Village
O Vicedo is a fishing municipality in the province of Lugo, in the comarca of the Mariña Occidental, with about 1,550 inhabitants, overlooking the ria do Barqueiro at the mouth of the Sor river; its name, from the Latin vitiates, refers to the vetch, a legume abundant on the coast. It was called Riobarba until 1952 and has officially used the Galician form O Vicedo since 1983; it comprises seven parishes. The coastline, with rugged relief, has eight beaches in all, including Arealonga, Xilloi and Abrela, the busiest, and preserves volcanic rocks in the Xilloi area. In the Middle Ages its parishes belonged to various feudal lords, both ecclesiastical and lay, until the Constitution of 1812 created the first town councils.
Monument
An iron lattice bridge opened in 1901 and built by La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima; its 152 metres required foundations twenty metres down in the mud, sunk in compressed-air caissons. Restored in 2005, it is now a footbridge.
Nature
Punta Socastro, so called because from the sea the cape recalls a pig's snout. A path of 1.3 kilometres and 400 metres of zigzagging wooden walkways descends the cliff; in summer access requires booking in advance.
Nature
A shell-shaped beach some 900 metres long of fine white sand, sheltered by cliffs and by a wood of pines and eucalyptus. It regained the blue flag in 2015 and from its shore the port of Bares can be seen.
Nature
A beach that has renewed the blue flag without a break since 2009 for the quality of its water and its sand. The steady breeze makes it good for water sports and it is the usual starting point for O Fuciño do Porco.
Nature
The ría do Barqueiro, about five kilometres long, formed at the mouth of the Sor river on the Cantabrian Sea and forms the border between the provinces of Lugo and A Coruña, separating the municipality of O Vicedo, to the east, from that of Mañón, to the west, with which the Bares peninsula also borders. Three bridges cross it, and at its eastern mouth the Illa Coelleira rises. Within the ria lie, one after another, the beaches of Bares, Vilela, Arealonga, Castro, Fomento, Caolín, Vidrieiro and Xilloi, and it gives its name to the town of O Barqueiro, a fishing port in the municipality of Mañón.
Curiosity
The Illa Coelleira, at the eastern mouth of the ría do Barqueiro, lies 600 metres from the coast, separated from the mainland by the narrow O Carreiro strait and surrounded by islets such as do Cabaliño. A monastery, documented since 1095 and originally probably governed by the Benedictine order, reappears in the sources in 1420 under the rule of the regular canons of Saint Augustine. In 1485 the resignation of Prior Lopo Dourado led to its union with San Martiño de Mondoñedo, and in 1534 a papal bull annexed it to the cathedral of Mondoñedo; by 1595 the building already lay in ruins. In the 17th century it served as a lookout for Basque whalers, and in the 19th, after the disentailment, it passed to the Navy, which installed a lighthouse on it.
Monument
A hermitage in the parish of San Miguel de Negradas, in the mountainous interior of O Vicedo; it is one of the few surviving examples of minor religious architecture in this municipality on the Lugo coast. The place where it stands, today called San Roque after its patronage, was previously known as O Pazo, because María Sarmiento Ribadeneira and her husband Gómez Pérez das Mariñas e Ribadeneira, governor of the Philippines, resided there, and also as Santa Mariña, due to the existence of another chapel under that patronage.
Monument
Parish church of the town of O Vicedo, head of one of the seven parishes of the municipality; it presides over the coastal settlement that in 1952 came to give its name to the municipality, until then called Riobarba. According to tradition, its origin dates back to the late Middle Ages and is linked to the Templar knights who took refuge in the monastery of San Miguel de Cunicularia, on the island of Coelleira. The temple, with three naves separated by pilasters, was extended in the 17th century with two side naves; the main altarpiece, neoclassical from the late 18th century, includes paintings dated 1835 depicting the judgment and burial of the saint. In the chapel of the Virgen del Carmen numerous ex-votos are preserved, along with a black standard from the late 18th century, formerly used at the burials of the town's sailors.
Nature
A white-sand beach of close to a kilometre in length and some eighty metres in width, also known as Area Grande, with a well preserved and protected dune system in a very quiet rural setting.
Historical milestone
The town council of Riobarba, created in 1840, changed its name on that day and moved its capital to the coastal town of Vicedo; the official Galician form, O Vicedo, arrived with the linguistic normalisation law of 1983.