Pontevedra Travel Guide

58km (36 miles) S of Santiago de Compostela, 839km (520 miles) NW of Madrid

The city of Pontevedra is an open-air museum to the evanescence of glory. The aristocratic old town on the Lérez River, known in medieval days as Pontis Veteris (Old Bridge), still has vestiges of an ancient wall that once encircled it. Its sheltered harbor was once a bustling port, where foreign merchants mingled with local traders, seamen, and fishermen. But the Lérez delta silted up in the 1700s and Pontevedra went into decline.  Had it been a more prosperous town, the people might have torn down the ancient structures to rebuild.

The old town, a maze of colonnaded squares and cobbled alleyways, lies between Calle Michelena and Calle del Arzobispo Malvar, stretching to Calle Cobián and the river. The old mansions, called pazos, echo the city’s bygone maritime glory—the money to build them came from the sea. It was the home of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, the 16th-century navigator and cosmographer who wrote Voyage to the Magellan Straits. Seek out such charming squares as Plaza de la Leña, Plaza de Mugártegui, and Plaza de Teucro.

Pilgrims following the Camino Portugues from Oporto in Portugal stop here just three days short of reaching Santiago de Compostela. Pontevedra is where the route turns away from the sea and makes a beeline to the pilgrimage cathedral.