Logbook · 9 places

What to see and do in Vilamartín de Valdeorras

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

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Vilamartín de Valdeorras

Towns near Vilamartín de Valdeorras

What to see in A Rúa 5.1 km · 6 places
What to see in O Barco de Valdeorras 6.2 km · 9 places
What to see in Petín 6.6 km · 8 places
What to see in Rubiá 9.8 km · 9 places
What to see in Larouco 11 km · 7 places
What to see in O Bolo 13 km · 9 places
What to see in Carballeda de Valdeorras 16 km · 13 places
What to see in Oencia 16 km · 2 places

Spain › Galicia › Ourense › Valdeorras › Vilamartín de Valdeorras

What to see and do in Vilamartín de Valdeorras

Vilamartín de Valdeorras
Village
Vilamartín de Valdeorras is a concello in the province of Ourense, in the comarca of Valdeorras, set in the Sil valley, a tectonic trench bounded to the north by the sierras de los Caballos and de la Lastra and to the south by the sierra del Eje; the municipality's elevation ranges from 300 to 1,600 metres. Soils of limestone, slate and quartz, together with the Santiago reservoir, generate humid microclimates with a Mediterranean stamp, favourable to chestnut, cork oak and vine. It has about 1,800 inhabitants and was known simply as Vilamartín until 1916. The Romans worked gold deposits of the Sil here and traced the Vía Nova from Braga to Astorga; later the Discalced Trinitarians founded a monastery at Correxais, and the local nobility left several pazos as its legacy.
Ruins of the convent of Correxais
Monument
The remains of a convent at 650 metres in the parish of Correxais, on the steep slopes of the Sil valley; from the site much of the valley floor and of the municipality itself can be taken in.
Castle of Arnado
Monument
A fortification also known as Torre Penela, in the parish of Arnado; it guards one of the mountain passes of a rugged district that runs from the 300 metres of the river to the 1,600 of the Alto da Lastra.
Reservoir of Santiago
Nature
The Encoro de Santiago is an artificial dam on the river Sil, in the municipality of Vilamartín de Valdeorras, built in 1968 by the company Saltos del Sil —today owned by Iberdrola— to produce electricity. It is 21 metres high and 147 metres long, and holds back an average of two cubic hectometres of water over an area of 53 hectares, which forms a wetland refuge for waterbirds, especially ducks and waders. Its sheet of water, together with the limestone, slate and quartz formations that dominate the relief of the concello, softens the microclimate of the valley floor where the Valdeorras vineyards ripen.
The revival of godello
Curiosity
The Valdeorras regulatory council was set up with the aim of rescuing the native varieties, and through the Revival programme it brought white godello and red mencía back into cultivation, today hallmarks of the comarca.
Church of San Xurxo de Vilamartín
Monument
Parish church of the municipal capital, in the floodplain of the Sil between the Serra do Eixe and that of los Cabalos; the concello brings together eleven parishes, among them Córgomo, Arcos and Valencia do Sil.
Mount Montouto
Nature
Summit of 1,540 metres in the municipal district of Vilamartín, on the ridge that separates the floodplain of the Sil from the highlands to the south; the concello reaches still greater height at the place of A Lastra.
Villamartín is renamed Vilamartín de Valdeorras
Historical milestone
The municipality added in 1916 the name of the comarca to its official designation in order to distinguish itself from the other Villamartíns of the State, in the same nomenclator reform that affected dozens of Galician concellos.
Terraced vineyard of Córgomo
Food and drink
Terraces of vine held up by slate walls in the parish of Córgomo, one of the historic sites of the Valdeorras designation, where godello finds light and very well-drained soils.