Portomarín

Portomarín grew up alongside a Roman bridge over the Río Miño — rebuilt during the Middle Ages — and owed much of its early shape to the Camino de Santiago passing through it. In 1212 the Order of Saint John granted the town its own charter, giving it a formal framework for government and administration.

That medieval town no longer exists in its original location. When the Belesar reservoir was built in 1962, the entire settlement had to move to the nearby hill of Monte do Cristo. Before the waters rose, the most important buildings were carefully dismantled. The stones of the Romanesque church of San Nicolás — built by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem — were numbered one by one, then reassembled on the new site. Other significant civil and religious structures were relocated in the same way. When the water level drops in dry seasons, the outlines of the old town reappear: the seawall, foundations of buildings, and the original bridge.

Portomarín is also known for its aguardiente, a spirit that has won repeated recognition. Each Easter Sunday, aguardiente is made publicly in the main square in front of the church, at the Festa do Augardente.

In 2015, when UNESCO approved the expansion of the Camino de Santiago designation to include the French Way and the Northern Routes, Spain submitted an associated inventory in which Portomarín appears as entry number 695.