Home > A Walk by the Rivers
Description:
Starting point: Praza de Irmáns Garcia Naveira.
Number of stops: 6.
Distance: 2 Km.
Time: 2 hours.
This excursion is a round tour departing from and arriving back at the Praza dos Irmáns García Naveira. Its real leitmotif are the Mendo and the Mandeo rivers. Most of our walk will take us along the footpaths recently built beside these rivers.
1- Irmáns García Neveira Square
This square is the heart of Betanzos, also known as the Praza
do Campo or Campo da Feria (“Market Square”); the first historical reference to it is in a late
XIIIth century document.
2- Manuel Naveira Asylum
This hospice, now a hotel, was built in 1914 in fulfilment of
the last will and testament of Manuel Naveira - no relation of the Garcia Naveira brothers - as an
asylum for the poor, the blind and the deaf and dumb. Its architect was Pedro Ramiro Mariño, who
also designed the Town Hall of Corunna.
3-The Jewry
Unfortunately, little remains of the original constructions,
but a walk through the narrow streets of this quarter, including an almost hidden alley behind what
appears to be a house front between Nos. 18 and 20, can still give some idea of its former
character.
4- Typical Galician Houses in Rúa do Pozo and Rúa da Fonte de Unta
With their painted balconies and pillars, once housed families
who made a living farming the land down by the river. In the covered terraces where we can now sit
before any of numerous bars, drinking a glass of wine accompanied by Galician cheese.
5-From the Convent of the Barefoot Augustinians to the railway bridge
In this “stop”, we shall actually walk half-way round the
walls of the old city, pausing to comment on the most interesting sights.
6- The Railway Bridge
From the railway bridge we continue along the Paseo do Malecón
beside the River Mendo, leaving the Mandeo behind.
