Tapia Harbour
Chapter 7/10 · Tapia de Casariego
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Welcome to the harbour, the heart of Tapia. From the La Guardia viewpoint, which we have just passed, you can see all of it. In the Middle Ages this cove was already a shelter for boats and was known as the harbour of Las Tapias. Between the 17th and 18th centuries it was also a whaling place.
The modern harbour was built between 1870 and 1880. The Marquis of Casariego paid for it and his nephew, Fernando Pérez Casariego, directed the work. It has four granite breakwaters: Afuera, Rocín, Entreislas, which joins the coast to the lighthouse island, and Tierra. Today only a few boats remain, mainly fishing for octopus, goose barnacles, hake and monkfish.
There are two bronze monuments in the harbour. The one to the Virgin of Carmen, patron saint of sailors, was unveiled on 16 July 1992. The Monument to the Sailor, from July 1999, honours those who go out every dawn to earn their bread and those who never came back. During the Carmen festival in July, the Virgin is carried down here over carpets of flowers and the boats greet her with their sirens.
Now we cross to the lighthouse island along the Entreislas breakwater and bridge.
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