📜 A short history of Ferrolterra
🪨 Ancient roots
The comarca is dotted with Iron-Age hillforts (castros), such as Punta dos Prados (Espasante) with its monumental sauna. In Mañón, the Porto de Bares keeps an ancient breakwater of age-old origin. Near Cedeira, the sanctuary of San Andrés de Teixido reaches back into ancestral traditions.
🏰 Middle Ages: the Andrade and the Irmandiños
In the late Middle Ages the powerful Andrade family ruled the comarca from their castles: Andrade (Pontedeume), Moeche and Naraío (San Sadurniño). In 1467 the Irmandiño revolt — a popular uprising against the nobility — stormed and tore down many of these strongholds.
⚓ The Enlightenment city
In the 18th century the Bourbons made Ferrol the capital of the Northern Maritime Department and a great arsenal. The grid-planned Barrio da Magdalena is one of Europe's first town developments laid out on Enlightenment principles.
🚢 Industry and emigration
Shipbuilding (the yards, today Navantia) defined Ferrol in the 19th and 20th centuries. Like all of Galicia, the comarca also lived through emigration to the Americas and Europe, which shaped many families and villages.
👤 Notable figures of Ferrolterra
The comarca has produced figures who shaped Spanish history. Ferrol was the birthplace of Concepción Arenal (1820), a pioneer of feminism and social reform, and Pablo Iglesias (1850), founder of the PSOE and the UGT trade union. The naval, Enlightenment city bred soldiers, engineers and thinkers.
🗓 Key dates
- Iron Age: the hillforts and the harbour of Bares.
- 1467: the Irmandiño revolt against the Andrade castles.
- 1726: Ferrol becomes capital of the Northern Maritime Department; the Royal Shipyards are founded.
- 1800: the comarca repels the British landing at the battle of Brión.
- 19th-20th c.: the shipbuilding boom and emigration to the Americas.
A general-interest summary: the comarca's history holds far more.