One of the joys of this trip has been time spent just walking around a town, exploring down streets and around corners, and so this is about wandering around Ferrol.
Read more: Wandering around FerrolThe Fish Market
The Fish Market is on the front, the road running along the docks, and just down the way from the Parador and next to the San Julian Church. The building dates from 1923 and is by Rudolfo Ucha, an architect who worked almost entirely in Ferrol. He made some fascinating, ornate buildings in Ferrol – why didn’t I make a list before we visited? Something new to explore, should I be so lucky to visit again.
It wasn’t a busy day when we popped in, but oh my goodness! It is of course spotlessly clean and the abundance and variety of fish is quite overwhelming.
The meat, fruit, and vegetable market is in a separate building, next to the fish market, and it was closed.
Magdalena District
The Magdalena District is a grid of streets nd buildings, the heart of Ferrol which was listsed as an Histori-Artistic site in 1983. It consists of six long parallel streets with nine shorter crossing streets. The two main squares are the Plaza de Armas and the Plaza Amboage.
The Plaza de Armas is quietly elegant, well maintained, clean – and it has a new drainage system. Apparently it rains between 90-150 days a year in this area and so drainage is very important! The houses in the Magdalena District were for the bourgeoisie and equally elegant, with enclosed balconies and glazed galleries of white, lacquered wood. And they had views.
Amboage Square is at the western end of the Magdalena district and the statue honours the 1st Marquis of Amboage. Ramón Pedro Francisco Pla i Monge was born in Ferrol in 1823 and established a foundation which helped exempt youg men from Ferrol from military service. He apparently made his fortune in slightly murky ways.
You can happily wander around the streets of the Magdalena District, window-shopping – or doing the real thing. And there cafes almost every few yards if you need to sit down!
A peek into the new town
In the newer part of the town there are lots of blocks of flats, but also some open spaces. The Plaza de Espana is not very exciting, but leads to another open space, the Plaza de Seville.
Alameda de Suances
Alameda de Suances1 is a park between the Arsenal buildings and the streets of the Magdalena District. It has a long avenue of plane trees, the first of the great poplar groves (according to the website) commissioned by Charles III in 1784. It has a children’s playground, a small bandstand, beautiful fountain, and interesting ‘statue’. And in the square next to the gardens, the Plaza de Constitution, there are several cafes.
Xaime Quintanilla Martinez was a multi-faceted man: writer, playwright, doctor, a socialist committed to the Galician culture, and the first Republican Mayor of Ferrol. He was shot, with fourteen others, on 18 August 1936. There is a plaque to his memory in the park.
In the park there is also a quaint statue celebrating Galician music.
Little streets in the old town
By contrast, the little streets in the old town, and in the Canido District are very different.
Wandering in Ferrol was interesting, but I wish we had had the two more days we originally planned!2
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