Gallecia Gallicia Galiza

G A L L E C I A, G A L L A E C I A, G A L L I C I A

RIAS.The word ria comes from Portuguese ria or Galician “ría”, which is related to Spanish and Galician “rio” (river). Rias are present all along the Galician coast in Spain. As originally defined, the term was restricted to drowned river valleys cut parallel to the structure of the country rock that was at right angles to the coastline. However, the definition of ria was later expanded to other flooded river valleys regardless of the structure of the country rock. For a period of time, European geomorphologists regarded rias to include any broad estuarine river mouth, including fjords. These are long, narrow inlets with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. But, in the 21st century, the current and preferred usage of “ría” by geologist and geomorphologists restricts this term solely to apply to drowned unglaciated river valleys. It excludes fjords by definition

GALICIA, an Atlantic land with its own special outline, is situated in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. In Galicia there are two perfectly distinguishable zones: Eastern Galicia, comprising the lands on the banks of the Alto or Upper Miño, the Sil valley, the Orense massifs and the mountain-ranges or sierras of the south and south-west; Western Galicia, which embraces regions of the north-west, the west, the Ulla valley and districts which lie near the Rías Bajas and the lands of the central and lower Miño.

The coastline of Galicia presents a singularly attractive sight, with the charms of its rías or inlets fusing their incomparable beauty with great fishing wealth. As with the lands of the interior, the coast also presents two zones which are different in character: the Rias Altas (Upper) and the Rias Bajas (Lower). The former, comprising the Rías of Ribadeo, Foz Viveiro, 0 Barqueiro and Ortigueira, are pronouncedly wild in character. The Rias Bajas are worthy of an eclogue — the water lies there calmly embraced by the land — and include the rías of Muros, Noia, Arousa, Pontevedra and Vigo. We could even talk of a third zone along the coastline, mid-way between the Rias Altas and the Rias Bajas, and which includes the central rías of Cedeira, Ferrol, Betanzos, Pontedeume, La Coruna, Corme, Laze, Camarifias and Corcubion, Galicia has a very humid climate with an average rainfall of over 1,300 mm per year and more than 2,000 hours of sunshine. The Ancares mountain range forms the border with Castilla and Leon to the east and the Minho River forms part of the border with Portugal to the south.

Map. Galician rivers.

Ria de Ferrol. Ria de Muros Ria de Ferrol Ria de Coruña

Ria de Muros Ria de Villagarcía Ría de Pontevedra Ría de Vigo

A “Castro” is a Celtic fortified settlement usually pre-Roman, although there are examples below that lasted until the existing Middle Ages in Europe and own the late Bronze Age and Iron Age. They are frequently found in the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in the northwest with the Castro culture. The word Castro comes from the Latin castrum, which means "military fortification" The “castro” is a fortified town that began to be habited from the sixth century BC., without perpendicular streets and space filled out with constructions almost always circular. The oldest constructions were mostly thatched-mud and the latest built on masonry. The roof was made of branches and mud and after long sticks. Fundamentally, they were unique stays. They are situated in naturally protected (heights, riots rivers, small peninsulas) locations close to sources and arable land and on the border between these and higher grazing areas. The “castros” were protected by one or more trenches, parapets and walls lining the enclosure inhabited; their access may be a tower that controlled the entrance ways to the same or another strategic place.

CELTIC GALICIA Galicia’s name is derived from the Celtic Gallaeci, who lived there when the region was conquered by the Roman legions about 137 BCE. In Roman and Visigothic times Galicia stretched south to the Duero River and eastward to beyond the city of León and formed part of the archdiocese of Bracara Augusta (Braga). From about 410 CE it was an independent kingdom under the Suebi, who were finally destroyed by the Visigoths in 585. Galicia lost much of its political autonomy after the unification of Castile and Aragon in 1479 and fell under the administration of the royal Junta del Reino de Galicia in 1495.

Galicia is one of the oldest lands there is as far as its geography is concerned. Its mountains were formed for the most part in the Primary Era and were inhabited by man early on. At various places, there still remain sketches and inscriptions on the rocks, petroglifos, testimonies the prehistoric culture which existed there in the Paleolithic period of the Stone Age. Likewise there are abundant megalithic monuments from the Neolithic period. The burial tumuli and the castros or walled defences date from the transition period between the Stone Age and the Metal Age. These pre-Celtic megalithic vestiges appear to have been later retouched by the Celts. The Celts burst into Galicia round about the 6th century B.C. They came from Central Europe and belonged to the Indo-European racial branch. In Galicia the Celts formed federated community nuclei and were linked to the Roundhouse or Castro culture. These Celtic communities were grouped around castros or fortified hilltops, many of which are still perfectly visible throughout the geography of Galicia. The Celts were skilled metal-workers. There are preserved numerous artisticallyworked objects from the Celtic era such as torques, diadems, bracelets, bronze fibulae, pendant ear-rings and iron swords. They professed a religion which was pantheistic in nature and made a cult of trees, mountains, springs, and rivers, but no traces have been found in Galicia of their shrines or Celtic idols. Nonetheless, there still survives in Galicia a Celtic substratum which is especially important in the spiritual aspect.

