Combarro is regularly lauded as the ‘most beautiful village in Galicia’. I guess it depends on individual views of beauty. Muxia anyone? There is no doubt it is a very attractive and historic place, but that comes with a downside. Combarro is close to Pontevedra in the Rías Baixas region, which is just a lot more popular and accessible than coastal areas further north. Add to this that it is a charming place close to good beaches and you have a potent cocktail for mass tourism.
In its defence, Combarro is one of the few Rías Baixas historic fishing villages that has retained its true form and character. There are still fishing boats that depart from here, but mostly the village has converted to tourism. The narrow Rúa da Mar that runs behind the famous hórreos, ancient granaries along the waterfront, is largely tourist shops and restaurants. At best, it’s two people wide and thousands of people squish into it daily.
Still, we had a very nice time here, mostly because we were staying in an old Combarro house that hadn’t changed since somewhere between 1930 and 1950. The front door opened directly onto the Rúa da Mar, and it had a balcony out front that allowed us to have daily sundowners with local snacks while gazing over the estuary. It was a great place to stay, and perfectly cool on hot summer days.
Combarro is largely built of granite and it gives the village a distinctive feel. As do the fishermen’s cottages that line the streets facing the water. The ground floor was originally used to store fishing gear, while upstairs they have narrow balconies, less for sundowners and more for drying clothes. The handful of streets behind Rúa da Mar are a little quieter and some of the houses still seem lived in by an aging population.
Up a narrow steep lane is where you find the small Igrexa de San Roque, a lovely church shoehorned into the space between houses. From here you can walk out of the village into an area of communal gardens that have been producing fruit and vegetables for centuries. Everywhere you go in Combarro you’ll find dolls and effigies of witches, Galicia is a superstitious place and witches have a long association with the village.
It’s said the many granite crosses dotted around town were meeting places for witches, including the one in Plaza da Fonte, a small square surrounded by granite houses. Clearly the witches were unconcerned by Christianity. The one thing you can’t miss when in the village are the hórreos. You have to wait for low tide for views of the village and the 30 hórreos on the waterfront. In the early morning, it is blissfully peaceful.
There’s not a lot to do in the village – although it has some good restaurants – so one day we headed to the Playa de Foxos. It’s not the nearest beach, but it appealed to me because of the Ermida de Nosa Señora da Lanzada, and the weird fertility ritual that once took place here in late August. The hermitage is built on the site of an ancient fort that dates back to the Celts and Romans.
The fertility ritual was promoted by the church, which it would be fair to say has a pretty checkered history on this sort of thing. The woman, but of course, walks out into the ocean to be washed over by nine consecutive waves (and on this beach they are serious waves). There was some other stuff involving a man and a stone, but after that you are essentially ‘cured’. Nine waves, nine months of pregnancy, I see no flaws in this plan.
Back in Combarro, we decided to wash our own sins away at Bar A Rosa dos Ventos. Just on the edge of the village on the waterfront, it’s the perfect spot to end the day. Here you can sit outside or upstairs on the terrace and look out over the bay. It was magical at the sunset witching hour.
Once again I am struck by your ability, in spite of your complaints about tourist overcrowding, to provide us with images that, with the exception of a cat descending a staircase, and a beach scene with bathers in the far distance, show the village devoid of people, photos which show the community and architecture to best advantage. Bravo!
What about the witches? I do tend to rise early which is a bit calmer and more atmospheric. There are no photos of Rúa da Mar however, not even I can rise that early.