Village
Cangas de Morrazo is a town of nearly 27,000 inhabitants situated at the south-western tip of the Morrazo peninsula, in the province of Pontevedra, Galicia, between the rías of Vigo, Aldán and the Atlantic, with 38 beaches spread along its coastline. It holds the title of Muy Leal Villa. In December 1617 it was razed by eleven Turkish-Berber corsair ships, an episode that led to a subsequent witch hunt from which María Soliña emerged, arrested by the Inquisition in 1621. The municipality, made up of the parishes of Aldán, Cangas, Coiro, Darbo and Hio, has historically claimed ownership of the Cíes Islands, today attached to Vigo. Cangas is also noted for its tradition in canoeing, with Olympic medals, and for having been the cradle of a notable punk and electronic music movement.
Monument
A church built in the 16th century in the heart of the town, raised to collegiate status in 1545; its portal, in late Gothic style with Renaissance elements, is the most notable piece in the historic centre of Cangas. Although an earlier church is believed to have existed at least a century before, the present building dates from the early 16th century and was raised to collegiate rank by Pope Paul III. The façade, one of the finest examples of Renaissance sculpture in Galicia, was not built until 1585, to a design by Xácome Fernández, and combines biblical themes with figures of angels and a bishop; the two-tiered tower dates from the 18th century. Inside, with three naves covered by ribbed vaults, the main chapel preserves a Baroque altarpiece from 1744.
Monument
On the summit of Donón, above a castro occupied from the 6th century BC, a Galician-Roman sanctuary of the 2nd to 4th centuries was excavated, with more than a hundred votive altars dedicated to the god Lar Berobreus, unknown until it was found.
Monument
A cylindrical white tower raised at the tip of the headland, one of the tallest lighthouses in Galicia and the point of mainland closest to the Cíes Islands; together with Punta Subrido it marks the northern mouth of the Vigo estuary. Its lantern, 38 metres above the sea, flashes white every three seconds with a range of nine miles. The headland, in the hamlet of Donón, parish of Hío, forms part of the Costa da Vela, integrated into the Rede Natura 2000 network and adjoining the Atlantic Islands National Park; between the headland itself and Punta Subrido, in barely two kilometres, three lighthouses and two sandy beaches follow one another, the ensenada de Ana and that of Medile, with the Sendeiro de Cabo Home running through it.
Monument
A small lighthouse of reddish stone standing on the cliffs of the Costa da Vela, the most singular of the three that mark out the area around Cabo Home and one of the most photographed views of the Morrazo.
Monument
Carved in 1872 from a single piece of granite by a stonemason of the Cerviño family, it stands before the Romanesque church of Santo André do Hío and unfolds a Deposition and biblical scenes; it is considered the most elaborate cruceiro in Galicia.
Nature
A wild beach of fine white sand about 250 metres long and 40 metres wide, in the municipality of Cangas de Morrazo, set in a cove backed by a pine wood, at the heart of the area known as Cabo Home, which separates it from the cliff-lined coast of Soavela. It is fairly isolated, within a fully protected natural area included in the Rede Natura 2000 network, with moderate surf and access on foot only, which has helped preserve its Barra dune system. It usually receives the Blue Flag for the quality of its waters and surroundings.
Nature
A sheltered beach at the foot of an extensive dune system in the parish of O Hío, traditionally frequented by naturists and protected as part of the natural area of the Barra dunes and the Costa da Vela. It lies at the tip of the do Morrazo peninsula, at Donón, sheltered by the headland of Punta Subrido and surrounded by native pine woods; a small rocky headland, with a small bay for leisure craft, separates it from the neighbouring, more built-up beach of Area Meán, with which it forms a continuous stretch of sand. It was one of the first beaches in Galicia where nudism was permitted and today is one of the country's best known in that respect; lying at the mouth of the estuary, its waters are colder than those of the inner beaches, but also cleaner.
Nature
A rocky, rugged stretch of coastline running from Cabo Home to Punta Couso, with cliffs over the Atlantic, heathland and coastal scrub; from its viewpoints the Cíes Islands seem within arm's reach. It forms the westernmost tip of the Morrazo peninsula, between the Vigo and Pontevedra estuaries, and has been protected as a special conservation zone under the Rede Natura 2000 network since 2014, covering almost fourteen hundred hectares, a third of which is marine area. Heathland and dry meadows dominate above the cliffs, while alder and ash woods grow along the streams; among its birds, eleven species are listed as priorities for conservation, among them the European storm petrel. The area is adjacent to the Atlantic Islands National Park.
Nature
A small inlet opening to the south of the Morrazo peninsula, between O Hío and Cabo Udra, with sheltered waters and small coves; its seabed and the bateas that occupy it turned it into an area for mussel farming and on-foot shellfish gathering. Despite its name, it is not strictly a ria, since it was not formed by the erosion of a river, but instead collects the waters of the small river Orxas. Three parishes border its coast: O Hío and Aldán, in the municipality of Cangas, and Beluso, in Bueu; it has a fishing harbour at Aldán and a marina at O Hío. It contains numerous beaches, several with a blue flag, such as Área de Bon, Menduíña, Areabrava and Vilariño, and behind the dunes of the last of these it preserves an old wetland now turned into a lagoon more brackish than fresh, known as A Lontreira after its otters.