Perhaps the most characteristic sign of this substratum is the nostalgic nature (what the Welsh would call hiraeth) in the Galician character.

Castro in Vidalonga Castro in BroĂąa

Leiro´s helmet is aa ritual hemispherical cap probably dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age[1] (circa 1,000 to 800 BC)

PETROGLIFOS, The petroglifos are symbolic designs engraved on rocks, made wearing surface layer. Many were made by men from the Neolithic period. They are the closest precedent of pre-writing symbols. Its use as a form of communication is dated to 10,000 BC. C. and can be up to modern times in some cultures and places. The word comes from the Greek words petros (stone) and glyphein (carve). Originally, it was coined in French as pétroglyphe TORQUES, CELTIC TORCS Depictions of the gods and goddesses of Celtic mythology sometimes show them wearing or carrying torcs, as in images of the god Cernunnos wearing one torc around his neck, with torcs hanging from his antlers or held in his hand, as on the Gundestrup cauldron. This may represent the deity as the source of power and riches, as the torc was a sign of nobility and high social status The c.150 torcs found in Galicia –Burela, etc- favoured terminals ending in balls coming to a point or small buffer ("pears"), or a shape with a double moulding called scotiae The word comes from Latin torquis (or torques), from torqueo, "to twist", because of the twisted shape many of the rings have. Typically, neck-rings that open at the front when worn are called "torcs"

Burela´s torque. VI BC Petroglifos in Campo Lameiro

The city of LUGO. Fabius Maximus Paulo founded Lucus Augusti in 14-13 BC, on a military camp set up around the year 25 BC The city would be the capital of the Legal Convent Lugo, where the north of Gallaecia was integrated. The city is located on a plateau at 475 m. altitude surrounded by natural pits on three sides, the Minho River to the west and south and the brooks of Chanca Paraday and Rato on the east; to the north, Lucus Augusti had in his excellent parapet wall to protect it also from the northern cold wind. It was the closest capital to the Roman Finisterrae, the last link of the Roman fortifications, so that its walls should be much too strong. Lucus The name derives from Latin and means sacred forest; but it is also possible that had a previous root as the name of the Celtic god of light was Lugh, and venerated in pre-Roman times

ROMAN GALLAECIA Timeline of Roman Galicia 139 B.C.Callaecia expedition of Quintus Servilius Caepio.

61-60 B.C. Callaecia expedition of Julius Caesar.

Callaecia the coast under the control of Rome In 12 BC, the city founded in the Gallaecia was called Lucus Augusti, Sacred Forest of Augustus.

A "lucus" in Latin, is a term that originally determined a clearing in the dense forest in which lived a god.

At the time of the founding of the city, Augustus was the only president of Rome 460 A.D. Assault to the city of Lucus Augusti from disgruntled led by the Suevos. On Easter Sunday the assailants put to death the Roman governor of the city.Galicia becomes completely dominated by the Suevos

Map of the roman roads in Europe Roman walls around the city of Lugo.

Hemerico, was the first monarch of the Suebi kingdom of Galicia, as was the one who had the Suevos when they settled in Galicia in 410. In 409 the Suevos led by King Hemerico constitute a stable community set on Galicia, that it was called REGNUM Suevorum or GALLICIENSE REGNUM. Hemerico made an agreement "foedus" with the Romans around 410 to 411, a tacit acknowledgment of its legitimacy and for which the Suevos assumed political functions that until then belonged to the emperor (Horacio), among others, military defense and coinage, that from now on they made on behalf of this. It was therefore the first medieval king proclaimed in the territory of the Roman Empire, the first king of the Suevos kingdom of Galicia, and also it was the first state BARBARIAN EUROPE MEDIEVAL, which came to be the territories of present Galicia, northern Portugal to the Douro river, Asturias and Leon.

