Village
O Carballiño, officially Carballino, is the second most populous town in the province of Ourense, with nearly 14,000 inhabitants (14,249, INE 2025), born in the mid-18th century around a market. It belongs to the comarca of Carballino, bounded by the sierra do Faro and the valley of the river Arenteiro, a tributary of the Avia, and its proximity to Ourense makes it a dormitory town of the provincial capital. It is crowned by the temple of the Vera Cruz, a posthumous granite work by Antonio Palacios (1943–1957); at its centre stands the church of San Cipriano, or Igrexa Vella, and in the Plaza Mayor there is a monument to the pulpeira (octopus-seller). Its Festa do Polbo, a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (Spain's official designation for festivals of touristic significance), has been held on the second Sunday of August since 1964, and its cañas, filled with pastry cream, are a typical local dessert.
Monument
Antonio Palacios's greatest work in Ourense: he laid its first stone on 26 June 1943 and it was opened for worship on 17 September 1952, still without the tower, completed five years later, in 1957, at 52 metres in height. The whole of it was raised with granite and slate from the comarca.
Monument
A medieval monastery in the parish of Lobás, one of the sixteen into which the municipality is divided; its old fabric was overshadowed in the local imagination by the modern bulk of the Veracruz that Palacios raised in the town.
Nature
The river Arenteiro rises at the Peña de Francia, at 840 metres above sea level, and receives on its left bank the waters of the river Oseira before crossing the town of O Carballiño; after a 33-kilometre course in a northeast-southwest direction, it flows into the river Avia, in the parish of Pazos de Arenteiro, which is itself a tributary of the Miño. According to the philologist Edelmiro Bascuas, its name comes from the Latin Argentarium, alluding to the silver found in the river's course. It also lends its name to Club Deportivo Arenteiro, the town's football team, which was promoted to Primera Federación in 2023.
Nature
At 908 metres it is the greatest height of the concello, on the ridge of the Serra da Madanela and right at the point where the districts of O Carballiño, O Irixo and Piñor meet, between the basins of the Arenteiro and the Avia. Nearby rise the Pico da Peniza and the Pena Cobertoira.
Activity
It is held on the second Sunday of August in the municipal park of O Carballiño, where the pulpeiras boil tens of thousands of kilos of octopus; although the town lies far from the sea, octopus consumption dates back a long way, with dried octopus arriving through trade with the coastal regions of Galicia. The work of the pulpeiras of Carballiño is recognised throughout Galicia, so much so that in 2014 the Real Academia Galega ratified «polbo» as the standard form over «pulpo», although the town council itself still uses the name Festa do Pulpo on its website. It was declared of national tourist interest in 2012 and of international tourist interest in 2022.
Activity
Known as Xociviga, they are held in O Carballiño and rank among the country's longest-running audiovisual events; they share the local calendar with the patronal festival of San Cibrao, in September.
Activity
Sodium sulphurous spring two kilometres from the town, with a spa building from 1842 and waters declared of public utility in 1929. Its reputation against bronchitis earned it the nickname Panticosa gallega. The place, known as As Caldas, belongs to the parish of Partovia, in the concello of O Carballiño, and next to the spa also stands the capela da Virxe de Fátima.
Historical milestone
The monks of Oseira obtained in 1162 the lordship of the hot springs of Partovia in exchange for lands they held at Toro, in Zamora. The use of those waters remained under the monastery throughout the Middle Ages.
Activity
It was born in 1964 from a popular meal in the municipal park and today brings together more than 100,000 diners around pulpo á feira, prepared according to a tradition dating back to the 17th century, when the priory of Oseira received octopus from the coastal parish of Marín and families from neighbouring Santa María de Arcos specialised in preparing it. It was declared of national tourist interest in 2012 and of international tourist interest in 2022. The festival starts days beforehand with the Ruta de las Tapas and culminates on the second Sunday of August at the Parque Municipal, with pulpeiras, traditional music and a final verbena on the Plaza Mayor; since the 1980s, each edition pays tribute to a different Galician community, and there is always an attempt to prepare the world's largest octopus tapa.