Nature
Rodeira beach is an urban stretch of sand 900 metres long and 40 metres wide on average, opening beside the harbour of Cangas de Morrazo, facing Vigo directly across the estuary. The seafront promenade running along it is the town's great meeting place and the arrival point for sea transport, and it has parking, lifeguards, showers, benches, trees and access adapted for people with disabilities, as well as kiosks and restaurants right on the sand.
Curiosity
Between 1619 and 1628 the Holy Office tried many women from Cangas; the best remembered, María Soliña, was prosecuted in 1621 at close to seventy years of age, and Celso Emilio Ferreiro devoted a poem to her in Longa noite de pedra (1962).
Curiosity
On 4 December 1617 a squadron of Turkish-Barbary corsairs landed in the town, sacked it and carried off captives; the economic ruin that followed lies at the root of the lawsuits and the later Inquisition trials.
Activity
Cabo Home closes off the northern entrance to the Vigo estuary, at the western tip of the Morrazo peninsula, on the land of the hamlet of Donón, parish of Hío, within the municipality of Cangas de Morrazo. In barely two kilometres between the headland and punta Subrido, three lighthouses follow one another - one of them among the tallest on the Galician coast - along with two sandy beaches, the ensenada de Ana, below punta Robaleira, and the praia de Melide, surrounded by pine woods and edged with rocks. The area, known as Costa da Vela, forms part of the Rede Natura 2000 network and borders the das Illas Atlánticas National Park; the Cabo Home footpath runs through it, with a possible detour to the sanctuary of Monte do Facho.
Monument
A 12th-century Romanesque church that presides over the square where the celebrated cruceiro stands; in the Middle Ages the parish belonged to the feudal preserve of the house of Soutomaior and today it is the most populous of the concello.
Monument
On the summit of Monte do Facho, in Donón, worship was paid to this Galician god of the afterlife: 174 votive altars were found there, the largest collection of ex-votos in the Iberian Peninsula, on a castro founded in the 4th century BC. The sanctuary, 157 meters above sea level, remained unknown to historiography until the last decade of the 20th century. Berobreo is also linked to the setting sun and the sea, through the association of the solar cycle with life and death and the role of the sea as the place where the sun dies at the end of the earth; he is regarded as the guardian of the afterlife and guide of souls. Under Roman rule he was classed among the Lares gods, although, unlike them, who received family worship, Berobreo was a lar of a public character.
Historical milestone
A squadron of Turkish pirates devastated the town on 4 December 1617: thirty-three residents died, close to eighty were captured and almost two hundred houses burned, plunging into misery a port that was living its best moment.
Historical milestone
After the Turkish sack, the local lords used the Inquisition to accuse women of property of witchcraft and share out their possessions; the best remembered is María Soliña, a sailor's widow tried in 1621, today a symbol of popular suffering.
Curiosity
The dance and contradanza of Darbo is a white dance native to this parish of Cangas de Morrazo, classed among the guild dances, performed on the day of the romería of Santa María, September 8, in the forecourt of the parish church, after the 12:30 mass and the procession. It is danced together by ladies and gentlemen dressed in white, with handmade floral headdresses, and it was originally meant to ward off illness and plague. It has two parts: a slower one, with position exchanges between the rows of dancers, and a livelier one with muiñeiras. Forgotten for 71 years, it was revived from 1985 onward by the Lembranzas da Ría Cultural Association, drawing on the memories of local residents and the musical records kept by Antonia Martínez Seijas.
Curiosity
In the centre of the villa a 19th-century meteorological kiosk with its clock is preserved, a piece of street furniture rare in Galicia which ended up becoming the graphic symbol of Cangas.
Curiosity
The saying, very widespread across the south of Galicia, recalls that the women of the villa were specialised in the trade of carpideiras or mourners, who were hired to weep at funerals.
Activity
Founded in 1984 by a local cultural association, it has passed forty editions and fills the villa each summer with street theatre and comedy companies come from several countries.
Food and drink
The purse-seine and small-gear fleet lands mackerel, sardine and horse mackerel in the villa, oily fish that is grilled or prepared marinated, the basis of the seafaring cuisine of the southern shore of the ría de Vigo.
Historical milestone
During the Peninsular War (1808-1814), on a Palm Sunday, French troops entered Cangas de Morrazo and for ten days burned everything they found; about a hundred and eighty houses burned down, along with the collegiate church, which had first been stripped of its ornaments and bells.
Monument
The church of Santa María de Darbo, the sanctuary of the patron saint of Cangas de Morrazo (Pontevedra), stands at the place called do Seixo, in the parish of Darbo, on a rise. Built in baroque style in granite between the 17th and 18th centuries, it replaced an earlier temple burned down in December 1617 following a raid by Ottoman pirates. It stands out for its harmonious proportion: it has a short-armed Latin-cross plan with a barrel vault, and the central body of the facade ends in a semicircular pediment bearing the image of Our Lady of Darbo, crowned by a cross on a carved base. Completing the group are a centuries-old cruceiro (stone cross) and a baroque fountain. Its interior holds an exceptional baroque decoration, and its romería (pilgrimage) is celebrated every 8 September.
Curiosity
Two anthropomorphic graves cut into the living rock near the beach of Areabrava, in the parish of O Hío; they speak of an early medieval funerary use of the coastline, and in Aldán another one is preserved called Cama do Xudeu.
Nature
A sandy beach open to the Atlantic on the costa da Vela, between O Viño and Barra, with dunes and pine wood at the back; with its neighbours it forms the inlet of Barra, opposite the Cíes islands, and preserves barely built-up stretches.