GALLICIA Sueva, in the 6th century also Suavi –los suevos- (Jordanes, Procopius) were a large group of people who lived in Germania and were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with Ariovistus campaign in Gaul, c. 58 BC. While Caesar treated them as one Germanic tribe, though the largest and most warlike, later authors such as Tacitus, Pliny and Strabo specified that the Suevi "do not, like the Chatti orTencteri, constitute a single nation. They actually occupy more than half of Germany, and are divided into a number of distinct tribes under distinct names, though all generally are called Suebi –suevos-". "At one time, classical ethnography had applied the name "Suevi" to so many Germanic tribes that it appeared as though in the first centuries A.D. this native name would replace the foreign name "Germans" Classical authors noted that the Suevic tribes, compared to other Germanic tribes, were very mobile, and not reliant upon agriculture. Various Suevic groups moved from the direction of the Baltic sea and river Elbe, becoming a periodic threat to the Roman Empire on their Rhine and Danube frontiers. Toward the end of the empire, the Alamanni, also referred to as Suebi, first settled in the Agri Decumates and then crossed the Rhine and occupied Alsace. A pocket remained in the region now still called Swabia, an area in southwest Germany whose modern name derives from the Suebi. Others moved as far as Gallaecia (Galicia, and Northern Portugal) and established the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia there which lasted for 170 years (411-585) until its integration into the Visigothic Kingdom that controlled the resto of the peninsula.

The Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia, Galliciense Regnum, was a Germanic post-Roman kingdom, one of the first ones to separate from the Roman Empire. Based in the former Roman provinces of Gallaecia and northern Lusitania, the de facto kingdom was established by the Suebi about 410 and during the 6th century it became a formally declared kingdom identifying with Gallaecia. It maintained its independence until 585, when it was annexed by the Visigoths, and was turned into the sixth province of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania.

Witiza, Suevos King. 697 Suevos Kingdow of GALLICIA

Almanzor. al-Hajib al-Mansur (Arabic: ‫( )أﺑﻮ ﻋﺎﻣﺮ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﺑﻦ ﻋﺒﺪ ﷲ ﺑﻦ أﺑﻲ ﻋﺎﻣﺮ اﻟﺤﺎﺟﺐ اﻟﻤﻨﺼﻮر‬c. 938 – 1002), better known as Almanzor, was the de facto ruler of Muslim Iberia (al-Andalus) in the late 10th to early 11th centuries. His rule marked the peak of power for al-Andalus.

In 997, Almanzor swept Santiago, after the bishop Pedro Mezonzo evacuate the city Almanzor´s forces reached the city, burnt the temple Romanesque dedicated to Santiago, respecting his grave. After the atack he took the bells and the basilica doors to Cordoba.

ARAB GALICIA The Arabs invaded Galicia in the year 716 but never managed to consolidate their hold on the country. Though they took several Galician cities, they never managed to dominate the mountains of the centre and south of the country.

In the 9th century came the supposed discovery of the tomb of St. James the Apostle. The event, whether real or imaginary, was to have enormous repercussions for Galicia. Santiago de Compostela was transformed into the most important political and religious centre in the country, ousting Lugo, the primate church of the Asturian monarchy. On the other hand, the im-print of pilgrimages to St. James had a decisive influence on the cultural and economic development of Galicia. Galicia suffered various Norse invasions throughout the Middle Ages. In the 11th and 12th centuries there appeared in Galicia the outstanding figure of Gelmirez. This Compostela bishop supported the proclamation of Alfonso Raimondez as king of Galicia and for a time governed the country. But Gelmirez had to face the Compostela burgesses, who rose up in arms against the power of the bishop, whom they expelled from his see. Finally, the Compostela rebellion was put down and Gelmirez once again assumed power. With Alfonso Raimandez on the throne of Castile, supported by Gelmirez, there came the in-dependence of Portugal.

The centuries of greatest splendour for Galicia were the 12th and the 13th. From 1157 to 1230 Galician genius reached its apogee, both in the fields of culture and art, and politics. It was during this time that there flourished the extraordinary poetry of the Galician-Portugese cancioneros or writers of lyrical songs, and Galician-Romanesque art produced the crowning achievement of its genius: the Portal of Glory of the Compostela cathedral. Likewise, the St. James pilgrimages transformed Santiago de Compostela into a second Rome within the Christian world at the same time.

