A day in Pontevadra

This is the last of our rest days and a very casual one it was. With no particular plan we wandered around the historic area of Pontevedra.

Pontevedra (pop 85,000) is best known for the charm of its old town. It is the second most important historic town in Galicia after Santiago de Compostela. A city of art and history it is known as “The Good City”. It has a historic group of medieval squares and many monumental religious buildings and noble houses. Best of all it is a walkable city with all of the old town pedestrianised.

The following are some of the places and things we saw.

The Church of the Pilgrim Virgin is a scallop-shaped Roman Catholic chapel located on the route of the Camino Portuguese. Consecrated in 1794. It is one of the most symbolic and important buildings in the city of Pontevedra. It is dedicated to the Virgin who, according to tradition, guided pilgrims from Bayona in the south-west of the province of Pontevedra to Santiago de Compostela. The shape of its floor plan is inspired by a scallop shell, the quintessential symbol of pilgrims, ending in a Christian cross.

The Pontevedra Municipal Market, a covered market , where you find stalls selling fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, cheese, bread, flowers, chestnuts, and with restaurants and cafes. It is a large granite two-storey rectangular structure with columns, arches and arcades. It is home to the Pontevedra fish market and this is the overwhelming smell in the hall. If you don’t like the smell of fish you won’t last long wandering around this market. We didn’t last long.

The ruins of Santo Domingo, a 12th century Dominican Convent. This was a fine Gothic church and construction and enlargement carried on throughout the 15th century. In 1719, during the English attack on Pontevedra, troops burned down the convent and church. There isn’t a lot of this convent left, just the entrance portico and five small chapels. It is part of the Museum of Pontevedra and has a permanent exhibition of stone pieces and tombs relating to the history of the city.

Burgo Bridge, a medieval bridge that crosses the Lerez River. This is another bridge that replaced a previous bridge of Roman origin. It is located on the route of the Camino Portuguese and between its arches on top of pillars are sculpted the pilgrim shells. The pedestrian only bridge you see today is vastly different from the narrow bridge built in the 12th century having been repaired and rebuilt and had constant modifications over eight centuries. Part of the original Roman bridge has been excavated on the Pontevedra side of the bridge.

Not far from this bridge is a very elegant modern asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge crossing the same river. It has a high inclined concrete tower with 17 pairs of steel cables, the front ones holding the concrete bridge deck and the rear ones tied to two underground concrete bases acting as counterweights. It was very calm today but apparently when there is wind the cables make a characteristic and spectacular noise.

At the hotel reception we had our bus tickets (bilettes) from Santiago back to Lisboa printed off. We had booked these online a few days ago and had them as a QR code on our phones, but we are old fashioned and a bit paranoid and like to have paper copies of everything. I guess your phone could be lost or stolen, just die or get water-logged in the rain. I had transferred them to a USB stick and the helpful man at reception had them printed in a minute. We could also have sent them to the hotel web site and had them printed a bit more indirectly that way.

It was forecast to be a very wet day today but it wasn’t bad this morning. A few showers and we made use of the cafe umbrellas for a coffee and churros during the heaviest of them. Also managed to be in the Market for another shower. Steady rain in the afternoon so retreated to the hotel. Fortunately dinner tonight is in the dining room in the hotel so we don’t have to venture outside.