From Betanzos to Ferrol passing through Pontedeume and Ares, a route through the Rías Ártabras

The Romans called it Portus Magnus Artabrorum, the great port of the Artabros.

A term that is still used today to refer to the group of estuaries of A Coruña, Betanzos, Ares and Ferrol, the end of the Costa da Morte and the beginning of the Rías Altas.

A gulf of several inlets where, unlike other Galician estuaries, the naval industry and maritime trade were stronger than shellfish harvesting and fishing.

Despite its high urban density and its important shipyards, the Artabra estuaries of Betanzos, Ares and Ferrol preserve medieval cities, manors full of camellias, monasteries and small fishing ports full of charm enough to dedicate a weekend wandering through a green territory that It smells of seaweed and salt and sounds like seagulls squawking.

Betanzos is the perfect beginning of this route that is structured by the AP-9, but to discover it properly you have to travel along narrow roads close to the coast and not through the fast asepsis of a highway.

Betanzos is one of the historic cities of Galicia, capital of the province from the time of the Catholic Monarchs until 1834. It maintained an active fishing and commercial port in an easy-to-defend bend left by the Mandeo River and on which there was a Celtic fort of name Untia.

The Betanceiros were called “the Genoese of Spain”, due to their ease and success in maritime trade, which gave rise to a flourishing community of bourgeois families who left the sample of mansions, palaces and churches that today dot its old town.

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This monumental center begins in Irmáns García Naveira Square, a large open space surrounded by traditional houses with the typical wooden galleries painted white.

In the center, a statue commemorates the brothers Juan and Jesús García Naveira, two Indians who returned from Argentina with an immense fortune, a good part of which they invested in social and charitable works in their hometown.

The large French-style stone house on the right side of the square housed the home of one of them and the offices of his company.

In another corner stands the church of Santo Domingo, with a tower in the purest Galician baroque and, attached to it, the old convent of Santo Domingo, today the headquarters of the Mariñas Museum, which collects the history of the region and an interesting collection. of typical Galician costumes.

In front of the church and without leaving the surroundings we can see the Lyceum, a large neoclassical building built in the 17th century to house the Archive of the Kingdom of Galicia (when there were seven provinces, and Betanzos was the capital of one of them);

The documentary collection ended up in A Coruña and the building now houses the Municipal Culture Classroom.

On the ground floor is the Tourism office.

A bandstand and a statue of Diana the Huntress, a copy of the one in the Louvre and cast in Paris in 1866, complete the decoration of a large square that serves as a connection between modern and historic Betanzos.

To access the latter you have to continue along Rua do Castro until the Plaza de la Constitución, the center of the medieval town and where you can best perceive the strength that this city had thanks to commerce, until the sediments reduced the depth of the the estuary, preventing the large ships from reaching the end, where Betanzos was.

Overlooking this square is the church of Santiago, ordered to be built in the 14th century by Fernán Pérez de Andrade, a notable member of the family that ruled the destinies of these lands for centuries.

And the Clock Tower, which although it is attached and seems part of the temple, is not;

It is municipal and is accessed from the door that faces the street.

Other significant buildings in this beautiful complex are the Bendaña manor (today the Tax Agency);

the Concello building, in neoclassical style;

and the Lanzós manor, although this is on the street of the same name, the same street facing the main façade of the church.

More unique places in this old town are the Doctor Couceiro pharmacy (Prateiros, 80), the oldest in Galicia, in the hands of the same family since 1719. Or the Etcheverría Bank building (Claudino Pita, 2), founded in 1717. And the many bars and restaurants where they serve the famous Betanzos potato omelette, “the best in the world”, according to many guides and gastronomic articles (as long as you like how it is: very rare).

The Betanzos tortilla, the best according to many guides and gastronomic articles (as long as one likes it very rare).Daniel Lozano Gonzalez (Getty Images)

Perhaps the most striking and surprising thing about Betanzos is not in the center, but in the outskirts.

The aforementioned Naveira brothers, the great Betanceiro patrons, did not limit themselves to building schools, nursing homes, public laundries and other charitable works.

They also thought about the leisure of their countrymen.

From there arose the Pasatiempo Park, the most enigmatic Indian work carried out by those emigrants from northern Spain who traveled to the Americas and returned enriched.

El Pasatiempo is a theme and encyclopedic park that collects the knowledge of the time (early 20th century) with a fantasy in stone.

The gardens revolve around a Retiro pond with an islet with its corresponding neoclassical temple.

Figures of dragons and argonauts, a panel with the time of various parts of the world - presided over by the time of Buenos Aires (where the Naveiras made their fortune) -, grottoes, a giant map of the Panama Canal, caves and artificial passageways, beings mythological.

Only part of the original garden is preserved, which is also currently being restored (it will remain closed until August 2024 at the earliest).

