Village
Viveiro is a city in the province of Lugo, capital of the comarca of the western Mariña, with about 15,000 inhabitants and the third most populous concello in the province, after Lugo and Monforte de Lemos. It sits at the head of the ría of Vivero, in the valley formed by the Landro river, which flows down from the serra del Gistral; the population is spread across the settlements of Vivero, Covas and Cillero, increasingly joined together by urban growth. The earliest settlements date from the Iron Age, and the medieval town gained strength from the 12th and 13th centuries onward. It preserves stretches of its medieval wall and the Porta de Carlos V, from 1548, and its Holy Week is declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (Spain's highest tourism distinction for popular festivals).
Monument
Also called Porta Maior or Porta do Castelo da Ponte, it replaced in 1548, the work of the stonemason Pedro Pedroso, an earlier 13th-century gate damaged by the action of the tides. Raised in homage to Emperor Charles I, it is in Renaissance-plateresque style, with a central round arch flanked by the coats of arms of the city and of Galicia, the royal coat of arms beneath a bust of the emperor, six arrow-slits and three corner turrets; on the reverse it holds a plateresque camarín with the 18th-century image of Saint Roch, venerated for having freed the town from the plague. The wall had five gates, of which only three survive. During the Peninsular War it served as a defensive point: on 18 February 1809 Viveiro was attacked on two flanks at once, one of them through this gate, by troops coming from Ferrol. Declared a Monumento Nacional (former heritage protection category in Spain) in 1942, it is one of the three surviving gates of the wall.
Monument
The single-nave church of the convent of San Francisco de Viveiro was begun by the Franciscans as early as the 13th century and finished in the 14th; from that first phase three arches survive, uncovered in the 1945 restoration, along with a doorway, and its apse is one of the finest in the province. It holds a Renaissance altarpiece donated by Juan Dutton Aguilar and brought from the Netherlands, in the baptistery chapel, and another, Baroque, 18th-century altarpiece with the image of the Dolorosa, in the chapel of the Third Order. In the main nave are the tombs of the beata Constanza, daughter of Marshal Pero Pardo de Cela, and of the poet Pastor Díaz, and in the sacristy is kept the 14th-century altarpiece of the Cristo dos Mareantes. The cloister, from the 17th century, was added later.
Monument
One of the oldest temples in Viveiro, of 12th-century Romanesque construction, it stands at the highest point of the walled old town, next to the old Monestir de la Concepción. It has a basilical floor plan with three naves, the central one six metres wide and the side ones three, separated by columns, and a semicircular apse covered by a barrel vault. Its main doorway brings together four semicircular archivolts on three columns, with a drip moulding and a rose window above, and the facade, topped with a cross, is flanked by two square towers, one with a clock and the other with the three-bell belfry, added in the 18th century. It preserves a large 16th-century processional cross, and was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), together with its surroundings, in 1982.
Monument
The Misericordia bridge, which crosses the Viveiro ria between the Gate of Charles V and the Misericordia chapel, from which it takes its name, was begun in 1462, under the reign of Henry IV of Castile, and completed in 1544, by then under Charles I, on the site of another bridge built in Roman times. The structure had twelve arches -round ones at the ends and pointed ones for the ten central arches, to give convexity to the roadway-, of which nine survive today, after alterations made to adapt it to new needs.
Monument
The Porta do Valado is one of the three surviving standing gates of the five that the old walled precinct of Viveiro once had; declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1949, it opened onto the old Roman road. It preserves no inscription relating to its construction, so it is attributed to the 13th century, although it may have a Roman origin. On either side of the gate, on what is now Nicolás Cora street -formerly called do Valado-, remains of the original wall survive, the best testimony left of the town's defensive perimeter.
Monument
The third surviving gate of Viveiro's wall. Religious images dated between the 16th and 18th centuries were set into its masonry, turning the opening into a kind of urban altarpiece at the entrance to the old town. Also known as Porta do Cristo do Amparo, it dates from the 13th century and was the main entrance to the city via the old Roman road; a slab inside bears the inscription Era MCCLV, that is, the year 1217, in the time of King Alfonso IX. On its rear facade a niche holds the 18th-century image of the Cristo do Amparo that gives it its name, flanked by a weeping Virgin and a 16th-century Saint John. It opens onto Rosalía de Castro street, one of the most distinguished in Viveiro, and it has been a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1949.
Monument
The monastery of Valdeflores stands in the alfoz of Viveiro, beside the Landro river, and is documented since 1406. It is home to a community of contemplative Dominican nuns of the Order of Preachers, founded by Dominic de Guzmán. Its church, Gothic and dating from the 15th century, holds the carving of the Virgin of Valdeflores, which tradition holds was found on the convent's own grounds; the conventual building, however, already dates from the late 17th century. The cloister was remodelled in the 16th, 18th and 20th centuries, and the bell tower, from 1618, took as its model that of the vanished convent of San Domingos, whose sculpture now crowns the pointed doorway. Inside, with a single nave, remains of wall paintings survive behind the altarpiece, along with an 18th-century organ and a Lignum Crucis brought from Jerusalem.
