Vigo, 17th October
I was in Vigo last trip but went straight up to Santiago.
The Romans first occupied Vigo, with is being more of a string of Parishes around a fishing port.
In the Middle Ages, Vigo was a small village, but suffered many Viking attacks. It was very small well into the 15th century. In 1585 and 1589, Francis Drake raided the city. Then the Turkish fleet attacks so the town walls were built. Vigo then developed as a commerce centre and was given special privileges by the king of Spain.
In 1719, a Spanish fleet which departed from Vigo to invade Scotland in support of the Jacobites. The British then occupied Vigo for 10 days.
As it became more industrialised and became a powerhouse for the area, most of the old wall, fisherman’s houses etc were torn down for development.
It is now a fishing centre. Two huge industries. The modern fleet with gigantic ships and massive processing plants, and the traditional fleet of tiny boats mainly fishing for Octopus and Squid.
Much of the worlds pink and grey granite comes from this area. And so much of the place is built with the granite. Very attractive.
Today I shared a taxi with a lady from the lounge and toured around for a few hours.
The Beaches.
With unpolished granite paths.
Then a look around.
The fishing village – mainly Octopus fishermen.
For drying maize.
Roman churches from the 8th Century everywhere.
An old water mill. There was a spring pipe nearby and people were filling bottles of water.
Cemetery. No in ground graves. All in the slots.
More Roman Churches.
300 year old Olive tree.
A pigeon house. Good eating.
QUIÑONES DE LEÓN
Castro Fortress. The fortress of the Castro was built in 1665.
Then went and ate some of the said seafood in Rúa Pescadería – a thin pedestrian plaza full of seafood cafes. When out taxi driver said he would takes us there….we didn’t think he meant driving right into the plaza.
My first Crawfish.
Fun.
Next Gijon, Spain. Click below to go there.