View of the Pasatiempo park, in the Galician town of Betanzos.Alamy Stock Photo

By the way, seven kilometers before Betanzos coming from Sada, and also on the banks of the estuary, appears the Mariñán manor, from the 15th century, a reference for Galician gardens and the Route of the Camellias, the Galician national flower.

The gardens are open daily and are a highly recommended visit (the interior of the manor is only open on certain days).

Forests and monasteries

The next stop on the route is Pontedeume, another medieval and monumental town at the mouth of the Eume river, Ares estuary, where the Andrades had a stone bridge built in the 14th century with 78 arches (a feat of engineering for the time). ) which was in service until 1870. Its fortified palace included the medieval tower that today stands out over the old town and is the landmark of the town.

Pontedeume has one of the best preserved old towns of all the estuaries, full of arcades, emblazoned stone facades, wooden galleries and churches.

On the other side of the bridge is Magdalena beach, the best and largest in the region.

One of the best Atlantic fragas in Galicia is also preserved in the municipal area.

A fraga, in Galician, is a dense forest of native trees – in this case ash, chestnut, birch, willow, maple, hazel, laurel and, of course, carballos (oak) – that form a dense screen of greenery and mystery in the shady areas of the Eume.

About 80 kilometers of biodiversity that were declared a natural park in 1997 and that today can be visited along a narrow road that goes up the riverbed and allows you to explore part of this relic of the forests that once covered a good part of Galicia.

The Fragas do Eume can be reached by leaving Pontedeume along the Monfero road, taking the detour towards Ombre and Monasterio two kilometers away.

A true ecological jewel within which the remains of the Caaveiro monastery still stand, a hermitage from the late Middle Ages that later became a Cistercian collegiate church and that adds history, legend and mystery to the natural setting.

Monastery of San Juan de Caaveiro, in the Fragas do Eume natural park (Galicia).JCPrados (Getty Images)

It is not the only monastery on the route.

17 kilometers from Pontedeume on the AC-151, you have to make another stop at Monfero, another of the great Cistercian monasteries in Galicia, contemporary with Caaveiro.

It was refounded in 1124 by Count Pedro Osorio and shows, despite the abandonment after the Confiscation of Mendizábal, construction elements from the Romanesque to the 18th century.

Redes, the next stop, is on the north bank of the Ares estuary, and is a fishing town with a certain seafaring charm.

It is not a monumental complex, but a simple town with its small round square always full of nets and stranded boats, with its facades painted in cream and pastel colors and windowsills in brighter tones and its narrow streets that lead directly to the estuary, where you can appreciate that charm of yesteryear, now lost in most of the coastal towns of Galicia.

In the port there are a couple of simple bar-restaurants where you can have good fish.

We continue to Ares, the town that gives its name to the estuary.

It has a pleasant promenade and a huge urban beach that continues beyond with the large sandy beach of Seselle, wilder and more natural.

Then, on the way to Mugardos, instead of following the direct AC-130 highway, it is worth skirting the peninsula along a small road that leads to Cervás and Chanteiro and reaching the point of Coitelada and point Segaño, the southern edge of the entrance to the Ferrol estuary.

At the point of Coitelada there are still remains of coastal batteries, as well as large cliffs.

An old anti-aircraft battery also remains in Segaño, with a network of underground galleries that connected the different rooms.

Fishing boats in the port of Mugardos (Galicia).Sergio Formoso (Getty Images)

From this point you have an excellent view of the entrance to the Ferrol estuary as well as the entire Ares estuary and A Coruña.

Another obligatory stopping point is the summit of Montefaro, a place of strategic importance that completed the network of coastal batteries that made it almost impossible for an enemy ship to enter the inner port of Ferrol.

Below you can see the estuary and Chanteiro beach.

Shortly before Mugardos the castle of La Palma appears.

In front of it you can see (almost touch) its twin, the castle of San Felipe;

Both protected the entrance to the Ferrol estuary with crossfire.

The mouth here is barely 200 meters wide and could be closed with a chain stretched between both fortresses.

View of the castle of La Palma, in the Ferrol estuary (Galicia).Alamy Stock Photo

This entire network of military constructions speaks of the importance of the port of Ferrol as the headquarters of the Arsenal and northern base of the Spanish Navy since the 18th century.

Excellent natural conditions of the estuary, long and narrow, and well-designed fortifications that demonstrated their effectiveness in the year 1800 by repelling a large naval and land attack by 100 British ships and 15,000 men who intended to take over Ferrol and destroy its facilities. .

Ferrol, the end of the route, is a city unfairly treated by tourism.

It is true that, as a daughter of the Enlightenment, she grew up with an orthogonal planimetry always based on military and naval needs as the headquarters of the Cantabrian fleet.

But it has enough charms, from the La Magdalena neighborhood, an urban center formed by a grid with six long parallel streets cut by ten perpendicular ones, to the Naval Museum that are worth a visit.

And a specific article for them.

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