Village
Xinzo de Limia is the capital of the comarca of La Limia, with about 9,700 inhabitants, set on the plain once occupied by the Lagoa de Antela and today crossed from east to west by the Limia river, enclosed to the north-east and south by sierras over 900 metres high. Its Entroido, considered Spain's longest carnival cycle, runs across five Sundays (fareleiro, oleiro, corredoiro, entroido and piñata) and has been declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (Spain's highest tourism-interest designation for festivals); its symbol is the Pantalla, with a white shirt and breeches, a red or black cape, black leggings and a belt hung with bells. The municipality also celebrates its patronal festival in honour of Santa María every 18 July, with religious acts, fireworks and parades of giants and bigheads.
Monument
Franciscan convent founded in 1520 on the Limia plain, in the parish of Pena — one of the twenty in the concello — which was a devotional centre for the whole comarca and is today in ruins: it preserves the late Gothic lower cloister designed by Bartolomé de Nosendo and a church of a single nave with a polygonal apse covered by a ribbed vault which keep the bearing of the old monastic house.
Monument
The Torre da Pena was part of a set of fortifications that protected the border line of the comarca of A Limia against attacks, chiefly by Portuguese armies; together with the Torre do Castro, in Sandiás, and those of Porqueira and Celme, it was one of the four most remembered, although quite a few others existed. Also known as the castle of Portela de la Pena, it stood on a height overlooking the waterlogged lands of the limiá plain, next to the lagoa de Antela; of the medieval precinct only the keep survives. Archaeological finds from 2022 suggest identifying it as Castelo da Pena. Declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), in 2009 it was transferred by the Spanish State to the Xunta de Galicia together with the Torre do Castro and that of Porqueira.
Monument
Museum located in the former market square (plaza de abastos) of Xinzo de Limia (Ourense), refurbished to house it, which brings together costumes and masks from the whole of Galician carnival, from peliqueiros to boteiros, felos and cigarróns. Opened on 23 October 2015 by the then president of the Xunta, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, it had to close in 2017 when the town council found itself unable to manage it, and reopened in February 2019 after its management was handed over to the Diputación de Ourense. It has a second room devoted to the writer Carlos Casares, “Os mundos de Carlos Casares”, and also houses the headquarters of the Asociación A Pantalla, the typical mask of the entroido of Xinzo.
Curiosity
They come out on Domingo Corredoiro in white shirt and breeches, red or black cape, a sash of bells and black gaiters, striking together two inflated, dried pig bladders with which they impose their law in the streets of the town.
Nature
The Limia crosses the municipality gathering the streams of Faramontaos, Nocedo, Arnos and Ribeira; its floods once fed the vanished Antela and still today seasonally inundate the water meadows around the town.
Activity
Carnival cycle of Xinzo de Limia that runs over five consecutive Sundays -fareleiro, oleiro, corredoiro, entroido and piñata- beginning three weeks before Carnival Sunday, and considered the longest carnival cycle in Spain. It opens with the farelo battle in the Plaza Mayor and continues with the night-time procession of the Meco amid torches, an ox cart and pipers, and the mud-wave game of Domingo Oleiro. On Domingo Corredoiro the festival's best-known symbol parades, the pantallas, wearing white shirt and trousers, a red or black cape and small bells at the waist. The five main days end on Ash Wednesday with the burial of the sardine. It was declared Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (an official Spanish tourism-heritage designation) in 1997 and Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (the same designation at international level) in 2019.
Nature
The Limia crosses the plain with an almost nil gradient, which causes seasonal flooding in the farmed fields. That regime is the direct legacy of the lagoa de Antela, which organised the whole river network.
Historical milestone
In 1130 the future first king of Portugal took control of A Limia and raised the castle of Celme to secure it. The comarca was thus left at the centre of the struggle between Galicia and the emerging Portuguese kingdom.
Food and drink
The sandy soils won from the lagoon made this plain the great potato garden of Galicia: Xinzo and Sandiás account for 88 per cent of the comarcal area given over to the tuber, covered by the PGI Pataca de Galicia.