Village
Redondela is a town of around 29,000 inhabitants located at the head of the ria of Vigo, in the founding municipality of the Vigo metropolitan area, in the Vigo district. Its origin goes back to two distinct settlements: Vilavella, next to the convent of the same name and of manorial tradition, and Redondela Nova or Vilanova, which arose around the 13th century as a fishing village around the marsh. It administers the illa de San Simón, in the inlet of the same name, which over the course of its history was a monastery, a lazaretto and a Francoist prison. Known as a vila dos viadutos for its two railway bridges built in 1876 and 1884, it is today the fourth most populous municipality in the province, after Vigo, Pontevedra and Villagarcía de Arosa.
Monument
A cable-stayed bridge that crosses the Ría de Vigo and joins the Morrazo peninsula, to the north, with the Vigo district, to the south, as part of the Atlántico motorway (AP-9). Work began at the end of 1973 and continued until 1977, but the bridge did not open to traffic until 7 February 1981, pending completion of the land access roads; it cost 3,658 million pesetas and was designed by the engineers Fabrizio de Miranda, Florencio del Pozo and Alfredo Passaro. It has three spans -two side spans of 147 metres and a central one of 400- supported by reinforced-concrete piers almost 119 metres tall, and at the time of its construction it was one of the largest central spans of its type in the world and the first on the Iberian Peninsula. Today it carries traffic of more than 50,000 vehicles a day.
Curiosity
The island of San Simón belongs to the parish of Cesantes, in the municipality of Redondela, and is today uninhabited; it presides over the inlet of the same name, at the innermost point of the Ría de Vigo, and is joined by a bridge to the island of San Antón, with which it forms a group 250 metres long by 84 wide, next to the islets of San Bartolomé and San Norberto. Throughout its history it was used as a medieval monastic retreat, a quarantine station from 1838 to 1927, a prison and a home for orphaned children, and between 1936 and 1943 it operated as a Francoist concentration camp, through which some 6,000 prisoners passed. The group formed by the two islands has been a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), with the status of historic site, since 29 July 1999.
Historical milestone
The Battle of Rande, also called the Battle of Vigo, was fought on 23 October 1702 in the Rande strait, within the inlet of San Simón, in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession. There the Spanish galleons had taken refuge, laden with the largest shipment of treasure to have arrived from America, escorted by the French squadron of the Count of Châteaurenault, and protected by the castles of Corbeiro and Rande and by chains stretched from shore to shore. The Anglo-Dutch fleet, with 13,587 men under the command of Admiral George Rooke, forced the passage and destroyed the Hispano-French squadron and the Treasure Fleet from the Indies. The sunken treasure inspired Jules Verne in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and the victory gave its name to a street in London, Vigo Street.
Activity
The Festa do Choco is a gastronomic festival held in the municipality of Redondela (Pontevedra) since 1987, on the second weekend of May, and was declared a Festival of Tourist Interest of Galicia in 2013. It coincides with the increase in cuttlefish, or choco, fishing in the San Simón inlet, caught using traditional gear such as fish traps, which peaks in April. As well as tasting the product -stewed with or without its ink, with rice or potatoes, grilled, in a pasty or in fideuá-, a competition is held with four categories: best creative recipe, cuttlefish in its own ink, with rice, and in a pasty. The two days of the festival include alborada, an open-air dance, a street parade and brass band, together with the Chococlásico, a display of vintage cars.
Monument
The Madrid viaduct, also called the Pedro Floriani viaduct, is one of the two railway bridges that cross the centre of Redondela, together with the Pontevedra viaduct. Inaugurated on 30 July 1876, it remained in use for more than a century on the Vigo–Ourense line. Directed by the architect Augusto Cazaux and built by the French company Compagnie de Fives-Lille, it combines rolled iron, reddish in colour, with ashlar piers; it is 32 metres high and 411 metres long, of which 255.89 correspond to the metal section. It fell out of use in 1971 when a variant of the line was built, and in 2024 a project was resumed to turn it into a pedestrian walkway. Together with the Pontevedra viaduct, greyish and inaugurated in 1884, it gave the town its nickname of the viaducts.
Curiosity
More than thirty mámoas and several groups of petroglyphs spread over the height, with occupations running from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. It is one of the greatest megalithic concentrations of the Rías Baixas.
Activity
The Coca is a wood-and-cloth dragon that every Corpus Christi parades through the streets of Redondela, in the Vigo area, escorted by the penlas, girls raised on human towers who represent the maidens freed from its jaws. The festival re-enacts a legend from Galician mythology, the defeat of the coca at the hands of the village's young men, and is completed by the Dance of the Swords, in which the young men dance with their weapons around the vanquished animal. Declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Gallego (Galicia's official tourist-interest designation) in 2011, it is also celebrated, on a smaller scale, in Betanzos and in the Portuguese town of Monção, twinned with Redondela since 2002.
Historical milestone
It was a leper lazaretto between 1830 and 1927 and, after the coup of 1936, a concentration camp and prison until 1943, with thousands of prisoners crammed together. The island was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural in 1999.
Food and drink
The Festa do Choco, held in Redondela since 1987 on the second weekend of May and declared a Festa de Interese Turístico de Galicia (Galicia's official tourist-interest designation) in 2013, coincides with the upswing in choco fishing in the San Simón estuary, caught with traditional gear such as traps and at its peak during April. Besides tastings, it includes a culinary competition with categories such as the best creative recipe, chocos in their ink, chocos with rice or choco empanada, and is rounded out with an alborada, a municipal band, a verbena, a street parade and a charanga band. Cooked in its own ink or grilled with boiled potatoes and cornbread, choco is the town's signature dish.