Concello de Mugardos

Among Mugardos’ most outstanding archaeological remains are the traces of the Latin presence, confirmed by the Noville site, a small Roman village from the 3rd and 6th centuries. It is at the end of a small inlet, on the seaside, very near O Seixo. It has a U-shaped floor and a courtyard opened to the sea with water canalization, probably due to a use as a thermal complex. Remains of a primitive heating system were also found.

The Camiño da Calzada, in A Redonda provides later remains —from the 15th and 18th centuries. It is a path made of cobbles for carts serving the Montefaro monastery, to which Mugardos jurisdictionally belonged back then.

And there are many more samples of civil architecture — many country houses and buildings with coats of arms cover Mugardos’ urban and rural landscape. The Pazo de Rilo stands out, in an eclectic style, although its initial construction dates back to the 15th century. It has a three-storey main building, with a battlement and a large garden. One of its stone crosses reproduces the central column of the Portico of Glory, in Santiago de Compostela’s cathedral. Within the chapel there are interesting frescos and an image of Santa María de Rilo.

Another interesting sample can be found at the Casa da Serea or the mayor Mariño da Barreira’s, in the harbour, built in the 16th century and redesigned in the 18th century; it still keeps the Mariño da Barreira family coat of arms, with the characteristic mermaid all its members are said to descend from.

The Pazo das Condesas is from a later age. It was built in 1803 at the end of the O Baño inlet. It has a noble appearance, with an interesting balcony and a big stone granary in its large garden with beautiful trees. In the façade there are Mugardos coats of arms, carved out of stone with two crowns and the star.

There were other buildings from the 18th century, but the only things that remain are dilapidated walls and coats of arms in their façades, such as the Pazo de Novás or the Pazo da Rega, in Boado.

There are, however, many examples of stately houses built in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the harbour we can find the Casa Dans Arrabal, made of stone and with the typical seafaring houses gallery. And also the Casa Cudillero, with a mosaic of crystals framed by fine wood bars in its façade.

In the middle of Mugardos urban centre we can also find the Casa Gelpi. Its eclectic style, from 1910, shows a rectangular floor with many decorative elements in railings and galleries. The Zárate cinema, from the early 19th century, shows a façade wonderfully decorated with ceramic elements, whose cornice ends with a triangular pediment.

In the fishing village of O Seixo —birthplace of the aviator Xosé Piñeiro, acrobatic pilot and first Galician to fly the skies with a motor plane— we have two nice examples of seafaring buildings: the house of Bello Piñeiro, landscape painter and relevant figure of the Galician art in the XX century, founder of the Sociedade de Amigos da Paisaxe Galega. In the very Pintor Bello Piñeiro Avenue, in that same quay, there is an example of traditional seafaring construction from the late 19th century, with the typical bright colours and the second-floor balcony on stone corbels.

Quite a few Latin American-style buildings are also left in Mugardos. They belong to the time where many of the emigrants gone from this land in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, who had made their fortunes, promoted actions aimed at improving their fellow countrymen’s lives — schools, roads, bridges, washing places, clubs and private houses imitating the architectonic models of their new countries.

That is the case of Casino Progreso, in Franza, in the modernist style, or the Grupo Escolar Francisco Vizoso, a few metres away from the former, with a rectangular floor, openings in different shapes and a two-balcony main part.

The Esperante villa, from the late 19th century, is in the middle of O Seixo. It stands out by its eight-slope roof, like a mountain villa, and its brick and carved wood decoration.

Finally, and also in O Seixo, we find the Casa Montero Cabana, from 1925. It is a three-storey building with an attic room in its roof.

As to the military architecture, the Castle of A Palma is undoubtedly one of Mugardos’ main attractions, both for its architectonic features and the historic episodes it took part in, together with the Castle of San Felipe, on the other side of the estuary, and also for its natural environment.

It is located at the end of the C-122 road, just after the beautiful inlet of O Baño and the A Redonda village. It was built in 1597 and redesigned in 1869.

Together with the nearby Castle of San Felipe, on the opposite shore, it played an essential defensive role in several war episodes against the English and the French since the XVI century, when the protected conditions of the estuary got the Crown’s attention and became strategic. The city of Ferrol was transformed into the capital of the Northern Military Department and the home of the Royal Shipyards and the Military Naval Dockyards. All traffic in the estuary was controlled from these two castles and from the missing Castle of San Martiño, blocking access to crafts by spreading a chain between the different fortresses that made the estuary impassable.

The church of Santiago de Franza is undoubtedly the most artistically valuable of the many samples of religious architecture we can find in the town. It has a neo-gothic style and a single nave with cross-ribbed vaults. Within there is the Renaissance tomb of Pedro de Sillobre, lord of Boado, a local nobleman from the 16th century.

The church of San Xiao or the Upper Church was possibly built in the late Romanesque period, with some baroque additions, such as the tower, from 1845. An interesting baroque altarpiece is preserved inside. Next to the church we can see the beautiful stone cross of San Xiao, well preserved, and representing one of the symbols of Passion.

Among the later, neoclassical churches we can find San Xiao de Abaixo, San Xoán de Piñeiro, with a fanlight, and the church of de San Vicente de Meá, built in the 18th century over a 16th-century chapel devoted to Santa Lucía.

Another interesting example is the Lodairo or Ascension chapel, in Franza, next to a pilgrimage road. It is older than the 12th century, and it has a single nave with a barrel vault. On that same space we can find the Lodairo stone cross, from the 18th century, with a Christ and a praying Virgin. A popular procession is celebrated here, with a pilgrimage to the hermitage and a picnic.