Logbook · 9 places

What to see and do in Arnoia

What to see and do in Arnoia (Ribeiro, Ourense): 9 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 4 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Arnoia

Church of San Salvador da Arnoia 200 m
Coto de Novelle 2.3 km

Towns near Arnoia

What to see in Ribadavia 3.9 km · 15 places
What to see in Cartelle 5.6 km · 7 places
What to see in Cortegada 5.8 km · 7 places
What to see in Melón 6.7 km · 4 places
What to see in Castrelo de Miño 7.3 km · 8 places
What to see in Gomesende 7.9 km · 4 places
What to see in Carballeda de Avia 8 km · 4 places
What to see in Beade 9.1 km · 5 places

Spain › Galicia › Ourense › Ribeiro › Arnoia

What to see and do in Arnoia

Arnoia
Village
A Arnoia is a concello in the comarca do Ribeiro, in Ourense, divided in two by the river Arnoia, which flows into the Miño here; it covers 20.69 km² at an altitude of 76 metres and has around 950 inhabitants, compared with the 2,963 it had in 1900. In the southeast it preserves a cork-oak grove of over a thousand hectares; in the northeast rises the Coto de Novelle (712 m), with pine forests and broadleaf woodland. It preserves Palaeolithic shelters, Bronze Age castros and two Roman votive altars found at Sendín, dedicated to Jupiter and the Sun. The church of San Salvador dates from 1612, and its fourteen-metre granite clock tower was built in 1945 by emigrants returned from Montevideo to regulate irrigation; many locals then emigrated to Argentina and Uruguay, whose expatriate associations funded the arrival of electricity.
Church of San Salvador da Arnoia
Monument
A parish church dated 1612 that preserves windows in the Romanesque tradition and heraldic arms on its walls; it is joined in the municipality by the chapels of San Roque, of the 18th century, and San Amaro, of medieval origin.
Tower of o reloxo da Arnoia
Monument
Granite tower more than fourteen metres high raised in 1945 with money sent by the concello's emigrants in Montevideo, not as a bell tower but to give the exact time by which the irrigation turns were shared out among the neighbours. It was carved by the stonemason of Remuíño Manuel García Vermello and became the emblem of the town.
Cork oak groves of the Arnoia
Nature
The south of the municipality is covered by more than a thousand hectares of cork oak wood, one of the largest expanses of the species in Galicia, on the slopes falling towards the meeting of the River Arnoia with the Miño.
Coto de Novelle
Nature
At 712 metres it is the highest ground in the municipality and offers a panorama of the lower Arnoia valley; its slopes alternate pine woods on the north-eastern side with the extensive cork oak wood that dominates the southern sector.
Spa of the Arnoia
Activity
A thermal complex beside the River Arnoia fed by hypothermal waters that emerge at 22 degrees, weakly mineralised, sulphurous and bicarbonated, with a pH close to neutral; its facilities were refurbished in 2015.
The canyon of the Arnoia river
Nature
Before giving itself over to the Miño, the Arnoia cuts into a gorge with steep walls where it forms narrows and small waterfalls. It is the wildest corner of a concello that barely rises above eighty metres of altitude in its lowlands. At 84.5 kilometres, it is the longest river in the province of Ourense; it rises in the concello of Vilar de Barrio, in the Sierra de San Mamede, and crosses Baños de Molgas, Xunqueira de Ambía, Allariz, A Merca and Celanova before marking the boundary between Ramirás and Gomesende to the north and Cartelle and Cortegada to the south, cut into a canyon with a 300-metre drop over seven kilometres, among crags and woodlands. Already within the concello of Arnoia it forms the valleys of San Vicente and San Amaro before flowing into the Miño, at Portocarreiro, opposite a granite islet.
The cork oak forest of the Arnoia
Nature
More than a thousand hectares of cork oak cover the slopes of the concello, a mass of cork oaks exceptional in Galicia which takes advantage of the warm microclimate of the lower Miño of Ourense. It coexists with pine woods on the north-eastern side.
The pepper of the Arnoia
Food and drink
A green pepper with an elongated fruit and fine flesh, grown in the lowlands of the Arnoia estuary, where the mild climate allows it to be harvested from early summer. It holds a Protected Geographical Indication and is grown mainly in the Ribeiro district, in the municipality of Arnoia and the parish of Meréns. It is yellowish-green when fresh and deep red when ripe, with a mild, non-spicy flavour, unlike the Padrón pepper. It is eaten fried, and also lends itself to roasting or stuffing; it gives its name to the concello's main festival, declared of tourism interest (an official Spanish tourism-interest distinction), held on the first weekend of August ever since a cooperative began marketing it in 1969.