BISHOP GELMIREZ In 1100 the diplomat Diego GelmĂ­rez (c.1069-c.1149) was made bishop of Compostela, and over the next 40 years vigorously promoted the cause of the pilgrimage, as well as of the cathedral, whose construction in granite had begun in 1705. By 1120 he had become an archbishop and papal legate and in 1122 the last stone of the cathedral was laid, although decoration and building continued for many years thereafter. By this time the Way of St. James had begun to rival the major Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem which was far more dangerous and sometimes impossible to accomplish when cut off by the Saracens. Although the rigours of crossing the Pyrenees and the arid lands of Castile made the journey to Santiago de Compostela seem as arduous as the way to the Holy Land for many, by the 12th century it was reported that 1000 pilgrims arrived in Santiago each day.

THE SANTIAGO WAY. EL CAMINO DE SANTIAGO In the pre-Christian era, a route that led over the Pyrenees and across northern Spain to Cape Finisterre was used for trade and religious purposes by the Celts and Romans. As one of the most westerly points of Europe, and named from the Latin “Finisterrae” which means “Land´s End”, the cape faces the region traditionally associated with the realm of the Dead: the land of the setting sun that lies across the sea and beyond the horizon.

In 814, a marble sarcophagus was allegedly discovered by the monk Pelayo, Teodomir, the local bishop, immediately declared that the newly discovered tomb was that of St. James, King Alfonso II of Asturias (r.791-842) and his court visited the site and ordered the building of a wooden church around the tomb. Some suggest that King Alfonso himself was the first pilgrim to the site, and over the coming years the story of St. James and his relics became politically useful for rallying Christians in the region against the Islamic invaders who had succeeded in conquering much of Spain

MAESTRO MATEIO Master Mateo (c. 1150 -c. 1217) was a sculptor and architect who worked in medieval Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula during the second half of the twelfth century. He is best known now for the Pรณrtico de la Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. He was also responsible for the stone choir of the cathedral in 1200, later torn down in 1603. The earliest information about Maestro Mateo is from an 1168 document in the archives of the cathedral of Santiago, which says that the Master was already working on the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, for which he received a large sum of money from King Ferdinand II of Leรณn. Very little information remains about his early training, but everything seems to imply that he already had a long career behind him all along the Way of Santiago, especially in the French sections.

ROMANESQUE GALICIA The diffusion of the Romanesque in Europe is due to the order of Cluny, of French origin. Thanks to its great power (it managed to possess more than 50000 monks and 1500 monasteries and several Popes came from this Benedictine order) it would be able to spread his knowledge and ideas, since its principal task was the pilgrimage together with the preaching of the crusades. The order of Cluny was a defender of the use of images and veneration of relics, which would give place to the traffic of these and at the same time promoted the pilgrimages, especially the Jacobean one.

The epicenter of the Romanesque style in Galicia was, undoubtedly, Santiago de Compostela. The building of the cathedral, promoted by the discovery of the supposed remains of the apostle Santiago, turned the city into the third center of peregrination of the Christianity together with Rome and Jerusalem.

The construction of the cathedral began with the archbishop Diego Peláez, but he was removed due to his differences with the king Alfonso VI. For a time, the works were paralyzed. It was Diego Xelmírez who turned into the great promoter of the city and of the same cathedral. This archbishop could achieve his goals thanks to his big influences, not only with the Christian kings of the time, but because he also had the favor of the papacy, due to his good relation with the order of Cluny, in fact he was a protected of the brother of the Pope Callistus II. The building of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela marked a new influence for the following constructions in Galicia, specially in the architecture, though they would be simpler constructions. But specially we can see the influence in the work of the ornamentation of churches and monasteries. Rural masters imitated the style of the Mestre Mateo, creator of the Portico of Glory, as we can see in the decoration of sculptures in the facade of Santo Estevo de Ribas de Miño, but in a simpler way. The Romanesque style in Galicia does not limit itself only to the cathedral of Santiago, but we have an important group of monasteries and small churches placed especially in the Ribeira Sacra along the river Sil, and also along the river Miño, where many medieval monasteries still stay, which make this area of Galicia one of the richest ones in Spain regarding Romanesque heritage Portico de la Gloria, Santiago´s Cathedral…… Maestro Mateo

Goodbye rivers,

Blackberries from the wild vines

Far off I hear them, far away,

goodbye springs

I picked to give my love,

The bells over in Pomar,

Narrow trails between the corn-rows,

That ring for me, oh,

Goodbye, rivers, goodbye, springs, Goodbye, trickling streams; Goodbye, all I see before me: Who knows when we’ll meet again?

Oh my home, my homeland, Soil where I was raised, Little garden that I cherish, Fig trees I grew from seed.

Meadows, rivers, woodlands, Pine groves bent by wind, All the chirping little songbirds, Home I cherish without end.

