A Coruna Travel Guide

604km (374 miles) NW of Madrid, 155km (96 miles) N of Vigo

Whichever direction you face in this financial and industrial capital of Galicia, the smell of the sea is always with you. The city perches on a fist of land jutting into the Atlantic and pointing toward Ireland. Legendarily founded by Hercules, A Coruña was overrun in succession by Phoenicians, Celts, and Romans, but its defining historical moment came in 1588, when it launched Felipe II’s so-called Invincible Armada on its ill-fated attack on England. Only half the ships made it back to Spain. The following year, Sir Francis Drake paid a visit, burning and looting A Coruña in reprisal.

Today A Coruña is a big-shouldered, rugged city that draws its living from the sea, as so many Galicians have since time immemorial. One side of its isthmus is lined with impeccable sandy beaches washed by surfable waves. On the other side of the A Coruña peninsula, rocky headlands protect a deep-water port split between container ships and the lonja, the fish market that feeds all of Spain and much of the rest of Europe. Glassed-in balconies along the high buildings at the edge of the port gave A Coruña its 19th-century nickname, “City of Crystal.”