gorge where it sits. Its construction flooded valleys and farmland and altered the comarca's climate, increasing humidity and fog; the dolmen da Gándara de Baíñas was left beneath its waters, visible only when the water level drops a great deal. In 2007 its draining to maximise electricity output caused an ecological disaster with the death of thousands of fish. It is today a notable birdwatching spot.
Nature
The Xallas marks the whole northern boundary of the concello and is dammed at four points, Fervenza, Ponte Olveira, Castrelo and Santa Uxía, which turned its course into a succession of enclosed sheets of water.
Nature
Second of the four reservoirs that regulate the Xallas, downstream of the Fervenza; its name recalls the bridge and the hamlet of Olveira, on the stretch where the Camino to Fisterra draws near Olveiroa.
Nature
Small mountain chain in the south of the concello that extends the relief towards the O Pindo massif; its slopes of heather and bare rock separate the Xallas basin from the side that drops to the ría de Muros e Noia.
Nature
Range which, together with the montes de Ruña, shapes the southern relief of Mazaricos and forms the approach to the granite massif of O Pindo, one of the most singular rock formations on the Atlantic seaboard.
Nature
Unlike the other watercourses of the concello, the Santabaia does not flow into the Xallas but drops straight towards the ría de Muros e Noia, so that Mazaricos is divided between two different drainage sides.
Nature
One of the rivers that drain the municipality of Mazaricos towards the northwest, together with those of Arcos and Mazaricos; it rises within the municipality itself and gives its name to the parish of San Xián de Beba, through which it flows along with two other parishes before emptying into the Xallas river, on the boundary between Mazaricos and Dumbría. Its valley concentrates hay meadows and riverside woodland.
Curiosity
The excavation of the dolmen turned up four anthropomorphic slate stelae and idols with incised decoration, as well as flint blades and Bell Beaker pottery; all of it is kept in the Museo Arqueolóxico da Coruña.
Curiosity
Cruceiro of the old San Xoán burial ground, listed together with the one in the church atrium; it marked the edge of the cemetery in a comarca where these stone crosses also marked crossroads and corpse roads.
Activity
The second stage from Negreira crosses Mazaricos along the Carreira de San Mauro, an old royal road, and skirts the Fervenza reservoir before reaching the medieval village of Olveiroa, already in Dumbría.
Monument
A church of Romanesque origin raised in the twelfth century that preserves elements of that fabric alongside later Baroque additions. It gives its name to one of the twelve parishes of the concello, in the middle of the corridor of the Camiño to Fisterra.
Monument
A parish church situated directly on the course of the Camino de Santiago to Fisterra and Muxía, which makes it one of the obligatory stops for the pilgrims who cross the Xallas valley.
Nature
Also known as Mina da Parxubeira, this megalithic tomb in the parish of San Fins de Eirón preserves thirteen orthostats, six in the polygonal chamber and seven in the corridor. It formed part of a necropolis of four tumuli.
Nature
A waterfall hemmed in among riverside woodland, integrated into the concello's waterfall route. It is one of the most visited of the itinerary and reaches its best moment in autumn and spring, when the flow is abundant.
Nature
A cascade formed by the river Arcos on its descent towards the Xallas valley. It forms part of the group of five falls that the concello waymarked as the Ruta das Fervenzas, accessible by paths among oak groves.
Nature
A mountain alignment that separates the basins of the Xallas and of the Muros coast, crowned by the remains of the castelo de Brandufe. Its slopes of scrub and granite outcrops dominate a good part of the Costa da Morte.
Nature
One of the best preserved wooded spaces in the concello, with stands of native broadleaf trees that contrast with the eucalyptus plantations dominant in the rest of the comarca of the Xallas.
Curiosity
A group of prehistoric funerary tumuli spread over the heights of the concello, testimony that these sierras were occupied by megalithic communities long before the valleys peopled today.
Curiosity
Raised in the place of Suevos, in the parish of Coiro, it is one of the most cited cruceiros of the concello. These crossroads crosses marked parish boundaries and resting points for funeral processions.
Activity
At 550 metres of altitude, beside the AC-400 road, this viewpoint dominates the Xallas valley and the reservoir of A Fervenza. It has binoculars for free use because of its notable value for birdwatching.
Activity
A waymarked itinerary that links five waterfalls of the concello: Santa Leocadia, Vioxo, Gosolfre, Fírvado and Noveira. It runs among riverside woods and is especially striking in the months of greater flow.
Activity
Two variants of the Camino de Santiago that extend the pilgrimage beyond Compostela to the ocean cross the concello, passing by the church of Corzón and at the foot of the Monte Aro viewpoint. It is the only Jacobean route that begins in Compostela itself, an epilogue to the other routes that many pilgrims walk after venerating the Apostle in the cathedral. Those heading for Fisterra seek to reach the end of the world known in Antiquity, the finis terrae, while those who choose Muxía visit the sanctuary of the Virxe da Barca, where tradition places the petrified boat -today the Pedra de abalar- in which the Virgin arrived to encourage Saint James's preaching in Galicia.
Activity
A route fitted out in the parish of Corzón, in the surroundings of the Alto do Castelo, where more than a hundred bird species have been recorded. It is reached in a few minutes from the course of the Camino.
Historical milestone
The closing of the dam on the Xallas flooded in 1966 valleys and farmland spread over thousands of plots in Mazaricos, Dumbría, Vimianzo and Zas, and forced a complete reordering of the farming life of the riverside villages.
Historical milestone
That day the concession that made it possible to dam the Xallas was granted for ninety-nine years. From it were born the dam of A Fervenza and the chain of falls that make use of the river's drop down to its mouth.
Food and drink
Mazaricos is the concello with the greatest milk production in Galicia, with some 136 million litres a year and close to 13,900 head of cattle, almost four per inhabitant. The dairy sector sustains the life of its hamlets.
Activity
The parish of Corzón holds a festival devoted to meat grilled over embers, one of the busiest gastronomic events of the interior of the Costa da Morte and a reflection of the concello's stock-raising vocation.
Food and drink
The bread baked in the concello is one of its most recognised products outside the comarca: at the Feira da Primavera of Santa Comba the tastings of bread and meat from Mazaricos sell out every year.