Monument
The Misericordia chapel stands in its own neighbourhood, on the far side of the Viveiro ria, over which the Misericordia bridge passes. It was built, already in the 17th century, thanks to a donation from Rodrigo Alfonso Alfeirán, granted in 1603, in Renaissance style, with a nave under a barrel vault and a dome decorated with frescoes by the painter Camilo Díaz. The main altar, the work of the sculptor Juan Sarmiento, is dedicated to the Ascension of the Virgin, and on the sides are venerated Saint Anthony of Padua and the Ecce Homo de la Misericordia, to which numerous miracles are attributed; on the first Friday of March, the day of the three graces, the faithful come on their knees to ask him for favours. At the western end of the bridge it closes off the monumental group formed by the Gate of Charles V and the arches of the medieval bridge.
Monument
A former 17th-century pazo of which only the main façade survives, in a late Renaissance taste. Above the door it displays a coat of arms held up by two lions, which give the house its name, right in the old quarter.
Nature
The Souto da Retorta, in the parish of Chavín (Viveiro, Lugo), about six kilometres from the municipal capital, is a 3.19-hectare wood declared a natural monument in 2000, on the right bank of the Landro river. It contains a stand of some 600 eucalyptus trees of the species Eucalyptus globulus, several of them centuries old, which have given it the nickname of the Chavín eucalyptus grove; it is presided over by O Avó, a blue gum which, without being the tallest in the group, is the stoutest and the oldest -between 120 and 130 years old-, standing 71.4 metres tall with a girth of 7.6 metres, and named Tree of the Year in 2010. Along the river there are also two waterfalls, the Salto do Can and the Pozo da Ferida, the latter with a vertical drop of 30 metres, in a setting of humid oceanic climate.
Nature
The praia de Area, four kilometres from the town of Viveiro, is about 1450 metres long and varies in width between 30 and 80 metres depending on the tide. It has numerous access points and a wide seafront promenade running parallel to the sand, equipped with all kinds of tourist services -first-aid posts, hotels, restaurants, a disco-pub and a youth hostel-, high occupancy in the summer season, and clear, calm waters that have repeatedly earned it the blue flag.
Nature
The Landro river rises at 800 metres above sea level on the slopes of the Gistral, in the parish of Viveiro belonging to the municipality of Muras, and runs some 37 kilometres in a south-north direction until it flows into the Viveiro ria, between Covas beach and the port of Celeiro, where it forms a small wetland. Along its course, which forms the boundary between the municipalities of Muras and Orol before entering that of Viveiro, it receives numerous tributaries, among them the Besteburiz, Balsadas, Grandal, Boimente and Loureiro rivers. Declared a Special Area of Conservation of the Natura 2000 Network, this short river, which crosses the valle del Naseiro, is home to species such as salmon, common trout and eel, along with notable riverbank vegetation.
Curiosity
The port of Celeiro, in the parish of the same name, north of the urban centre of Viveiro and sheltered by the Viveiro ria, is one of the largest fishing ports on the Cantabrian coast, with 90 vessels registered across inshore, purse-seine, coastal trawling, drift-net and deep-sea trawling to the Grand Sole. The most important species, both in volume and in earnings, is hake caught with hook and line -hence its popular nickname the Wall Street of merluza do pincho-, which accounts for more than half the catch landed at its fish market, which is climate-controlled and has a capacity of 75 tonnes a day. Next to the port is the Costa Norte heliport, the base of the rescue helicopter of the Servizo de Gardacostas de Galicia.
Curiosity
The heart of the old quarter, it is also called Praza de Pastor Díaz after Nicomedes Pastor Díaz, poet and minister of Commerce, Education and Public Works, born in the town on 15 September 1811 and died in 1863.
Activity
Viveiro's Holy Week is one of the oldest religious celebrations in Galicia, kept up without interruption since the 13th century. Declared de interés turístico nacional (official Spanish state tourism distinction) in 1988 and de interés turístico internacional (the higher tier of the same distinction) in April 2013, it was the first Holy Week in northern Spain to achieve that distinction. Events begin on the Friday of Sorrows and continue for more than a week until Easter Sunday, with processions that wind through the walled old town organised by eight brotherhoods and confraternities grouped in the Junta de Cofradías. It stands out for the artistic value of its imagery and silverwork, and for a sober, austere character that brings it closer to Castilian Holy Week than to the Andalusian one.
Activity
The Romaría do Naseiro, also known as A Romaría do Bo Xantar, is a popular country romería held on the banks of the Landro river, in the parish of San Pedro de Viveiro, among the meanders of the Naseiro valley. Founded in 1933 at the initiative of Antonio Noriega Varela and José Barros, and declared de interés turístico nacional (Spain's national tourist interest designation) in 1967, it is traditionally held on the fourth Sunday of August. Custom dictated that families from Viveiro attend with their finest crockery and tablecloths and the most typical dishes; today it is common for young people to spend almost the whole week there.
