Sightseeing in Pontevedra

The Praza da Peregrina is a good place to start, wedged between the old quarter and the newer pedestrian shopping zone. The latter is a pleasant set of streets surrounding the old quarter on the side not claimed by the Río Lérez snaking inland from the Ría de Pontevedra. The city once had a prosperous port in its ría (or fjord-like cove); its old quarter, which has since lost its walls, and many of its monuments date from the 13th to 16th century. The plaza is named for the pilgrims that cross the region towards Santiago de Compostela, as emblematic a feature of the Galician landscape as the grain-storing hórreos, the thatched-roofed pallozas and the twill of bagpipes. Pilgrims have long attached the scalloped shells common on the Galician coast to their clothing as a way of identifying their cause and proving its completion. In Pontevedra, the scalloped shell is a frequently invoked decorative motif. The center of this plaza is highlighted by the Baroque 18th-century Santuario de la Virgen Peregrina church, built on a ground plan shaped like a scallop shell.

The Casa Alcade Café next to the church has an elevated terrace perfect for surveying the busy plaza over a Mediterranean salad and a glass of the region’s favored white wine, Ribeiro. A plaque on the wall tells of the Pontevedres historian D. Claudío Gonzalez Zuñiga who lived in this former home from 1784-1857.

The history of Pontevedra grew dim in the 17th century. The city was founded by the Romans, who called it Pontis Veteris, though Celtiberian tribes and Phoenician and Greek merchants are known to have frequented the area previously. During the Middle Ages the port earned the city a privileged position in the region. Columbus’ ship, the Santa María, was built in its harbor and Pontevedra was recognized as Galicia’s largest city. The Basílica de Santa María, on the opposite side of the old quarter in the Praza de Alonso de Fonseco, stands as a legacy of that period. The honey-colored granite of this church is accentuated by a delicate plateresque façade and sculpture of the crucifix. It was built in the 16th century, not long before the river began to silt in heavily and Pontevedra’s glory days drew to a close.

Across the Praza da Peregrina is the Convento de San Francisco, a 13th-century Gothic construction separated from the popular Praza da Ferrería by a small garden. In this plaza old men snore on benches while children chase after pigeons or beg their parents to buy them an ice cream from the heladería stand. This is the largest and busiest plaza in the old quarter with plenty of tables set out by the surrounding restaurants during the lunch and dinner hour.

Pass through the tables of the small Praza de Estrela adjoining the larger plaza and under the wooden balconies of Calle Figueroa to the Praz da Leña. The cruceiro in the center of this holy, homely plaza is a common sight in Galicia, meant to signify gratitude or misfortune depending on the location, but practically used to designate meeting points. Facing this colonnaded square are two 18th-century Baroque palaces, now conjoined to serve as part of the Museo Provincial (C/ Pasantería 10, open winters Tues.-Sat. 10 am-1:30 pm and 4:30-8 pm, summers 10 am-2:15 pm and 5-8:45 pm, Sun. 11 am-1 pm). The collection inside paints a picture of Galician crafts through the ages; jewelry, religious sculpture and jet-stone trinkets carved in a variety of shapes, including that of the scallop shell that symbolically binds Pontevedra with the rest of the region.