Logbook · 12 places

What to see and do in O Rosal

What to see and do in O Rosal (Baixo Miño, Pontevedra): 12 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of O Rosal

Towns near O Rosal

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What to see in Oia 11 km · 16 places
What to see in Tui 19 km · 20 places
What to see in Gondomar 20 km · 4 places
What to see in Baiona 21 km · 7 places
What to see in Nigrán 23 km · 7 places
What to see in Salceda de Caselas 29 km · 5 places

Spain › Galicia › Pontevedra › Baixo Miño › O Rosal

What to see and do in O Rosal

O Rosal
Village
O Rosal is a concello of about 6,450 inhabitants stretched between the serra da Groba and the floodplain of the river Miño, in the Pontevedra section of the Lower Miño, a natural border with Portugal. It belonged in the Middle Ages to the Cistercian monastery of Santa María la Real de Oya, and was constituted as a municipality independent of La Guardia in 1847, receiving the title of town from Alfonso XII in 1879. It lives from agriculture, pasture livestock farming and inshore fishing, and produces wines under the Rías Baixas denomination, around which it holds the Wine Fair in July, declared de Interés Turístico (Spain's official designation for festivals of touristic significance) in 2016. Its symbol is the muíños do Folón e do Picón, sixty-seven 18th-century water mills, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1998, now restored and the hub of its emerging wine tourism.
Mills of the Folón and the Picón
Monument
The mills of Folón and Picón form a cascading group of sixty constructions already documented in the 18th century, thirty-six on the Folón river and twenty-four on the Picón, on the slope of Mount Campo do Couto, in O Rosal, from where the valley, the mouth of the Minho and the castro of Santa Trega can be seen. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1998 as a site of ethnographic interest, most are wheel, channel or tub mills of two storeys: the machinery driven by water on the lower floor and the millstones above. The oldest, dated 1702 and 1715, preserve stonemasons' marks and protective crosses carved on lintels and jambs; they produced maize, rye or wheat flour for family consumption.
Church of Santa Mariña do Rosal
Monument
A neoclassical church built in the 19th century which holds inside an 18th-century Baroque altarpiece; it presides over the vineyard valley of the municipality, whose town hall also occupies a pazo built in 1781.
Valley of O Rosal
Nature
A valley opening onto the Miño, closed to the west by the Serra da Groba and fertilised by the river's sediments, where terraced vineyards sustain the white wines of the O Rosal subzone within the Rías Baixas designation of origin.
Tamuxe River
Nature
A tributary of the Miño that comes down from the Serra da Groba among alders and willows to the municipality's floodplain; it is crossed by a 19th-century bridge built on an earlier one of Roman origin on the old road to Tui.
The cabaqueiros' Latin jargon
Curiosity
A trade jargon used until the middle of the 20th century by the cabaqueiros, the roof-tile craftsmen who emigrated seasonally to work away from home; the municipality has dedicated a monument to them and keeps their memory in an ethnographic centre.
Festival of o Viño do Rosal
Activity
On the third weekend of July the valley's winegrowers present their whites of the Rías Baixas designation at a fair declared of tourist interest of Galicia in 2016, with tastings, music and open-air food. The fair has been held since 1993 to promote the wine, canning and fruit-and-vegetable sectors of the Val do Rosal, whose vineyards reached their greatest height in the 12th century under the care of the monks of the monastery of Santa María de Oia; it takes place in the plaza do Calvario, with nine stalls from local wineries, and is accompanied by exhibitions and musical performances.
Town hall of O Rosal
Monument
An eighteenth-century former pazo converted into the seat of the town council of O Rosal; its ashlar façade and its coat of arms recall the seigneurial origin of the building that today houses the municipal administration.
Waterfalls of the Folón river
Nature
Waterfalls set in the descent of the río Folón towards the valley of O Rosal, in the same channel that drives the stairway of flour mills; those of the río da Cal complete the concello's set of cascades.
Monument to the cabaqueiro
Curiosity
A sculpture raised in O Rosal in memory of the cabaqueiros, the tile makers who emigrated each season to Castile and Portugal to make roof tile and brick, and who created a guild jargon of their own.
The granting of town status to O Rosal
Historical milestone
Alfonso XII granted O Rosal the title of villa, a few decades after the valley had been constituted as a municipality of its own on separating from A Guarda in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The O Rosal subzone of the Rías Baixas appellation
Food and drink
One of the five subzones of the Rías Baixas designation of origin, settled on the terraces of the lower Miño; its whites combine albariño with loureira and caíño branco, and give wines somewhat more citric than those of the Salnés.