Activity
A music festival held every summer in the parish of Celeiro, in the municipality of Viveiro, centred on the metal, punk and hardcore scene; also known as El Resu, it has been organised since 2006 and has become one of the most popular festivals of its kind in Spain. In 2013 it drew 33,000 attendees, with an economic impact on the area of 3.3 million euros; in 2015 the figure rose to more than 54,500 people and 6.15 million euros, and in 2016 it reached 80,542 attendees and 10.2 million euros, placing it among Europe's leading festivals. More than 300 international bands have played on its stages, among them Slipknot, Iron Maiden, Korn, Kiss, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Rammstein, Megadeth, Slayer and Pantera.
Activity
Since the end of the 1990s, every July the old fish market of the port of Celeiro becomes a collective dining room for tasting line-caught hake, served in a pie, as caldeirada, in green sauce or Galician style.
Monument
A manor house located at the place of da Trabe, in the parish of Galdo, concello of Viveiro, to which it gives its name; today it houses a rural tourism establishment. With no documentation predating the 16th century, it was linked to the couto de Galdo and passed through the Pumariño family, among them Fernando Pumariño, regidor of Viveiro and brother-in-law of the archbishop of Sevilla Fernando de Valdés y Salas, founder of the University of Oviedo. In 1607 it was bought by Antonio da Ponte e Prada, and in 1881 it passed to Bartolomé Basanta Miranda, mayor of Viveiro, whose son-in-law Ramón Rebellón Zubiri, a deputy in the Cortes, secured city status for the town. Later left empty by its heirs, it was sold in 1993 and rebuilt with materials and techniques from the ceramic tradition of Sargadelos.
Monument
An enclosed convent in the old quarter of Viveiro, one of the four great religious complexes in the town along with San Francisco, Santa María do Campo and the monastery of Valdeflores. Run by the Order of the Immaculate Conception, it is in the Romanesque style and since 1982 has been considered, together with its surroundings, a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) within the catalogue of monuments of the Spanish historic heritage. It stands in the historic centre of Viveiro, capital of the comarca of the Mariña Occidental, in the valley of the río Landro.
Nature
An urban beach 1650 metres long, located on the western bank of the ria of Viveiro, the largest in the municipality, with a seafront promenade, calm waters and lifesaving and accessibility facilities. At its western end stand rocks known as Os Castelos, where a monument recalls the sinking of the frigate Santa María Magdalena and the brig Palomo in 1810, on a night of terrible storm that caused more than five hundred victims and that ranks among the greatest maritime disasters in the history of Galicia. Remains of that shipwreck are preserved scattered around the town: cannons in the Pernas Peón park, next to the beach itself, and anchors in some squares of the town centre and at the Os Castelos monument itself.
Nature
The ria of Viveiro, one of the Galician Rías Altas, opens onto the Cantabrian Sea at the mouth of the Landro river, which runs 42 kilometres before forming this inlet, and divides its coastline among the municipalities of O Vicedo, Viveiro and Xove. At its head lies the town of Viveiro, capital of the comarca; on its shore, the fishing port of Celeiro, and along its banks, besides the beaches of Covas, Area and Sacido, those of Seiramar, Abrela, Portonovo and Esteiro. Facing the coast rise the islands of Area, Gabeira and Queimada, and in the parish of Covas is concentrated much of the second-home residential use of the ria.
Curiosity
A stone cross raised in the parish of Vieiro that served as a boundary marker between the municipal districts of Cervo, O Valadouro, Viveiro and Xove; the four concellos historically converged at this point of the sierra.
Activity
A round-up held in the place of Candaoso, where the aloitadores bring the wild horses down from the hill and cut their manes by hand inside the enclosure, without ropes or mechanical help; it is held every summer in Viveiro.
Activity
The seafaring festivities of the port neighbourhood of Celeiro, in July, with a maritime procession of the image aboard the boats of the fleet; Celeiro is one of the main ports for line-caught hake in Galicia.
Historical milestone
On the night of 1 to 2 November 1810, a storm with northerly winds caught the frigate Santa María Magdalena, under the command of Captain Blas de Salcedo, and the brig Palomo in the ria of Viveiro; they were part of a Spanish-British fleet tasked with defending the Cantabrian coast against the French. The storm broke up the Magdalena's hull, and the Palomo was swept onto the beach of Sacido; of its 480 crew members only three survived, and most of the bodies were washed ashore by the sea onto the beach of Covas, where they were buried in an improvised cemetery. Among the roughly 550 dead was Captain Blas de Salcedo, found embracing the body of his son; the event led the Navy (Armada) to prohibit fathers and sons, or brothers, from serving together aboard the same ship.
Activity
The patronal festivities of Viveiro are known as the festa do bo xantar because each day revolves around a different delicacy: octopus, shellfish, sweets, meats, sardines and broth, served in the street to the sound of bagpipes and brass bands.