We visit Baiona, a typical fishing village in the province of Pontevedra that celebrates a very important festival on the first weekend of March: the Arribada.
South of the Rías Baixas we find the town of Baiona. With this name one arrives at a typical Galician fishing village with its boats sleeping in its seaport, from where you can reach the nearby Cíes Islands, and its cobbled streets, through which you can walk smelling the salty sea air.
The Beaches are one of the main attractions of this town in the province of Pontevedra, especially because of their location they are well sheltered from the winds. Altogether, there are almost five kilometers of coastline, including a promenade. Likewise, the historic helmet de Baiona is quite interesting despite not having large monuments, and in fact it was listed as a Historic-Artistic Site many years ago.
Baiona counts as the main accommodation option with a National Parador, the palace of the Count of Gondomar, on the Monterreal peninsula. It is a 19th century mansion built in a place of great strategic importance for the military defense of the Rías Baixas, which is why this small peninsula had been heavily fortified since the 12th century.
Although if Baiona is known for something, it is for an important historical event that occurred in this town. It was in the year 1493, when the boat La Pinta commanded by Martín Alonso Pinzón, touched European soil for the first time after the trip that began from Palos de la Frontera in 1492, and thus revealed the news of the discovery of new lands, of a new world, of America.
As Baiona is unofficially the first place where this news was told, every year for just over two decades they commemorate this historic event by celebrating a festival called the Arrival (which translated from Galician comes to mean Arrival). During this festival, which is usually held on the first weekend of March, The arrival at the port of Pinzón and his men is recreated with a replica of La Pinta among other recreational activities since the town is transformed for a couple of days into a village from medieval times.
The fiesta de la Arribada, cataloged of international tourist interest, each year it gains more fame, which is why Baiona receives more and more visitors during these dates. That is why the means of transport to get to this town, especially by boat, multiply.
Photo 1 | Flickr – Ivan PC