Mill nestled between the chestnuts, Nights lit brightly by the moon, Tremor of the little bells, My parish chapel’s tune.

heartache, Goodbye, forever goodbye!

They’ll ring for me no more!

Goodbye, glory! Goodbye, gladness!

I leave the house where I was born,

[…]

Leave my village so familiar For a world I’ve never seen.

Goodbye too, my beloved…

Goodbye forever it may be!…

I’m leaving friends for strangers,

I cry as I bid you farewell

Leaving prairies for the sea,

From the shoreline of the sea.

Leaving all that I love dearly…

Oh, if I didn’t have to leave!…

Don’t forget me, home beloved,

Goodbye, goodbye, I’m going,

Though I die of loneliness…

All you grasses over the graves,

So many leagues across the

Where my father lies deep buried,

sea…

Grass I’ve often leaned to kiss,

My sweet abode! My hearth!

Sweet soil where we were raised.

MORRIÑA, describes a melancholic feeling that especially concerns the longing for the land from which one comes from, also homesickness

GALICIAN LANGUAGE & LITERATURE The renaissance of the Galician language came with the publication of “Cantares Gallegos” by the poetess Rosalia de Castro in 1863. In 1916 the "Irmandades da Fala" or Language Associations, were created. Their intention was to restore to the Galician language the dignity it had lost as a language of culture and of social intercourse. The creation of the group "NOS" made an effective contribution to this cultural achievement, thus giving impulse to the birth of Galician nationalistic feeling in the political sphere. In 1920 Vicente Risco published his Theory of Galician Nationalism and in 1931 the Galician Nationalist Party (Partido Galleguista) was founded. On 28th June 1936 a plebiscite was held in Galicia in which the Estatuto de Autonomia de Galicia was voted by a large majority, but it could not come into force due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War twenty days later. The 1978 Spanish Constitution recognised the right of Galicia to its autonomy and the Xunta de Galicia assumed the autonomous powers of the country in 1981.

ROSALIA DE CASTRO 1837 –1885), was a Galician writer and poet. Writing in the Galician language, after the Séculos Escuros (lit. Dark Centuries), she became an important figure of the Galician romantic movement, known today as the Rexurdimento ("renaissance"), along with. Her poetry is marked by the “morriña”, an almost ineffable combination of nostalgia, longing and melancholy. Rosalia de Castro is today the unquestioned poet laureate of Galicia. Highly educated, expected to speak and write Spanish only, she took the bold, unconventional step of writing her early poems in the Galician language. Her defiance earned her the contempt and spite of that segment of the population for whom Galician was a dialect fit only for the illiterate and the churlish; but Rosalía's gallant gesture won her the love and admiration of the rest.

¿Que é iso da “libertá, fraternitdá, igualdá?

Which it is that of liberty, equality and fraternity?

Débeche ser unha cousa.....como “creer no que non vimos”

It should be something like believing in what we see

RETRANCA, The sense of humor of this country has a name and is the breeching. A mixture of sarcasm and irony

GALICIAN Nationalism emerged from the provincialism in 1840, and developed into federalism in the twentieth century by the the “Irmandades da Fala” -National language brotherhood-, a sociocultural association founded in 1916 and which met nationalists – galleguistas- how Anton Villar Ponte, Vicente Risco and Ramón Cabanillas. Could be set the start of the Galician nationalism itself in the assembly that Irmandades that took place in Lugo in 1918. In this first Assembly claimed a complete autonomy for Galicia, and to claim a federation of nations of the Peninsula; the official status for both Galician and Castilian languages in Galicia as well as a seat for Galicia in the League of Nations.

CASTELAO was a Galician nationalist (heir of the early Galicianism), federalist, pacifist, progressist and internationalist. He accepted the autonomy granted to Galicia by the Second Spanish Republic as a tool to construct a possible Galician State, in federation with other Iberian nations. He was also a convinced pro-European. He wrote in Sempre en Galiza, that one of his dreams was to "one day see the emergence of a 'United States of Europe' ". At the end of his life, and as expressed in the final parts of Sempre en Galiza, Castelao became somewhat disappointed with the Spanish Republican politicians in exile, and began to discuss the advantages of a completely independent Galician State Castelao always used the term of Hespaña instead of España, taken directly from the old name Hispania. By using Hespaña he was in fact referring to the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, and not just to the country known as Spain. In fact, he would use the term España in a depreciative way, an example of the "past" and what "should be avoided". It was his ideal that a federation of "Iberian Nations" should emerge to create this new Hespaña. For Rodríguez Castelao these nations were: Castile, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Portugal and Galicia. He also implied that apart from creating the political conditions for it, cultural conditions (education) should also be provided.

