Good morning friends,
I hope you are having a good Wednesday, in my case I am on national holiday, so not having to go to work let's say that I am in the glory to have more time to write in my blog.
Today I wanted to help you to travel to the city of A Coruña and in particular to two of the places I like most of the city, which are its beach and, on the other hand, the area where is located the Tower of Hercules (Lighthouse of the first century) where there is an excellent place to walk and enjoy the outdoors contemplating the coast and several striking sculptures.
Tower of Hercules and its surroundings
In order to introduce you to this area of the city and for me the most beautiful of A Coruña, I will tell you the route I did visiting the various monuments, viewpoints and sculptures.
Charon
To visit the area I left my car in the free parking near the Tower of Hercules, which in turn has an office selling tickets to the Tower. However, I arrived in the city at 5 pm and there was no option to enter the Tower.
However, at the exit of the parking lot one already encounters the first striking sculpture and which in turn refers to Greek mythology, which is a sculpture representing Charon.
Charon was the ferryman of Hades who, in exchange for an obolus, was in charge of carrying the souls of the dead. These, coming from the Acheron river, had to cross the Styx lagoon to reach their final resting place. In his descent to Hades to dislodge the can Cervero, which prevented the souls from leaving for their destination, Hercules obtained the help of Charon, who transported him in his boat.
Breogan and Tower of Hercules
Leaving the parking lot, turning right, one already sees the Tower of Hercules in the background and a previous sculpture in the middle of a traffic circle.
The sculpture in question is Breogan.
Breogan is the name of a mythical Galician king who would have ruled over most of the territory of present-day Galicia, from the area where the city of La Coruña is located today.
According to one of the stories told in the aforementioned medieval Irish manuscripts, King Breogan of Galicia built in the city of Brigantia, located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, a tower of such height that his son Ith could see from its top a distant green shore.
In fact there are those who relate the Tower of Breogan with the Tower of Hercules built in the first century. Myth or Reality?
Tower of Hercules and its views
The Tower of Hercules is undoubtedly the most characteristic place of this city, which is accessed by a walk with a steep slope.
This tower, which is also a lighthouse, is the oldest Roman lighthouse still in operation.
Since its first construction until today has been changing its physiognomy with the various renovations and a record in the form of sculpture can be found a couple of kilometers from the lighthouse where I finished my walk around the area of the tower.
This lighthouse presents a height of 55 meters and in its access we find a statue of a soldier.
The soldier in question is King Carlos III who ordered one of his rehabilitations in the eighteenth century.
But apart from the majesty of the tower, what made me fall in love is to contemplate from the base of the tower the Cantabrian coastline, where the blue of the sea and the green of the coast intermingle.
And at the same time, it allowed me to make a walking plan to visit the different architectural and sculptural points in this small peninsula of A Coruña.
Wind Rose and Ara Solis
Very close to the tower there are a few paths that allow us to visit the surroundings of the tower and see it from other very photogenic perspectives.
In turn, during this tour we will find two very visited points that are, on the one hand, a gigantic wind rose.
Its particularity is that it is made with tiles of different colors and in it there are incorporated certain objects such as the shell of Santiago, very characteristic of this land, since Santiago de Compostela is less than an hour away by road.
Another striking sculpture is the one called Ara Solis.
This sculpture is made of granite and is shaped like a door, symbolizing the path between life and death, light and darkness. In this way, the play between dualities is related to the sunset. The death of the sun in the sea and the birth of a new stage.
Touring the walk along the coast with several surprises.
Then, after visiting the area closest to the tower, I decided to move away from the tower and walk along the paths that are in the green area farther away to see the tower from afar and also contemplate the sea more closely.
But during the walk I noticed a sculpture in the distance in the shape of a conch shell and I went to its proximity.
From there I had a splendid view of the sunset that was falling over the Tower of Hercules.
Which alerted me that if I wanted to go through the walk with light I should hurry, because when I was on my way to the conch I saw in the distance a set of menhirs that I could not miss to visit.
But before reaching the menhirs by a path a little muddy because it had rained, I found this granite sculpture depicting Hercules on the ship of the Argonauts. Another classic of Greek mythology.
But I did not stop long because I wanted to get to the menhirs.
The characteristic of these menhirs is that they have some holes between them, so that each hole allows to see another of the menhirs framed or some important place like the tower of Hercules.
But one of them also has the function of allowing the approach to the last of the monuments that I visited in the area during my walk, which is the monument to the executed.
Unfortunately, in Spain there were several wars and among them a civil war. And as a commemoration to those who were shot in the city of A Coruña, this monument was erected in this beautiful place to honor their memory.
Back to the car
Because there was so much to photograph and visit, I almost knew I had to spend the night during my tour. But before reaching my car I was able to take one last photo of the Tower of Hercules and the beautiful sunset.
Riazor-Orzan Beach
The beach of Riazor Orzan, is one of the beaches that I like the most in northern Spain along with the famous beach of La Concha in San Sebastian.
It is a beach of fine sand, which in the summer months is always full of people. But in the harsh winters there are usually some spectacular storms of waves that also has its audience.
In fact, during my last visit the storm caused waves of about 10 meters high and in order to protect the promenade had to build a large dune with the sand of the beach. Being in turn a nice viewpoint for this seagull.
Riazor beach itself is divided into two beaches separated by a breakwater on which there is a sculpture in honor of three policemen who drowned while unsuccessfully trying to save a swimmer during one of these storms.
The promenade of Riazor beach has an extension of approximately 1.5 km and is located at the left end of the promenade the stadium of the city's soccer team and also the sports pavilion. Place where in my last visit you could see the beach reflected on the exterior glass.
Very close to this left end of the beach are several restaurants with large windows reflecting. In fact, it is very typical to be photographed on the glass to have a picture with the city and the beach in the background.
And continuing to the end of the promenade you reach the viewpoint of the vases where you can have an overview of the city drawing attention to a tower on the left side of the picture that is the Tower of Hercules, the oldest Roman lighthouse in use in the world.
I hope you like my two favorite places in the city of A Coruña.
Regards.
Own photograph taken with my iPhone 13 and Sony Alpha 6000L.
Cover, separators and banner created with www.canva.com (free version).
Translated with Deepl (free version).
