Catoira

Catoira was Santiago’s coastal entrance in the Middle Ages. Throughout many centuries the Castellum Honesti protected and defended the Capital of Galicia from the Viking invasions

Catoira is a coastal land of industrial vocation, located where the river Ulla mixes in with the Arousa sea. This land can ben seen from Mount Xiabre, with excelent views of Caldas, Vilagarcia and Cortegada.

Catoira was a position of great historical and strategic importance: as Santiago´s coastal entrance the towers of Hoeste were built to defend the apostle’s city from the Viking invasions.

The Vikings entered through the Arousa estuary for the first time in the year 858 reaching the episcopal city Iria Flavia and Santiago. Years later, during the 968 invasions, the Vikings returned through Arousa plundering the main cities of Galicia after defeating Bishop Sisnando in the battle of Fornelos.

After this defeat, Bishop Cresconio built the Catoira towers to fortify the entrance into Galicia in a time of massive pilgrimage and throughout the 4th Viking invasion led by Ulf "the Galician".
 

The Viking festival of Catoira

The Castellum Honesti were abandoned once the Viking invasions had ceased. Only two out of the seven towers located on the river Ulla remain today and have been declared an Historical-Artistic Monument. A performance of a battle between Galicians and Vikings is celebrated on the first Sunday of August for the very popular Viking Festival of Catoira. Thousands of visitors experience the a recreation of the battle, in which the Vikings are represented by people from Frederiksund in Denmark, twinned with Catoira.

Some other buildings of interest are the chapel of Santiago next to one of the two Towers, the seamill of O Cura and the windmills of Abalo and Catoira.