Castelao did not support the classical idea of Iberian Federalism, as this advocated for the union of the two Iberian States, Spain and Portugal as such, and not of what he considered to be the real five nations of Iberia. He pointed out that before these nations could federate the Spanish State should "break up" first, so all nations could pact entering the new federation on equal political terms, as free-states

GAITA, Galician bagpipe

FOLK CULTURE AND GASTRONOMY Folk culture in Galicia is enormously varied and rich. Antroido (carnival) it is a celebration of great importance in Galicia. Popular festivals are still celebrated in honour of the patron saints of the respective Galician parishes. Still famous in Galicia are the romerias or pilgrimages such as that of San Andres de Teixido, held on the 8th September, the romeria of Nosa Senora da Barca (in Muxia) held between the 7th and 10th September; those of Nosa Sefiora de Franqueira, one at Whitsuntide and the other on the 8th September, that of Nosa Senora do Faro (near Chantada), also on the 8th September; that of Los Caneiros (in Betanzos) in the month of August; and that of Santa Marta de Riberteme.

Galician popular music is profoundly lyrical. Typically Galician instruments are the gaita or bagpipes, the zanfonia or hurdy-gurdy, and the birimbao or Jew's harp. The muĂąeira is the classic song and dance of Galician folk culture.

Horreo in Carnota Rude Galician barn

HORREO is a typical granary from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula (mainly Galicia, Asturias and Northern Portugal), built in wood or stone, raised from the ground by pillars (esteos in Galician,) ending in flat staddle stones (vira-ratos in Galician) to avoid the access of rodents. Ventilation is allowed by the slits in its walls. Similar buildings (barns) on staddle stones are found in Southern England.

The longest hórreo in Galicia is located in Carnota, A Coruña and is 35 m long The oldest document containing an image of an hórreo is the Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso X "El Sabio" ("Canticles of Holy Mary") (song CLXXXVII) from XII A.C. In this depiction, three rectangular hórreos of gothic style are illustrated.

GALERIA Atlรกntica

GALERÍA A “Galería” is an element of constructive and architectonic composition, used in much of the northern peninsula, especially in the Galician architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In bourgeois residential architecture Galician reached its highest level of development to become an important element in residential buildings.

On the one hand, in the traditional Galician architecture have been present certain elements, such as a “solaina” or corridor, that can be considered antecedents of the gallery. The solaina, usually built of stone and on corbels or pillars, crosses the facade sunniest house, not always for productive purposes. It is abundant in the coastal areas, especially in the richest homes, and is the most representative element of the house and its more versatile space. The corridors, by contrast, are often built with wood, also supported on corbels and cantilevered beams and covered by the extension of the roof.

On the other hand in the sterns of the European warships was installed an element called galería or corridor, which was the extension of the quarterdeck. It appears from the sixteenth century as a balcony from side to side, open for the amusement of the officers in command The elements to close the galería were sash windows, popular at this time in English architecture. The presence of British carpenters in the shipyards of Ferrol, would have enabled the import of these sash-window and its subsequent adoption by the cultured residential architecture

BATEA, Aquaculture structure for mussels

BATEA is a floating structure composed of an upper wooden structure (a network of large beams), floats and huge dimensions perpendicular to the trough ropes plunging into the water where mussels grows. The “bateas” are floating rafts where the cultivation of mussels in Galicia is carried out. They consist of a rectangular timber frame of 100 to 500 square meters supported by steel floats coated with fiberglass, polyester or filled with expanded polyester. The “Batea” is attached to the bottom by one or two strings of steel and weighs twenty tons. Wood framing nylon strings three centimeters thick and ten to twelve meters long, where the mussels are hung fattening. The bateas are arranged in groups called polygons, whose arrangement and number are controlled by galician authorities Recently it has been limited to 500 the number of strings per raft to prevent san growing areas and encourage better growth. 50 tons is the average production by each “batea”.

The CRUCEIRO consists of several elements: PLATAFORMA Platform of one or more stands.

BASE O Pedestal, usually quadrangular, smooth or inscriptions.

FUSTE (or varal), square, octagonal or cylindrical, smooth with various motifs (ladder, hammer, pliers, skulls, (scenes of the Original Sin).

CAPITEL, complex and varied composition (scrolls, skulls, winged cherubs, among other figures).

CRUZ, rarely alone, sometimes with a crucified Christ on its front face, and an image of the Virgin Mary or some saint in his backside.

