THE TÁMEGA RIVER

PPT “THE TÁMEGA RIVER” “Water is the beginning”... It is not exaggerated to say that this thought by Tales from Mileto inaugurates Europe, since it is the foundation of Philosophy, which is the pillar that holds up the development of a culture which would rule the world.

Tales also stated that the Earth is like cork floating over water and that water is the same all over the world, it only moves from one place to another. People around the world can communicate through the rivers that flow into the sea and all of us drink the same water.

THE HISTORY OF A RIVER... THE TÁMEGA In Galicia, The Country of a Thousand Rivers, there are two main watersheds: 1- The watershed of the Miño: The “Father Miño”, as some poets have called this river, runs all over our geography, drawing a diagonal from the North (Cantabrian Sea) to the West (Atlantic Ocean).

2- The watershed of the Douro: The Douro is one of the major arteries that cross the Iberian Peninsula.

Our river, the Támega, after covering 145 Km, flows into the Douro and injects new life into it, since the dry Castilian steppe doesn’t provide the Douro with enough water.

The name of the Támega comes from a Celtic word, TAM (meaning “dark”). The Celts settled down in most of western Europe before the Roman invasions. Wales, Ireland, Brittany, Cornwall and Galicia are Celtic countries. The Támega and the Thames (homonymous

words) are “relatives” in the very same way that the inhabitants of these areas, sharing common ancestors, once were.

The river Támega waters part of the South of Galicia and the North of Portugal.

A “young Támega” is “fed” by countless streams that cross the southern face of the Galician Central Mountain Mass, the most important mountainous area in Galicia.

Rolling stones and pebbles on their way, these streams sweep along a great deal of sediment. After having eroded forests, all these streams finally converge in less “stressful” lands and deposit what they have dragged from the summits of the mountains, forming a “calmer” riverbed . Here the new-born Támega starts a more peaceful journey across Monterrei Valley.

That’s how all these streams become a river, the river Támega, which starts a new stage on its journey, slowly winding across fields, and watering a prairie which will become fruitful (producing a great variety of fruit) thanks to the river.

Water and streams give rise to peoples and cultures. Villages string out on both the right and left banks of the river. There are up to 25 small villages, or hamlets along the 20 first Kms the river Támega runs. Only emigration prevents this area from being one of the most populated in western Europe.

This wet area, which has mild temperature (short cold winters and long hot summers) has given rise to a rich agriculture based on corn, potatoes, wheat, vegetables and grapevines which ripen on the slopes.

The vineyards produce red and white wines which belong to Monterrei D.O. (Denominación de Origen). In 2011 two million five hundred thousand grapes belonging to Monterrei D.O. (protected quality) were harvested.

The Támega starts its quiet journey travelling through areas of important ecological value, protected by the European Union as Places of Communal Interest.

In addition, some other treasures are hidden under the twenty-five hectares of sediment made up of the materials the river sweeps along: The main industry most of the economy in Monterrei depends on is its medicinal waters. In the nineteenth century Verín spas used to be full of people in the summertime. Nowadays we don’t have spas any more but our spring waters are bottled by several companies: Cabreiroá, Fontenova and Sousas and they are sold both in Spain and abroad.

Monterrei Castle, a fortress built upon the site of the ancient “Castro de Baroncelli”, towers above the valley, watching this freshwater current flowing through Verín.

The so called “castros” or “Castellum” are the early settlements of the native inhabitants of the peninsular Northwest. These original dwellers were the ones that Romans had to fight hard until they could finally defeat them and sign the peace agreements known as “PAX LATINA”, which were negotiated between the conquerors and each fortified village or “castro”. The fact that Romans reached GALLAECIA during an already late stage of the Empire, in the 3rd century A.D., accounts for the strong Galician resistance.

Monterrei Castle was the house from which the countship of Monterrei sprang up, becoming one of the dynasties which best exemplifies medieval Galician middle classes (with family names such as Acevedo, Ulloa or Fonseca). This castle was the place where the first Galician printer’s was set up as well as home to the second school that Jesuits founded in Spain. Some scholars think that the author of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, whose surnames are clearly Galician, studied in this school. The Count of Monterrei was one of the founders of Santiago University.

Due to its geographical characteristics, the towering and originally fortified village of Monterrei reminds us of those Greek colonies in the ancient province known as “Magna Greece” such as Elea or Syracuse, where Parmenides and Pythagoras were respectively born.

This place name, Monterrei, spread throughout the world, and is found in a Mexican town with similar geographical features.

After being joined by another legendary Galician river called Búbal, the Támega flows on towards Portugal. The Búbal has its source in one of the sacred hills in Celtic mythology known as Larouco. Lots of archaeological remains can be found nearby: among them the outstanding “Forum Bubalorum”, which was the capital of the kingdom of the so called “Búbalos”(who inhabited the banks of the Búbal and were rivals to the so called “Tamagani”, from the riverside of the Támega).

The Tamega is a peaceful river during the last kilometres of its journey through Verín, and as it calmly flows past the villages of Queizás, Morazos, Tamagos, Tamaguelos, Rabal and Feces de Abaixo, where it freely crosses the frontier to begin its Portuguese adventure.

In Portugal, the Tamega first gets to Chaves, a town with thermal springs that Romans called “AQUAE FLAVIAE” - meaning Flavio’s thermal springs. The bridge still exhibits the surviving milestone inscribed with the names of each tribe inhabiting the old region washed by the Támega, in Roman Gallaecia.

Chaves is a growing town with about forty thousand inhabitants which has always lived in harmony with a fluvial origin that is tenderly looked after.

People from Verín and Chaves often visit each other’s walks and parks since both towns are trying to develop an innovative European initiative which can bring about the birth of a EUROTOWN, a town with two neighbourhoods located in two different cities sharing services.

After leaving Monterrei Valley the Támega flows on to its river mouth, narrowing deep between mountains, and therefore recovering its former playful looks once more. Its water flow rushes so fast again that it’s even used for rafting as it makes its way through the most important Portuguese mountain masses: Marao and Alvao.

Then it finally comes to bathe another relevant Portuguese town called Amarante, where a typically Portuguese variety of wines are brewed to yield the GREEN WINES. These spirits, without much alcohol content, leave a pleasant fruity flavour, that brings to mind the perfume of apples, cherries or pears next to which the grapes

live, hanging high up between the trees, and consequently turning out difficult to harvest.

In the final stage of the journey, a hydroelectric power station stops the river from flowing freely unhindered, so that it finally dies into the Douro, providing this bigger river with fresh pure Galician water, which, however, gets more and more cloudy as soon as it touches the Douro, now ochre-coloured after dragging the dust and earth from the Castilian plateau. “…from the place where every single thing comes, that’s also where, necessarily, the journey to their graves leads them to, for one thing explains the others following the order imposed by time” (Anaximandro from Mileto, seventh Century before Christ)