Noia

After the fall of Rome, the Suebi and other Germanic peoples settled across the Iberian Peninsula. In the early medieval period, Bishop San Martín de Braga organised the region into parishes, and it was then that the cult of San Bartolomé took root in Noia — he remains the town's patron saint, honoured each summer. The area suffered repeated raids: Breton attackers sacked its churches and carried off young people, and in 1115 Norman pirates occupied A Creba, a small island in the middle of the ría, for six months, plundering the surrounding area. To reduce this vulnerability, King Fernando II ordered the town to be relocated to a more defensible position where the rivers Tambre, Tállara and Traba converge, and on 9 April 1168 Noia was established at its present site.

As Santiago de Compostela's reputation as a pilgrimage destination grew, Noia benefited directly, functioning as the city's sea port. The town backed Archbishop Berenguel de Landoria in his conflict with the bourgeoisie of Compostela, and was rewarded with a six-metre-high stone wall and a new church outside the walls, Santa María a Nova. A hospital was built for the sick and pilgrims, and a lazareto for those with leprosy. Noia became a significant commercial port during this period. The lord of Noia at that time, Rui Soga de Lobeira, was later beheaded by the noble Churruchaos family for having supported the archbishop. In the mid-medieval period the fortress of Tapal was burned by the irmandiños.

In 1316 a Franciscan community settled in Noia, and in 1522 built a convent at Agra das Viñas with support from the Caamaño family. Its notable cloister survives today as part of the town hall. In 1467 Rodrigo de Mendoza founded the Hospital de Dentro, which later became the Casa de la Gramática. One of its students, Antón de Noya, sailed with Magellan on his circumnavigation of the globe as a cabin boy, and died on the island of Mactán in the Philippines on 27 April 1521. Another notable traveller from Noia was Basilio Villarino, a pilot from A Torriña who explored Patagonia and was eventually killed by indigenous people.

After the Middle Ages the walls were demolished and new buildings rose outside the old perimeter, including the church of San Francisco. Industry arrived later in the form of Catalan salting factories, mainly processing sardines, and a thriving leather-tanning trade that made Noia known across the region for the number and quality of its shoemakers. The sculptor José Ferreiro (1738–1830) left his mark on several Galician churches as well as Santiago's town hall on the Plaza del Obradoiro. During the Napoleonic period, a force of around 700 local guerrillas gathered at the fairground and drove the French from the town. By the early twentieth century the town had acquired new civic landmarks: the Casino (1928), the Coliseo Noela theatre (1921), and the Agrupación Artístico-Musical, forerunner of today's Sociedad Liceo de Noia, founded in 1928.

Noia has three protected monuments worth seeking out. The Dolmen A Cova da Moura, in the nearby settlement of Argalo, is a prehistoric burial monument. In the town itself, the church of Santa María a Nova and the church of San Martín are both designated buildings of cultural interest, their status reflecting the architectural and historical significance they carry from Noia's medieval past.