Galicia, whose name derives from the first Celtic peoples who inhabited it, is an autonomous community of Spain with more than a thousand-year history dating back to the Palaeolithic and visible in deposits and caves scattered throughout the territory. In the course of the centuries it was also inhabited by the Romans, whose buildings embellish of a unique and ancient charm many cities of the region.
Roman architecture is not the only feature that can be appreciated in the Galician towns, but also the Romanesque art favoured during the Middle Ages by the cult of the apostle Santiago, which made the city of Santiago de Compostela a world-famous religious and cultural centre. Churches, frescoes and monumental sculptures are a clear example of how the Romanesque style and later the Gothic and Baroque style have brought to the cities a great artistic value.
Economic and cultural development has often been curbed, over the centuries, by short and long periods of social repression, wars and dictatorship that have marked the urban planning of the territory and the collective memory of the inhabitants. Wandering through the streets of the cities you bump into monuments to the fallen, mausoleums and museums, places that preserve the history to get in touch with the past and understand the present.
Although the works built by man, its gastronomy, its feasts and popular traditions are a great tourist attraction, the surrounding landscapes that welcome a city as a nest are just as stimulating to embark on a journey to their discovery.
Breathing the scent of the sea, the fresh mountain air, the effluvium of trees and flowers that give life to parks and gardens in the inhabited centres is a pleasant sensation that revitalises the human body of the traveler eager for refreshment during his holidays.
It is difficult to determine which are the most beautiful cities of Galicia, each of them has historical, cultural, environmental, gastronomic characteristics that make them unique and special, but if we were to advise some of them where the tourist can travel back in time and meet face to face with a Roman legionary (read more about Lugo); or where he can taste an infinite variety of tapas and exquisite typical products (read more about Pontevedra); or where may he feel like a pilgrim yearning for reaching the final goal of his long journey (read more about Santiago de Compostela); or where he could be carried away by the magic of ancient Greek legends by observing the waves of the Atlantic Ocean (read more about A Coruña), the choice would fall to:
- A Coruña – A CORUÑA. THE GLASS CITY available on AMAZON
- Lugo
- Pontevedra
- Santiago di Compostela
A Coruña. The glass city