CRUCEIRO Are the stone crosses, the most peculiar and characteristic silhouette of a Galicia that still believes in witches and souls in torment –santa compaña-. Galician stone crosses are an inheritance from prehistoric menhirs, Roman milladorios and evangelized Ireland crosses from the centuries VI and VII The stone cross is a religious monument consists of a stone cross usually on a pillar, located in a high public place, mainly crossroads, atriums of churches or placesThey say the oldest of all is the stone crosses Galicia Melide (A Coruña), carved in the fourteenth century.

One of the most beautiful is the stone cross of Lameiros (Ligonde, Lugo), dated 1670, in which the four sides of the base refer to Calvary or death (hammers, nails, thorns, skull), while the cross relief wonder of motherhood or life. The stone cross of Hio (Cangas, Pontevedra) is a wonderful sculpture carved from a single block of stone have a place where the souls in Purgatory, Paradise of Adam and Eve and the Descent.

Cruceiro in Cedeira, & Cruceiro in Hio

MARISCADORAS

FISHING CULTURE The fishing sector in general, including shell fishing and aquaculture, as well as canned and frozen fish- remains one of the first agents in the Galician economy. According to data of the statistical services of the Galician Government, the extractive industries, aquaculture and transformer used together in Galicia about 33,000 people.

The turnover of the Galician fisheries and aquaculture in 2013 reached values at first sale of 563 million euros, with 44% of the value generated in fishing, 19% in coastal fisheries, 6% in shellfish and 31 % in aquaculture “MARISQUEO” Shell fishing is legally defined as a specific form of fishing, consisting of mining activity directed to shellfish harvesting. Its facet simpler and handcrafted -that aims to capture shellfish on the coast and becomes sandy walk without using a vessel- what is known as fishing shellfish on foot –marisquear-. This activity has a great social significance in Galicia, because on it depends the income of more than 4,000 people, mostly women.

The main species that capture the shellfish on foot are: clams (Ruditapes decussatus), plum slug (Venerupis pullastra) and cockles (Cardium edule) In 2009, the economic value of the fish markets in bivalve downloaded by Galician shellfish workers has reached more than 68 million euros, corresponding to approximately 9,000 tons of production sold on auctions.

Shell fishing at the ria. Mariscadoras Berberecho –cockle-, Percebes -barnacles-, Vieira –scallop-

PULPO A FEIRA, Octoupus at Galician style

GALICIAN CUSINE Though unsophisticated, Galician cuisine is extraordinarily attractive. The sea provides the best shellfish and fish, and the land provides excellent-quality meat, pork as well as beef and veal, not forgetting the exquisite meat of kid in the spring. Of shellfish the barnacles, scallops, small crabs, spider crabs, clams and lobsters are outstanding. Stewed lamprey is a gourmet's dish. Other dishes such as lacon con grelos (gammon with turnip leaves), roast young kid, and roast Villalba capon are delicious. Last but certainly not least come the various kinds of empanadas or pies, and tripe with chickpeas PULPO A FEIRA, Octupus in galician style.

This is the most typical way to prepare the octopus in Galicia, so much so that this dish is known in the rest of Spain as Galician octopus. No meeting, procession or feira (fair) that boasts, in any city, town or village in Galicia that does not have its place to eat good octopus EMPANADA is a large pie which is cut into pieces. The fillings for the Galician empanada are usually either tuna, sardines, but can also contain cod or pork loin.

SHELLFISH from Galicia: Almeja –clams-, Berberecho –cockle-, Bogavante –lobster-, Buey de Mar, Calamar –squid-, Camarón –shrimp-, Cañailla, Cangrejo de mar –crab-, Carabinero, Centollo –spider crab-, Chirla, Cigala –crayfish-, Erizo de mar –sea urchin-, Gamba –shrimp-, Langosta -lobster-, Langostino, Mejillón –mussel-, Navaja, Necora, Ostra –oyster-, Percebe -barnacle-, Pulpo – octopus-, Santiaguiño, Sepia, Vieira –scallop, Zamburiña

Empanada. Galician pie.

Typical wood plate to eat octopus in the galician style –pulpo a feira-

Galician vinyards near “Miño” river.

Galician grapes: Treixadoura, Castañal, Condado, Alvariño

GALICIAN WINES. Galicia boasts five denominated wine regions (D.O.s). Rías Baixas, closest to the coast, is the largest and best known of them, where Albariño is the dominant grape. Further inland lie the smaller regions of Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras and Monterrei. 

