City
Pontevedra (capital of the province with the same name) has a quiet small-town atmosphere with a long maritime and trading tradition. It has 84.000 inhabitants.
Bathed by the vast Atlantic Ocean, it is situated on the edge of the "Ria de Pontevedra", one of the three "Rias Baixas" (Ría de Arousa, Ría de Pontevedra, Ría de Vigo), unique landscape where sea joins with rivers.
Pontevedra is the Galician province that offers more hours of light, mild climate, paradisiacal beaches of fine sand and gentle mountains.
The British «The Guardian» sees Pontevedra as «a paradise»
Pontevedra boasts one of the largest and most elegant historic old city in the whole of Galicia. The old quarter (pedestrian) extends in a network of streets and squares with typical stone houses and historical civic and religious buildings, where walking and eating typical "tapas" is a pleasure. Provincial Museum has an impressive collection of Celtic remains: jewellery, masks, tools...
Pontevedra is also a city with a passion for culture and also for tradition. Here you can take part in the cultural offerings available: music, film, theater, art, and more.
In summer there are many cultural activities outdoors usually in old town: concerts, theater, movies, puppet shows, children's workshops...
The first Saturday of August is the Fiesta de La Peregrina, the town's patron saint. Or patron virgin, to be more accurate. This marks the beginning of Semana Grande [Big Week], when Pontevedra is given over to numerous activities in honour of the Virgin Mary. It all used to start with a speech from the balcony of the town hall around midday Saturday, followed in succession by a colourful procession from the town hall to the Chapel of the Peregrina, the opening of the fairground on the Alameda, the first of the three bullfights at 6 in the evening. Down the side of the Alameda (400 meters form our flat) there are stages for the various live musical groups that perform each night and numerous stalls offering a vast variety of items, ranging from CDs to bows and arrows from South America.
And the smaller squares in the old quarter play host to such things as a market of craft-ware, a festival of honey, performances from the town band, cartoon shows, folk-dancing from around the world, art displays and a classic cars exhibition. There is even a battle of flowers.
In the larger squares there are musical events to suit most tastes - from folk-dancing to whatever is current with the teenagers. The latter start around midnight - usually in the main square - and can be quite deafening until they finish around 2am.
Semana Grande starts and ends with firework displays that get more spectacular each year.
Pontevedra is certainly "Spanish" but not as Spanish as, say, Andalucia. It doesn’t, for example, have anything like a gypsy-flamenco tradition. But it does have its own strong folkloric tradition and you should't find it difficult to come across dancers in "national dress", especially during the festivals. These will always be accompanied by bagpipe bands. Seeing itself as Celtic, Galicia has strong affiliations with Ireland and Brittany, for example, and the sound of bagpipes is relatively commonplace. Galician bagpipes differ from their Scottish counterparts in having fewer drones and much of the music is even more doleful.
