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The North Atlantic comes to an end and the seas of Europe begin. We anchored after passing the Estaca de Bares, we took shelter in the Ría do Barqueiro. On its western edge is a fishing town, with a virgin, peaceful coastline, where as we walk we are penetrated by the smell of saltpeter and sardines, Vicedo, the protagonist today in La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos.
They say that its etymology comes from vitates, place of vetch, an herb that grows in cultivated areas. The name Vicedo is mentioned as such on the Teixeira map of 1634 and may have been taken from here for the new Town Hall, which until 1952 was called Riobarba, with its capital in the village of Pardiñeira.
In the middle of its emerald sea there are two islas. It is the only place in Lugo with river and marine isthmuses. Dulce and Salado, Cantábrico and Sor, Colleira and San Martiño.
The first, Coelleira, a water altar, was a hermitage of offerings, very influential in the area. Attracts from afar. The mythological Aspidochelone emerges like a turtle shell, which at any moment submerges to continue navigation.
The second, San Martiño, was a Benedictine female monastery, cited earlier in Galicia, its last inhabitant in the 15th century was the prior María Vizosa. The waters bathe other islets such as Chileteira or Gabeira.
Account with prehistoric presence in the Mámoas da Pena dos Foles, the Christ of Portapena, the Penas Brancas. Towns such as Castro Redondo de Ruño or Tarroeira, Castro de Caolín, Castropondo, Os Moutillóns...
Ancient land of the Andrade. In Montes do Sor, high and flat, Fernando Pérez de Andrade, or Bo, founded three churches in 1392, three Marias, Santa María de Cabanas, San Paulo de Riobaraba, and the neighboring Ourolense San Pantaleón de Cabanas.
Above them is a pig, Xabarín, an emblem of strength and courage. Witness and tenant of the medieval history of Galicia. Punished by time and climate. The roads of the place are scattered with crosses, with winter fog, the ideal way of the cross to atone for sorrows.
The Pérez who dominated the area were the Vivero. Alonso Pérez de Vivero was born here in 1394. In whose Palace the Catholic Monarchs were secretly married. The family owned the Señorío de Galdo, which included the parishes of San Esteban, San Román, and Cabanas.
In San Esteban del Valle they built a church on top of a fort. A sinecure or right of collection indicates that the place was still in their hands in 1695. Many Viveros remained in San Román, a rich land, with emblazoned houses.
In the 17th century, other Pérezes appear. Like Gómez Pérez das Mariñas, who lived in the Pazo de Outterio, in Las Negradas, where he built the Chapel of San Roque and had some salt mines. Father of Luis, explorer of Southeast Asia and promoter of the Boxer Codex.
In 1589, Gómez became Captain General of the Philippines and was the great promoter of Manila, until his death due to a mutiny in the Celebres Sea, when he was on his way to take the Moluccas or species islands.
The Coto Redondo de Suegos and its annex Mosende belonged to the Lourenzá monastery. Sold in 1634 to the Coras, among them Alonso de Cora Montenegro, Regidor de Viveiro.
In this parish you can find the beach of Abrela, the beach of Alecrín, the old seafood farm of the Castro medas, and the Punta do Socastro or Fuciño do Porco. Animal attached to O Vicedo.
The ledge extends into the water, penetrated by gaps, by rowing you can cross through a passage. To navigate it from land, you have to wind it, as it is sculpted and eroded by hands and the sea. It is a beta iron head from the Paleozoic era, hundreds of millions of years old that goes deep into the Vilabesa iron head.
Exploited since the Iron Age, as witnessed by a fort on its top, also in the modern age, by the first foundry of Sargadelos. Registered late in 1873, receiving the name of Mina María Antonia, the site was studied by Hernández Sampelayo in 1935.
The sea not only brutalizes and beautifies the coast, it became the backbone of evolution. Due to the migratory passages of tunas and clupeids, factories were set up. Industries based on development beach, whose origin comes from promoters. Stone fortresses, at the foot of the sea. Some converted and intact, so well identified in the works of Nuevo Cal and Míguez. O Vicedo's is a relationship of exploitation and exploration. A route of ancient marine transformation from coastal forts, to salting or preserving.
Its sandy beaches were called fisheries. Today they are more people magnets than fish magnets. Attracted by the warmth and quality of its waters. The calm Abrela, the brave Areagrande to look at from the cruise of the sloop Dracula, the inaccessible Tixoso, the green Xilloi, the turquoise Castro or Caolin, Vidrieiro, and the strolling Arealonga.
From these lines we baptize them as "Galician Caribbean" or "Porcelain Beach", already popular, we are ashamed to coin them that way, since they have their own name. We should disclose them more to protect them than to invade them.
Riobarba, Cabanas de Ganado, Mosende de su master Manusindus, Negradas from the "niger" dark zone, San Roman, Suegos of Sueva ethnicity, Vicedo de Vicia. It forms a perfect puzzle, of sea and mountain.
The marine blood of its inhabitants made them sailors. Embarked on oceans and seas. This is the case of José del Valle Iglesias, the African, who founded a pioneering canning factory in 1890, La Cantábrica, the result of a fortune in the Congo.
A local story told about a sailor shipwrecked on the coast of Africa, where he married the princess of a tribe, and made friends and dealings with the inhabitants to trade and get rich.
Others had to escape due to politics on December 13, 1946, the Evasion of the Santa Teresa. The story of a group of guerrillas or maquis, persecuted, who bought a boat in order to flee to France.
With the suitcase in hand, Paz Infante emerged, who founded the Children of Riobarba Instruction Society and presided over the Federation of Galician Societies in Argentina. A vicedense neighbor was Agustín Rodríguez Castro, an emigrant to Cuba, where he became tremendously known, he composed Quiéreme Mucho.
The favorite song of the radio Pepe Domingo Castaño that the Mexicans Vicente Fernández and Pedro Vargas, Plácido Domingo, Los Panchos and even Julio Iglesias would sing. It sounds like this: "When you really love, like I love you, it is impossible, my heaven, to live so far apart."
Love or homesickness, it is applicable to O Vicedo, because when you know it, you never forget it.
