It was difficult enough walking in the fog, but the way got quite stony, and with hilly terrain, was at times slow going. I finally ended up walking joining a German couple. Although his English was extremely limited, she spoke French so we walked all the way to Portomarin before going our separate ways.
The Celtic heritage was evident in interesting ways...
There were a few little shrines of various sorts of shrines along the way...
And many horreos for grain storage.
According to one source, Portomarin was called Portumarini in Roman times and renamed Portomarin in the 10th century. Once had 3 orders of knights including the Knights Templar, Knights of Santiago and the Knights of Saint John.
A hydro-electric dam was built downriver in the 1950s, destroying the old town but the 10th century San Pedro church with its romanesque façade, the Church of Saint Nicolas and some important 16th and 17th century manor houses were saved, as they were transported stone by stone and rebuilt elsewhere.
The Church of Santa Maria de las Nieves was built on the site of a former pilgrim hospital. When the old roman bridge was destroyed by Dona Urraca, the local people believed the the Virgen de las Nieves had protected them from drowning, so the shrine once part-way across the bridge was later moved as well, and today serves as an entrance to the city.
Unfortunately arriving on a Sunday made it a bit of a ghost town as just about everything was shut down. Since I missed the 12:30 p.m. mass at the Church of St. Nicolas, l had to content myself with the exterior.
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