17 km northwest of Santiago de Compostela is the village of Porte Maceira, a small town bathed by the waters of the Tambre river, east of the town of Negreira, in the parish of Portor.
It is an enclave well traveled by pilgrims who walk the Camino Marítimo towards Santiago de Compostela, as well as other travelers who, once they have been in the Galician capital, walk until they reach Fisterra to meet the end of the world, land myths, legends and stories that give luster and magic to this small town.
The town has a mill, a dam, a chapel, a pazo and the stone bridge, known as Ponte Vella, which has its origins in Roman times. On those pillars a new bridge was built between the 13th and 14th centuries, which was renovated in the 18th. It consists of five large arches and two other smaller ones. The track has a width of around three meters. The bridge is still waiting to be listed as a Property of Cultural Interest (BIC).
This bridge was, according to legends and popular stories, the scene of chapters such as the persecution suffered by the Apostle’s disciples. According to what they say, when the persecutors crossed the bridge, it collapsed allowing the disciples to continue their journey without major complications.
In the 12th century there was a battle between the troops of Pedro Froilaz de Trava and his sons – Fernando and Bermundo – and the soldiers of Diego Xelmírez, archbishop of Compostela.
However, not only from its bridge does Ponte Maceira live, which also has the Romanesque church of Santa María de Portor, a 12th-century building, the Pazo de Baladrón, built between 1945 and 1955, on the banks of the Tambre, or the chapel of San Brais. Ponte Maceira also has a dam with two mills.
The aesthetics of its cobbled streets is another of the characteristics of this Jacobean tradition town, with the stone houses and hanging balconies over the Tambre river.
The natural environment surrounding Ponte Maceira also elevates the status of the town. The natural landscapes, with water and vegetation, give tranquility to the town, located only twenty minutes from the beach and another twenty from Santiago de Compostela.
Association of the Most Beautiful Towns of Spain
The plenary session of the Negreira City Council unanimously approved that Ponte Maceira join the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages in Spain. The entity proposed to include in its list the nucleus of this town. In this way, Ponte Maceira becomes the first town in the province of A Coruña to join this list, and is the third in Galicia to achieve this distinction, after Mondoñedo and Castro Caldelas.
Beyond the legends and historical passages, Ponte Maceira has been the scene of films such as ‘The least of the evils’, which was shot inside the pazo, or ‘Lobos de Agra’, which made use of the paved path of the bridge.
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