Monterrei from Ourense with 3000 hectares under cultivation

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Rias Baixas in the province of Pontevedra which has 5 sub-zones and 3650 hectares under cultivation in which is produced Albariño, Rosal and Condado

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Ribeira Sacra which covers a large area with 1255 hectares under cultivation on the banks of the Rivers Miño and Sil and its tributaries.

From the very beginning the Mencia grape has been used and cultivated in a unique and privileged setting and is the variety most emblematic of Ribeira Sacra.

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Ribeiro which covers an area of 2,285 hectares under cultivation in the province of Ourense.

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Valdehorras at the natural entrance to Galicia in the north-east of the province of Ourense. The most emblematic is a Godello white

And also different type of original grapes: Albariño, Treixadura, Godello, Mencía, Torrontés, Loureira and Dona Branca It is generally believed that grape growing and wine production were introduced in Galicia by the ancient Romans. It is said that the legendary type Vinos de Amandi were shipped to Rome along with the lampreys fished out of the river Miño, to be served at the table of the emperor.

It is believed that Ribeira Sacra takes its name from 18 monasteries and hermitages that were founded in the early Middle Ages between the 8th and 12th centuries and which are located in the inaccessible river valleys. It was the monks who replanted the vineyards for their own consumption and maintained the grape-growing and wine-producing tradition until modern times.

Galicia has many different micro climates, this as well as its terroir and dedicated bodega owners produces very surprising results

Typical Galician cup to drink wine. “A Cunca”-galician- or “una taza” –spanish-

Queimada´s SPELL Owls, owls, toads and witches; Ghouls, goblins and devils; spirits of the valleys filled with fog, Crows, salamanders and witches; black cat tail erect all spells and healers ...

Leaky rotten logs, home of worms and vermin, fire of the Holy Company –Santa Compaña-, evil eye, black spells; stench of the dead, thunder and lightning; Satyr and muzzle rabbit's foot; barking fox, sable tail, howling dog, a preacher of death ...

Poor sinful woman language married to an old man; Netherworld of Satan and Beelzebub, Fire burning corpses, wisps of the night of Holy Company, mutilated bodies of the wretched, and farts from hellish asses Roar of the raging sea, harbinger of shipwrecks, sterile single woman belly, meowing cat on all fours searches zeal, dirty mane bad kidding goat gelded and twisted horns ...

QUIEMADA

With this dipper will raise the flames of this fire similar to Hell and witches will be purified of all their wickedness. some flee riding their brooms to go to submerge in the sea of Finisterre.

Hear! Listen these roars ...!

They are witches who are being purified in these spiritual flame ...

And when this delicious concoction down our throats, All of us also will be free the evils of our souls and all spell.

Forces of air, earth, sea and fire! to you I make this call: if it is true that you have more power humans, cleanse our land of evil and do that here and now the spirits of absent friends share with us this “queimada”.

LIQUEURS. Orujo is a type of liqueur (aguardiente) obtained after distilling fermented liqueurs produced from the remains of wine grapes.The production of liqueur is as important as wine production The Galicia government regulates every aspect to ensure these liqueurs deserve a specific denomination, "Orujo de la Galicia" and Galicia is the unique region in the whole of Spain which has a geographical denomination in the same category as French, Italian and Greek brandies.

In addition to the traditional Galician orujo (white spirit) there is also a liqueur made with herbs (hierbas), coffee liqueur (el licor cafe) and cream liqueur (el licor de crema).The queimada is a very popular custom at fiestas especially in the summer when a large bowl is filled with aguardiente and then fruit,sugar and coffee grains are added and then set alight.

LA QUEIMADA Queimada is an alcoholic beverage of Galician tradition The origins of the drink are unknown. Popularly, the “Queimada” attributed Celtic origins, but, as stated in 1972 professor of prehistory at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Carlos Alonso del Real this would be impossible, 3 as the distillation of aguardiente in Galicia cannot be earlier the introduction of the still (of Arab origin) from the twelfth or thirteenth century, and in the Middle Ages. Moreover, again according Alonso del Real, sugar cane, one of its main ingredients, also introduced the Arabs in the Iberian Peninsula (the spread of beet equivalent is much later, corresponding to the Napoleonic Wars). This led him to attribute medieval origins to drink.

Subsequently, Xosé Manuel González Reboredo anthropologist says that consumption of liquor -usually burning it- was common in traditional rural Galicia, which was known as medicine against colds.

The whole ritual of preparation is aimed to ward off evil spirits and witches who, according to tradition, beset men and women to curse them try either for fun, for revenge, for something they have done previously, or any other reason.