Logbook · 5 places

The Gándaras of Budiño

Salceda de Caselas, Vigo, Pontevedra

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

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The Gándaras of Budiño

Nature · Salceda de Caselas, Vigo, Pontevedra

Image of Salceda de Caselas, not of the place itself.

A complex of peat bogs and alluvial terraces above the Louro valley, one of Galicia's most distinctive inland wetlands and a refuge for amphibians and waterbirds. It is spread across several municipalities in the area. Made up of a set of lagoons, ponds and streams designated a special area of conservation, it is one of the largest expanses of inland waters in Galicia and is listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) for its Acheulean archaeological sites. The wetland formed when the ground subsided along tectonic fractures, later filled in with sediment from the Miño river; to the east the Louro winds between the Penedo Corucho and the Faro de Budiño, covered in large quartz crystals, while to the west rises the sierra do Galiñeiro. In 1961 a Lower Palaeolithic site was discovered here, with layers dated to between 182,000 and 28,700 years old.

Photo: José Antonio Gil Martínez from Vigo, Spain (CC BY 2.0)

What to see and do in Salceda de Caselas